As evident in the 2017 photo, the green was under stress back then. Since then diligent efforts begun by greenskeeper Annie Brillhart and followed by Dave McMullen set us on a road to recovery. The green improved with each passing year. Our current team of greenskeepers – Janie and July Hillyer, Patricia Erwin, and Sarah Allday are noticeably refining green speed and turf condition. This is hard, painstaking work and the club owes our greenskeepers a great debt for creating the best bowling green in the Bay Area.

For years, the water fountain near the mat shed sat in a sad, defunct state. It taunted us with an empty promise of water, but appeared not to have worked for decades. Glenn Nunez decided to get it going and installed new faucet hardware on a nice hardwood board. It was great to have it working again, a really pleasant convenience, and then the decrepit plumbing buried inside the concrete blocks failed. Glenn chased down the problem with help from Gary Samonsky and effected a difficult repair on the old plumbing. Voilà it has worked ever since. Good job Glenn!

The mat shed dates back to 1964. It is a simple structure, wood frame over a poured concrete floor, complicated by the fact that it’s nestled against two large redwood trees. The redwoods’ burls and root system have nudged the structure around a bit while the debris from the trees did no favors to the old roof. Over the years, the roof’s water integrity broke down and the interior started taking water. For a while, we countered this with tarp coverings, but last year under the guidance of Ashok Verma we replaced the roof structure and installed a membrane roof. It should be good to go for a while. The shed now sports a new paint job thanks to Judy Hillyer.

Back in 2017, the Club’s grounds had gotten a totally out of control. There was so much ivy on the fences that bowling green consultants advised us it was harming the green by restricting airflow. The sidewalk median strips were thick with waist-high weeds. Since then, our Thursday gardening group has made great strides in lending order to the landscape. Trees have been trimmed, roses planted, ivy, removed, weeds put on notice, and much, much more. We now enjoy a pleasant and well-tended landscape. Kudos to the gardening group led by Leslie Engler for a sustained and productive effort.

Over the last few years, the spoils from our drill and sand operations have been used to build up the surround for a small, level patch of turf. Started by Anne Brillhart this “mini-green” serves as a nursery to provide grass for turf transplants. The nursery is looking a little ragged at the moment, but plans are underway to revive it for the summer season.

By 2017, the 20 or so benches surrounding green had fallen into serious disrepair. These benches dated back to the early 1960s and showed evidence of having been painted at least a half dozen times.. More significantly, the wood seats were rotting and becoming an embarrassment. There was actually talk of cutting the standards off at the ground and replacing the benches with stacking plastic chairs. Instead, in a project led by Glenn Nunez and Cris Benton, the rotting seats were demolished and the steel standards sanded back to bare metal. New redwood seating and fresh paint on the standards has made them as good as new.

Our lawn bowling green has 500 lineal feet of surrounding sidewalk. This is heavily used as we set up rinks and play our games. The sidewalk is complicated by the presence of adjacent trees, which send roots debacle, the sidewalk and occasionally disturb the green. There is a root barrier placed below some sections of the sidewalk. In recent years, the walk has buckled and cracked enough to have become a tripping hazard. Ashok Verma was lead in arranging for a contractor to level the sidewalk and give it a top coating. It is now much better suited to its purpose.

As our games move along. it’s easy to check the time by glancing at the clock mounted on the mat shed. The clock is a pleasant convenience. It showed up one day on the initiative of Ian Cameron it was a welcome addition to the green. Unfortunately, the wind would occasionally knock it off it mount, and that did no favors to the clock, which eventually succumb to his injuries. A new clock was procured, a custom 3-D mount was built to secure it to the shed, and it has been working well ever since.