Course Update

Things are moving into spring very quickly here.  The recent rain has really greened things up and we are starting to maintain the course.  All turf looks healthy coming through winter.  There are some traffic scares from playing and driving on dormant turf, but that will grow out of it soon.  We have been mowing and rolling greens the last month, and last week we mowed tees.  This week we are mowing fairways and approaches for the first time, and will start mowing rough later in the week.

First fairway mowing of the season

Last week we started to pressurize the irrigation system with plans of maybe irrigating this week due to the 75 degree weather, but mother nature helped us out over the weekend with the rain.

Irrigation project #14

We installed and performed most of the work on irrigation addition on hole #14 last week, and we will have that project wrapped up this week.  Originally that hole only had single row irrigation down the middle leaving both edges bare dirt in the heat of the summer.

Before picture

We installed a row down each edge of the native grass and connected to the center line, and now the entire whole will be irrigated.

Trenches left and right with connections going across

Overall we added 2500 ft of pipe, 32 heads, and an additional irrigation controller.

A second irrigation controller being installed and wired up

Pipe following the current grass line, you can see the thin rough from last summer

Bunker #4 re-grassing

After many years of bunker shots splashing sand up on the turf face of a bunker they just need to be renovated.  The sand gets into the turf canopy and it cannot be removed by blowing or raking.  Many of our bunkers on the course have a "hump" on the green side right where all the shots are aimed.  Over the years this sand raises the face of the bunker, makes the bunker deeper, and a maintenance headache to maintain turf on the grass face now that it is all sand and not soil.  The slope gets steeper allowing the sand to fall down, the lip gets bigger, and during the hot summer months the soil crumbles and allows contamination to fall into the sand.

Before picture

Sod is stripped off, all the sand removed (here it was 13"), the edge of the bunker is re-established, and new sod placed back down on soil.

Sand built up on top of he old soil

Sand layer above soil

The new lip is established with a sod layer, then masonite is installed as a barrier during construction to keep the sand and soil separate.  Once the turf is rooted down the boards will be removed.

New bunker edge is created

Masonite creating barrier, backfilled with sand/soil, then trimmed to turf height for playability for the next month

Finished product 2 days later

Here was before - hump is gone

Irrigation done, on to #4 bunker

Staff did a great job the last week and half adding irrigation to 3 different areas on the golf course where our coverage was lacking due to spacing of irrigation heads.  These additions will really help during the heat of the summer.

Irrigation addition on #2

 With that project finished we are going to re-construct the front bunker on #4.

Over many years of bunker shots splashing sand up on the face of bunkers, they all need to be re-built.  That sand that is thrown out of the bunker on each shot gets into the turf and raises the elevation of the bunker face.  It happens to every golf course and no matter how hard you try to blow the sand out of the turf you just cant get all of it.  If you look around the course, all of our bunkers have a raised face on the side closest to the green. Right where all the shots area aimed.

 This hump is all the sand built up over the years and increases the depth of the bunker, along with making it harder to maintain turf.

 These faces can build up a tremendous amount of sand, which does not hold enough water or nutrients to maintain quality grass.  With this bunker on #4 there is about 10" of sand built up and you see what type of turf that leaves us.

 The sand will be removed back down to the original soil grade, the face of the bunker will be re-established, and new sod will be laid down.