#3 Green Days 7-10

The end is in site and everyone is looking forward to not coming back to this green for a long time. We finished adding the third drain line and removed and placed back the fourth line. We are in the process of sodding which can be time consuming because every little imperfection can be seen if the sod is not put down properly. Our next project will be heading to the 17th green and seeing what we need to fix, hopefully not as extensive. Stay tuned!

Just a recap on what has taken place.

1. Missing 3 drain lines that should have been installed.

2. The mainline had numerous highs and lows, so water was not exiting the green properly.

3. One existing line was clogged with mud around the pipe, removed and cleaned.

4. The front of the green had to many connections and not enough perforated pipe, this also allowed the water to sit in front of the green at the sub grade.

5. The green did not have positive surface run off at the front and the water had no place to go but down.

6. The front liner of the green that is buried will be removed to help with water removal.

This is the area that had to many connections, we could not
change  this but we did do is allow water to inter the
pipe from the bottom by making slots into the connection points
 and adding a perforated pipe section which was solid at the time.

Prepping the exposed areas for sod.

Slow and tedious process.

#3 Green Day 5 and 6

We are slowly making our way towards the front of the green with just a few more things to do. This is taking longer than expected because of the problems we have found and the fact that its all manual labor. Friday we started to uncover the mainline out side the green to help facilitate a positive % slope. That was finished yesterday and we are confident that the main line will function as a drain rather than holding a pool of water. We finished the second drain install and the staff is shaping the third drain, the fourth line has been uncovered for inspection. We did find as suspected mud around the pipe. It appears this was caused by not having the trench wide enough. So as the pipe was laid in the ground during construction it was sitting next to the clay and the perforated drain holes on the pipe were clogging up. This will be widened and new gravel installed. 

Back filling the main line

Prepping the third drain install

Uncovering an existing drain line for inspection

Drain pipe is right next to the clay

Actual clay resting on and next to the pipe

Just a picture after the second line was added

#3 Green, Day 3

Things are going well on this project but I wont lie its a tremendous headache to keep the sand from falling into the gravel trench. A positive note on this is we have perfected our excavating strategies to limit the cave in's. The first drain line is installed and being back filled with gravel and sand. After this we will move to the next install on the right side of the green working our way down the line. At some point the mainline will be removed and the trench bottom will be worked to have the fall that is needed. At this point part of the reason we have water holding in front of the green is there is a low point in the trench. 

This is the drainage as built's for the green, The lines marked in
blue are the lines that should be there from the map but are absent.
These are the lines we will install to make correct.

Dotted line on left is our first install

Cleaning out the trench

Pipe install

Back filling with gravel and sand to follow. 

December Update

We are well into our winter projects as you may already be aware on certain parts of the golf course. Our teaching tee extension is just about ready for sand with some minor sub-grade work to promote adequate fall into our drain lines. This will make a great addition for the golf pros adding more square footage.

Our fairway top dressing program has begun starting 18 and going backwards. There is a new addition to the fleet, our new top dresser that can carry more sand, has a lighter foot print and is just all around versatile for our needs. 

One other project that we started last week was preparing the third green for a drainage inspection and re contouring the approach to facilitate surface run off. The main line is currently being exposed so that we can examine the fall and see if there are any other issues that can contribute to the front holding water. And what do you know as soon as we hit the gravel a strong rotten egg smell erupted. This is definitely a sign that water is not leaving the green and building up toxic gases that turn the profile into an anaerobic zone (no oxygen) rather than aerobic zone (oxygenated). As we hit the gravel layer we noticed that there is a very small layer of sand that has crusted over the gravel creating a sealed barrier for the water to not enter and drain properly. At this time i do not know why this has happened but we are on the phone currently to see what may have caused this and hopefully its not the entire front of the green. One positive note is it seems that the crust is in sections. We do know that at the back of the green the gravel looks fine.

clean gravel

See how my finger can sweep into the gravel here, this is good.

Another spot, I am trying to sweep into the gravel zone and I cannot
without using a lot of force. This is the crust I am talking
about.

Our next objective is to add in another lateral pipe into the right side of the green. This area constantly holds water and there is no drainage currently installed. The lateral lines are just spaced to far apart considering the amount of water that comes down the green congregates at the front. In the photo below you see the measuring wheel standing up, on the far left side is an existing pipe and on the far right side is an existing pipe. We will add another right in the middle (next to the measuring wheel)  where we have the standing water circled in the back of the photo with dotted lines. Stay tuned for more updates.

Course Update

Cold the weather is finally settling in with the night temperatures getting closer to freezing, with that being said frost delays are becoming more and more prevalent. Some projects that have been under way and completed  include the pulling of cores in the approaches and reusing the cores on 16 fairway. In an effort to improve the play ability on 16 fairway, it has been  extended to about 15 yards. Since this was rough at one point all of this needed to be removed so we can install the same grass as the fairway. If we were to sod this area the approximate cost would have been about $7,000.00. By leveling out the cores and seeding with bent grass we are not having to expense that cost in sod. This will take all winter to develop and has been covered to enhance the growing conditions.

 We are on our last truck of sod for the year continuing with removing of bermuda, poa and filling in bare areas. Leaf clean is on going with numerous immature trees still waiting to drop there leaves, as well as mulch bed clean up (pine needles, pine cones and leaves). All of the approaches have been top dressed, you will notice some sand on them as we continue to work the sand into the grass. The fairway top dressing program will begin in a couple of weeks. 

Coring the Approach

Pushing for removal

Installing cores on 16 fairway extension

Rolling for smoothness

Ground Penetrating Radar Update

A few weeks ago we had a study performed on the greens using ground penetrating radar. I wanted to give you a little insight into what we have discovered and some possible scenarios for repairing the problem areas.

In the following photos you will see the picture of our 3rd green,

The left side is the front of the green and the white area is moisture in the green.

The blue areas in the picture are water holding areas.

To better illustrate our problem on the surface.

So the plan is to close the green on November 19th and start the process of exploring the drain pipes for proper fall and inspect for contamination of the gravel. This will lead to hand trenching the entire drainage system and expose the drain pipe. At that point we will remove the gravel and pipe for cleaning and re-installing everything to exactly the way it was intended making sure that we have proper fall for the water to exit the green. Also we will install a smile drain in front of the green to pick up any water at the front. The approach will be graded slightly to help surface run off because at this point the approach is higher than the green creating a bowl for the surface water to sit in. 

Stay tuned for more exciting pictures about this process

Course Update

We manage to skate by hurricane Sandy last week with leaves every where and of course the bunkers were now considered water hazards. We did have one area near a bunker that fell off and has been taken care of.

Yesterday we completed the areas around the eleventh green and also started to prep for our fairway extension on #16. We will sod a few areas and then harvest some bent grass cores from an approach area and spread them out in the extension area to convert the rough area to fairway.

11 green side

16 Fairway Extension

Also last week and continuing this week we are verti-quaking the rough on #7 and top dressing heavily to help the soil perform better for next year. The main reason we are doing this is because the entire 8th hole drains towards 7th hole causing abnormal growing conditions for the turf grass. Some examples are increased compaction and anaerobic soil conditions.  We will continue this process through out the winter on this hole and other traffic areas on the golf course. 

Monday run down

This past Monday was a busy one for us to catch up on some cultural practices that were delayed because of member and outside events. The greens were spiked and top dressed  and our sweep-n-fill was used to drag in the sand, this is a routine process so we can dilute our organic matter. 

You can see the spike marks along with the sand ready to be sweep-ed in

Brush in action

Finished product

On the three greens that we have drainage problems (3,6,17) we used our deep tine machine that penetrated to 8 inches and back filled with a heavier top dressing application. Because the greens stay wet for longer periods we developed a hard pan starting about 4 inches below the surface. By doing this we are de-compacting the inner part of the green to allow for air and gas exchange as well as to help the moisture move farther into the drainage system.  

Deep tine in action on green

After the heavy top dressing and sweep-ed in

Sod update

We are on truck four this week with another coming next week. Our progress slowed down a little because of the amount we are doing around the fourth green. This area should be done today and we are moving on to hole 5. There has been more seeding going on but mostly on the back. This will help our sod trucks go a lot further and to continue to convert the rough to a consistent stand. We also have a small crew that is traveling around the course adding sand to the bunkers and checking the depths. 

This past Monday and Tuesday we had a company come out to survey the greens using ground penetrating radar. So far we have found some interesting things that will have to be analyzed much better, but from a rough 3D image we are seeing some issues that have not helped our cause especially on the third green. Once the data is complied we will have a clearer picture of what is going on, but from the looks of it we have a blocked drainage pipe in the front of the green (hence the thin area) and another on the right side. They will be back out next Monday and Tuesday to try and finish the rest of the greens. I will post some images once we have those in our hands.

Radar on the 3rd green

Quadrants set up to ensure accuracy

Left side of 4 green, new sod

Right side of 4 green being prepared

Bunker Sand being added

Sod trucks, Bunker Repair and Radar!

With great pleasure we have begun the sodding process in the rough. Like I stated before we opted to start on #3 and continue to let holes #1 and #2 grow in. The first truck pretty much ended up on #3 while the second and third trucks will most likely go to #4. There will be very little sod work being performed on #5 as most of this hole has been seeded along with #6. Our goal is to maximize as much as possible the allotted sod trucks that we will have delivered. I only wish that we could do more but in time we will reach out to every part of the rough. And to top all of this off we received close to two inches of rain that washed out all of the bunkers this week. In an effort to maximize our time we split up the staff for sod prep and bunker repair. The only down side is we are just mowing greens this week. We will do a complete mow out of the course on Monday so we can get back on track. 

#3 left side

#4 at the front of the Fairway

On Monday we will have a company out to use a ground penetrating radar system that will gives us more insight on our greens. This company will map our drainage system, locate all of the buried clean outs and give us a 3D image of how the drainage system  and sand profile is operating. We have had numerous challenges on a couple of our greens such as #3. In the photo you can see where the water is not draining properly hence the thin area. This could lead to finding inadequate drainage lines and or compromised lines as well. At times as-builts (as construction was taking place) can some times change with recording what actually happened. This will give the club accurate records of what is actually in the ground. 

3 green holding water

This is what will take place next week.

Course Update

September has been a brutal month for establishing grass from seed. The rains when they have come have registered below a tenth of an inch, nothing really to help out but enough to wet the cart path. The rough has been steadily progressing from our initial start on 7 and 8 to going #1 forward. As of today we are almost done seeding #12 and just a hand full of spots on the back such as in front of the creek on 16. Our most recent achievement is #5 which as you play the hole you will notice that we have germination on the intermediate and the rough, this area next week will look much better as the grass continues to grow along with 6 and 9. 

Of course in our high traffic areas we can only do so much with seed that starting today we have begun to strip areas and prepare them for sod. This is phase two of the rough project and we opted to wait on #1 and #2 so they can grow in a little more. In a week we will have a clearer picture on what needs to be done. With that being said we jumped to #3 and cleared out the left side rough at the beginning of the fairway, working our way selectively removing the bermuda and thin areas. Along with trucks of sod coming in you will also see more work being performed on the intermediate around the greens and on the back nine. 

On another note we are mowing down our native areas to continue to combat the summer weeds such as thistle. This is a good time to do this because any weeds that do germinate will be killed by the first frost. Basically we are giving the native grass more opportunities to fill in. 

#5 Intermediate and Rough germinating

#3 at the beginning of the fairway, sod prep.

Rough Update

The rough on #7 and #8 is filling in quite well, actually #8 is performing better because I does not stay as wet  as the left side of the fairway as on #7. Next week we will start the sodding process on these holes, such as traffic areas and really just cleaning up any unwanted grasses. So look for hole like areas in the rough until we order a truck for the end of next week. 

#8 

One thing that we are doing on the fairway edge is removing the first 4 inches and making a seed and soil mix to re-establish the edge, this will give us that crisp defined edge between the fairway and the intermediate. It started as a trial which turned out great. We will continue this next week on #8 along with our second phase of bringing in rough sod for the golf course. 

Cutting the edge

Finished edge

Notice the edge, much more defined (#7).