Course Update

We have made great progress on the third green and that is now finished. Currently we are working on the 17th green inspecting and forming a game plan on the repairs that we need to do. We know that we will install a smile drain on both sides with a good amount of drainage in the left side rough as well as the approach, the clean outs have been found at the back of the green and have been properly installed. Today we have rented a camera that will give us a better idea on what we cant see and hope that the repairs are minimal. Our fairway top dressing program is moving right along in conjunction with our verti-quake program in the rough. Once complete with this we will solid tine right behind. 

Please note the greens are closed and there are temporary cups in the fairway. I know that we have some warm weather coming but we need to look at the bigger picture and keep them closed. Ball marks do not heal this time of year and when the spring time comes we would be looking at ball marks for a long time. We also keep them closed to minimize any poa that might have a chance to germinate in a ball mark or exposed ground as well as soft ground from the freezing and thawing that would damage the root systems, or shear off the roots. The 17th green is closed because of the proximity of our work and the safety of the crew.

Bunkers have a few wash outs and will be repaired as time permits, there have been numerous times that the sand was frozen and at that point you cannot move the sand back to the top. Stay tuned for more progress to come.

3 green finished

17 green, blue areas are water holding spots

17 green left side main line inspection

Picture above but in the hole, please note the standing water

Proposed approach drainage

#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. 

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