Course Update and Our first short video clip

After the 6 plus inches of rain we made a few discoveries pertaining to the bunker renovation. The first was the apparent water fall that came from the top of the hill above the chipping green. Nothing can compete with this rate of water so the next day the contractor came back to help us remedy the problem by diverting the water around the bunker. This was done by raising the area by 6 inches and this should do the trick. The other problem we had was the right side bunker on #3 green was not draining. They also investigated to find that a tree root about 12 feet long and 4 inches thick had over taken the drainage pipe. Once we pulled this out water quickly began to drain out.

Clogged drain

Tree root that caused the drainage problem

Raising up this area to divert the water

The teaching green was used to harvest the bent grass for #6 green. This gave us an opportunity to split the green in half and seed a new variety of bent grass. Ultimately the best time to seed is in the mid to late summer with the warmer temperatures but we have no choice and this is the second best.

We needed to revamp our maintenance rakes for the bunkers, currently we do have 8 foot handles that allow us to rake down on these step bunker faces but we needed more of them for the staff. The cost is close to $40 per rake from our vendors, to save money we went to the local hardware store and purchased emt 3/4 conduit in ten foot lengths. We already had the rake heads so it was a matter of putting the conduit on. The cost was less than $4 per handle, 10 rakes $40 dollars.

Cost effective rake on the left and $40 rake on the right.

This week we are finishing up the short game sod and seeding areas next to the paths. We are getting some good seed germination in areas we have already finished, for example between #9 and #3 and to the right of #8 green. Also we started another important cultural practice for our fairways. We use a machine to penetrate 6-8 inches deep. This is a great practice that allows water and air to penetrate deeper as well as increase our root depth for the dry times of the year.

This is why we do this in our fairways, the roots sticking
out at the bottom is growing in an old deep tine hole.
Also notice the amount of sand we have applied over
the past 6 years. A little layering but nothing to worry about
in the fairways. 

The rock under #1 fairway!

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