Bunkers holding up to heavy rain storm as advertised!

Last night we got our first really strong thunderstorm of the year, an inch of rain which fell over the course of about an hour!  This rush of water made quite the mess around the golf course, but one place that was a pleasant surprise....the new bunkers!  While in the old days it would have taken our whole crew the better part of 2 days just to fix the bunkers, the new bunkers performed flawlessly for the most part, and hardly washed out at all.  Some normal raking this morning was all it took to smooth out and prepare the bunkers for daily play.  Take a look at the pictures below to show you the results we found this morning between two different bunkers on #7 Overlook.

Here is a picture of the old bunker we left on #7 Overlook.  You can see how badly it washed out and held water last night during the rain.  Last year all 65 bunkers would look similar to this after a heavy downpour, requiring hours of manual labor to push the sand back up!

  Why did we leave this bunker and renovate all the others?  Because we are planning to fill it in a build a new forward tee next to where it is located.  We will do this in a few weeks once the grass greens up!

Here is a picture of the bunker right next to the old bunker in the previous picture.  You can see the sand washing on the top side, but very minimal compared to what the old bunker looked like.  The new capillary concrete bunker liner helps to drain water very quickly, preventing the washouts as these pictures have illustrated.  This will save us a lot of money in labor over the years since we will no longer have to push all the sand back up!

Bunker Project Completely Finished!

          I am glad to announce the Bunker Renovation is completely finished!  It took a little over 16 weeks, battling 2 snow storms and over 10 inches of rain during the project.  All in all the finished product looks very nice, and once the grass starts to grow this summer it will fill in and look like it has been that way forever!  The construction company, Pristine Golf, did a great job staying on task while trying to keep the damage to a minimum. 

          While there was definitely damage incurred during the project, our staff will now start to repair and clean up disturbed areas.  We will start with the "in play" areas, then work our way out to the perimeter of the course.  Concrete repairs will also take place over the next few weeks to help repair and improve our broken cart path panels across the golf course.
         
         

Aerification was a success!

This Monday we carried out our Spring aerification process, and everything went smooth!  This year we punched 1/2 inch sized holes and removed plugs of organic matter across all 27 holes.  One thing different this year was the fact that we topdressed the greens with sand first, before punching holes.  By topdressing first we were able to significantly reduce the tracks left by the topdressing machine.  In the past we would topdress immediately after removing the plugs, and the greens were very soft and impressionable.  The heavy topdressing machine would leave tire marks visible for up to 3 months at times, as well as effecting the putting quality.  It appears our new method of topdressing first worked very well, and actually allowed us to move more rapidly than ever before.  We completed 25 greens, or a little over 4 acres of putting green surface in 1 day!  Congratulations to our whole staff for a job well done!

Here is a picture of the first green of the morning!  You can see the sand already on the green as the machine works along.

Here is a good view of the "core collector" attached to the back of the aerifier.  This tool helps to drag all the plugs to the side of the greens to be picked up and removed.

Core Collector filling up with plugs!  You can see in the bottom of the picture all the holes we punched in the greens.  These holes will soon be filled with new healthy roots for the grass plants!

#9 Green as we start to aerify.  The crew stands on each side to shovel plugs up into the utility vehicles.  We will dump these plugs in some cool season areas to grow, as the grass in the plugs is still very alive and healthy.

After punching holes, we drag the greens with a brush.  This brush helps to incorporate the sand into the holes to ensure they are all filled up and smoothed out.  We will then come behind the brush with a roller to roll the green smooth.

Here is a picture of the Topdressing machine, applying an even layer of sand before we punch holes.

Shaping the final bunker!

Friday marked the time when we started work to renovate the last bunker on the golf course.  The lucky hole happened to be #12, and since it only had one small bunker it was all completed in one day.  Attached at the top is a video of the Shaper building the face of the bunker.  As you watch the video you will see the machine dump dirt along the top edge, and then smash it down to compact it.  He  will then use the bucket to shape out the face of the bunker, which will soon be sodded to bermudagrass.  When this video was taken he had already roughly shaped the right side of the bunker, and you can see it in the background of the video.  It is pretty impressive how well the operator can work the machine!