Edging the Bunkers

Over the last 3 weeks we have started one of our winter projects, and that is to detail all the bunkers on the golf course and cut a clean new edge around them.  Over the past 2 growing seasons since sand traps were renovated we have seen a tremendous amount of growth around the edges of the bunkers.  The grass has grown towards the center of the bunkers, causing them to become slightly smaller and lose the original edges.  The grass is some areas has become very puffy and hard to maintain or cut.  It also has developed a "shelf" or little ledge where the bunker face does not transition into the bunker consistently.  Here are a few pictures of hole #12 to try and demonstrate the situation:

I placed the rake to try and show the "shelf" that has been created by the grass creeping into the bunker.  Under the rake head is grass, but under the grass is straight sand.  The sand is supposed to the bunker, but the grass had other ideas.  The rake head is 25 inches wide, so this overgrowth is almost 2 feet wide!  The left edge of the bunker rake is where the actual original edge of the bunker was when we finished the renovation 2 years ago.  We know that because we can take a shovel or probe and push down to fine the concrete bunker liner.

Here is a close up of the ledges and overgrowth we are trying to correct.  The grass should fall straight into the bunker.  In this case, the grass levels out after the downfall, then transitions into the sand.

So what are we planning to do to fix this issue.  Well it starts with a shovel!  The shovel above is in the ground at the start of the concrete bunker liner.  When we finished the bunker renovation 2 years ago this is where the grass line started.  The grass has slowly grow into the sand, very hard to see how much it has encroached.  

We have been working to go around all the bunkers and cut a new clean edge with a shovel.  As you can see in the picture above, some of the edges have grown over very badly!  The gentleman above is simply cutting to the bunker liner, and look at all the grass we have to remove!  The golf ball has been getting stuck in these areas making for some difficult golf shots, so it is a very important thing to fix.

Here is a look at #17 green side bunker.  The yellow paint is the original bunker edge we are trying to get back.  It is easy to see how much grass needs to be removed, and how inconsistent the edge has become.

This is the bottom edge of 17 bunker as it transitions into the bunker.

Here is the same bunker edge after it has been edged with a shovel.  Notice how much smoother and consistent this edge is than before we started.  Big difference!

Over the next few weeks we will really make a push to get all the bunker edges fixed.  Golf rounds are slowing down and we will have much more time to get into the bunkers and get them back to where they need to be.  The green side bunkers are especially hard to work on when we are busy on the golf course, as there is too much interruption to get anything done in a timely manner.  To date we have completed the green side bunkers on hole #4, #9, #11, #17, and #18.  We intend to do the green side bunkers first, followed by the fairway bunkers.  Some of the bunkers are worse than others, and will be completed accordingly.  Thank you very much for your patience as we work to improve this aspect of the golf course!!!

Vandalism

Wednesday morning when setting up the golf course we noticed something was not right.  The flag on #17 green was completely missing, and the flags on #13 green and #16 green were cut clean off the flag stick.  The picture below shows what remained on the flag stick:

The flags were apparently cut off with a knife or some sharp object.  Since these greens complexes are located near the neighborhood streets they are a little more exposed to people driving by who feel like being malicious.  It was hard to tell what happened, but this was the end result.  Please give us a heads up if you ever see anyone doing anything suspicious!

First Frost of Fall 2019!

 This weekend we saw our first heavy frost of the Fall season!  The temperature was 34 degrees, but that was enough for the frost to set.  When this happens to our Bermuda grass it does not kill the grass, but causes it to go dormant for the winter.  Whenever the first good frost happens, this signals the grass that winter is coming.  The grass plant then begins to store carbohydrates and nutrients to use to overwinter in the cold.  We will probably see most of the green grass color turn to brown in the next 7-10 days.  It is never fun to see the green grass leave each year, and we can only hope it comes back early next Spring!