Thursday, March 21, 2013

Spring Updates

It's been a busy winter and I have not published anything in some time.  I wanted to share a lot of photos with you because I feel they highlight  improvements made and provide some educational benefits as well. Before we get into all the photos I wanted to give everyone a sense of direction our staff is heading.  Once aerification is completed we will be focused on getting the course in prime shape for member play along with completing the bunkers on number 2 and 15 to tie that whole area together.  We will not be completing any more bunkers in the future per the request of our new architect, Mr. Jay Blasi.  If you are not familiar with Jay check out his website to get some more info, www.jayblasi.com  Along with getting the course  back in shape we will also be going through the bunkers with our roto-tiller to bust up the sand to try and provide a more consistent sand.  Once that's completed we will be focused on daily course preparation for the next few months.  We are excited for the upcoming season and look forward to any challenges we are faced with throughout the summer.  See you on the course.

All of the photos in the section below are from the renovation to #17 bunkers.  For those of you wondering, we are going to hold off on the last two on 17 until we complete #2-15 bunkers.  2-15 will be our focus for the next few weeks.

#17 Bunkers 
Original Shape
We are suppose to have 4 inches of sand not 3 feet.  Just another photo that sums up why are bunkers need rebuilt.
Starting to add new shape.
Adding soil to make new bunker floor
New Rough shape of Bunker
Subsurface Irrigation installed.  The product is called Neta-Fim and it's the plastic tubing that is wrapped around the bunker edge.




Here is the completed bunker minus the sand.  Notice the Sta-Lock material installed over the soil.  This is the material that will prevent our soil from contaminating the sand along with maintaining the internal integrity of our bunker for years to come.  No more bunkers with 3 feet of sand.

Finished Product minus one more load of sand we are waiting on delivery for.
Here are just a few more shots of the bunkers on the right side.  You will see a lot of similarities with the pictures above.


Same scenario here.  We only want 4" of sand.

Sta-Lock material installed along with new shape.

Completed Right side Bunkers.

#10 Ladies T- Complex
Here you will find a bunch of pictures from the construction to the ladies T-box on number 10.

Original T box


Adding Soil and beginning to shape.

Almost there.  Getting ready to remove old sod and sand-cap T in preparation for new sod.

Adding Sand for Sand Cap

Laying the Sod.

Finished Product

#4 Hedge Row

Removal of outdated and extremely woody hedge row.

Installation of new paver walk paths

Finished Product

#13 T- Complex
While completing this T complex we removed all of the coyote bush along the left side to open of your views of the preserve.
 Removal of coyote bush to expose oaks and views. The 3 Tree in need of some improvement




3 tree completed.  The T is no longer sliding off the hillside.  Along with leveling you can see how much extra T-space we added.

Original Size before addition.

Expansion, and new sod being installed.

Tenacity Herbicide Applied
For any one that has noticed the yellow or white spots in a few of our T's, it's the result of a herbicide applied to selectively kill bent grass.  A lot of our T's have small patches of bent grass that are unappealing to the eye and provide an inconsistent surface.  Tenacity was released this spring and will allow us to control bent in our rye surfaces.

Notice the patches of Bent



Tenacity doing it's job. We will make one more application that will hopefully allow for a 100% stand of rye in our T's.