Bunker Renovation

Well, it's starting to warm up out there. The Bermuda is starting to break dormancy. The practice tee is now open for use. We have one big project that we need to finish before we really get into the heat of the year, finish rebuilding the 4 bunkers on our list. I know it has seemed slow, but there was some visual progress made today. The green side bunker on #10 got drainage, liners and sand installed today.

Getting back to the slow part. The reason it seems like it is very slow is that the drainage and the floor sub grade is the most important part of a bunker. The floor of the bunker dictates the contour of the sand in the bottom of the bunker. If it is pitted we end up with pockets of heavy sand versus areas of thin sand, which will hold moisture differently and in turn play differently. The drainage is the most important part of the bunker. Inadequate drainage is not an option. However, I am trying a new type of drainage system. By new I mean new to me. Typically I would use 4" corrugated pipe covered with 6" of washed aggregate stone. In this run I am going to try using a prefabricated drainage system. The principal is the same it just replaces the aggregate with foam packing peanuts. I am very hopeful that it will work equally compared to the old method. This process takes a while to get right doing it "in house". I do appreciate everyone being patient. We are moving as fast as we can with the project and will finish it soon.

I have added some pictures to better show the subgrade and drainage system.

Why We Apply Roundup

Every winter we have a period of time where we spray almost the entire course with herbicides. What we are trying to achieve with this practice is the removal of all unwanted grass species, weeds. The definition of a weed is, any grass that is not desired in a certain area. In our case we want 419 Bermudagrass and Meyer Zoysiagrass as our two higher cut grasses. In order to maintain the two main types of desirable grasses we have to apply pre emergent and post emergent herbicides. Typically a stand of turf should have a pre emergent herbicide applied in the Spring and the Fall. Each one of these applications should last about 6 months. They prevent any new seeds from germinating in the soil. Unfortunately we only apply one pre emerge application per year. We couple this with a "Round Up" application in the dead of winter when the Bermuda and Zoysia are completely dormant. This way we can kill any weeds in the Bermuda and Zoysia without harming the desired turf. This year we are focusing on removing any of the existing over seeding from last year that may still be hanging around. I have a few pictures below to illustrate the timeline of damage.

This is the Chipping Area. It has not been sprayed with "Round Up" at this time. You can see the Ryegrass is nice and green.

This is the right edge of the Putting Green Collar. If you look carefully you can see the defined line in the middle of the picture where the "Round Up" has been sprayed 27 days ago. The right side of the line is Bentgrass in the collar that is starting to yellow out.

This is the front left corner of the Driving Range Tee. We sprayed the Range Tee with "Round Up" 33 days ago. You can see the Ryegrass that has yellowed and is very close to death.

It's Winter

Well it appears that the almanac was wrong. All I heard this fall was how the winter was supposed to be mild this year. That appears to be a load of hogwash. Between some of the bitter cold temperatures we have had and the last snow fall that lasted for 8 days we really haven't been able to accomplish much outside. We are supposed to be spraying roundup and a pre emergent herbicide on the course right now. Usually I start this practice on Jan. 1st, but, thankfully, I had our Chemical Technician start spraying Tees and Fairways back in December. since January we have only had 2 days that we have really been able to spray. For those two days we spent our time cutting in the greens edges, slopes and other tight areas on the course with roundup. Below is a picture of us cutting in #1 Green.

We have also had the chance back in December to start working on the Bunker Elimination Project. We have back filled the following bunkers; #2 green side, All of #3 fairway bunkers, the front right and back green side bunkers on #10. We have also started to define the bunkers that we are going to rebuild;#7 #10 front left green side, #12 green side, #13 green side.

Jim Mcelyea and I have created a kind of "Storyboard" that shows the projects and improvements that we would like to make to the course over the next few years. Hopefully this is a helpful communication tool for us both. It is located in the Golf Shop by the counter for anyone who would like to view it.

I have a few pictures posted below of the work we have been doing lately.

The future shape of # 7 Bunker.

The future shape of # 10 front left Bunker.

The future shape of # 12 green side Bunker.

The future shape of # 13 Bunker.

This is the result of our fescue natural areas that we planted back in September on # 3 and #4.