Half Done!

Sorry that it has been awhile since my last update. We have been very busy with the good weather the past two weeks. A lot has been accomplished that I want to update you on.

1. #15 Green has been completed. It was sodded last Friday and Saturday. We have recaptured quite a bit of putting surface on this green which should add to some interesting playing options. It is especially interesting on the left side of the green where it now brings the bunkers more into play.

2. #14 Green has also been completed. This green was sodded yesterday, Wednesday the 26th. This marks our half-way done point for the greens. Holes 14-18 are completed and now growing in.

3. Kris' crew is now working on #2 Green and #3 Tee. We have moved over to this portion of the golf course for a few reasons. The main reason is for irrigation purposes. After 2 green and 3 tee are completed, we will move back over to the back 9 greens with holes 10-13 still remaining.

 Building the new back tee on #3.

4. As you can see Kris' crew has been quite busy. The irrigation crew has also made great progress since the last time I posted. Holes 13-18 have been completed along with 10. They will be finished with hole 2 by tomorrow. That means they have 8 holes completed since we started on September 19! Below is a picture of the irrigation work on 10.

5. Our crew has completed replacing all of the sand in the bunkers. Hopefully, next year everybody will enjoy the same sand in all of the bunkers and a more consistent playing surface. We have begun covering all of the bunkers to ensure that our investment does not blow out during the winter months!

 6. In anticipation of the impending cold weather the next few days, the golf maintenance staff covered the newly sodded greens today. Covering the greens will help to keep soil temperatures up which will help the greens to root in cold weather.

I apologize for having not posted in a while, but as you can see, we have all been extremely busy. We tried to take advantage of the wonderful fall weather that we have had the last few weeks.

In-House Projects

While the irrigation and green construction crews have been hard at work in their respective areas, so has our own golf maintenance staff. Along with our usual maintenance duties, we have taken advantage of the opportunity to work on improving a few areas ourselves. The first area that we worked on fixing was the area at #5 cart path. There was some extra bluegrass sod after stripping around #17 green so we put it to good use. Here are some before and after photos.

Another area that we decided to fix was around the left greenside bunker on #18.  The area outside of the bunker had been raised up by sand blowing out of the bunker in the winter months. It also didn't hold any water which is why the turf died in this area every summer. We removed over 14 inches of sand to get back to the original soil level! We then brought in a little topsoil, seeded it and put mulch mat over the area to help germination. We have been covering the bunkers the last few years with great success and minimal sand loss so hopefully we can prevent this from happening again.

Last year we began a fairway overseeding program to work on improving the density of our turf stand. We have continued this process this year and hope that within the next few years we will be able to see an improvement.

As you can see, we have been quite busy working on improvements to the course! Now is the best time to be working on these projects to get the grass established before it gets too cold.

#16 Green Finished

On Monday, #16 green was sodded to completion. Now that the weather has been cooperating the past two weeks, the crews are hitting full stride. The green was completely rebuilt in approximately 5 days. It is often working out that Kris' crew is working on two greens at one time. Some of his employees are working on stripping, moving, or laying sod on one green while the other individuals are staking, coring, or draining the other green. They are currently working on #15 green (pictures to follow). Below are the process pictures of the rebuilding of #16.

The green was sodded on Monday. Two days later it is already starting to root! If you have ever heard that the fall is the best time of year for growing cool season grasses, this is why!

#18 Green Finished

Once again, we made tremendous progress this week. #18 green has been completed with the sod being laid back down on the green on Friday afternoon. If you are curious as to how we are actually finding the original elevation of the greens, look at the picture below. After the sod is removed, holes are dug throughout the green to expose the clay. The clay is the original base and everything above is topdressing and organic matter buildup. If you look at the back right portion of the hole, you can see the lighter colored clay as shown by the arrow.  After this is exposed in all of the holes, the excavation process begins.

After excavating the topdressing material, the grades are marked as shown in the picture below.

 After coring out the green, the drainage is installed. Depending on the size, shape and contour of the green, different drainage patterns may be installed. Below is an example of the typical herringbone design.

 After drainage is installed the mix is added to the green.

The mix is then compacted to reduce the possibility of settling. In this instance they are using a tractor to pack the surface after wetting the sand.

Sodding the green on a beautiful October day in the mountains!

First One Done!

After much anticipation the seventeenth green is done! Although the weather this weekend wasn't exactly pleasant, a lot was accomplished. Yesterday, the irrigation on 17 was charged up so that it could be used for #17 green. Today Kris' crew spent the whole day finishing the green. They started the day by doing the "final float". This entails smoothing out the green surface as much as possible and making sure the contours are correct.

After performing the final float, the green was ready to be resodded. The crew sodded the edge of the green to form a clean line. They then started sodding from the middle of the green to the outside.

Using the plywood in the process insures that they are not walking on the final float and putting footprints on the green.

Despite being cut for almost two weeks, the sod is very healthy as shown by the extensive white roots and dark green turf! Yes, those are all roots on the roll and not the plastic that is beneath the sod!

The finished product along with our new irrigation watering the sod. Stay tuned for further updates!