Progress Continues

 

11 Green is in its final stages of completion.  Sand added to the beach bunker, sod will go around the outside and some minor fescue seeding/sodding will also take place.  The cart path will be shifted a few feet left of its current location.

Our final green to be constructed, number 4 is getting some drainage and mix today.  Once the mix is installed and compacted LGR will scan the green and sod will be installed hopefully on Saturday.  This will be the last major green project and our focus will be on bunkers and tees.

16 Taking Shape

 

The alternate side of 16 fairway is irrigated and now sodded, including the green.  The left side of the hole will be sodded once irrigation is installed.  A major transformation from only a few weeks ago.

New Green on 11 Maturing

 

The new green on 11 which was sodded only 2 weeks ago has now been mowed once and rolled twice.  Topdressing will be applied weekly and in another 4-6 weeks we will begin covering it.  The goal is to aerate this green 2x before winter time.

Irrigation Progression

 Irrigation laterals and heads are being installed on 17 fairway this week.  This will be the first fairway we can now water with our new system.  While this is a time consuming process, progress will be made quickly now that construction is being completed ahead of them.

Cap Con Installation

 

The process of installing our bunker liner Cap Con is pretty straight forward.  A local concrete distributor makes up the Cap Con mix (which each load has to be approved when it arrives), it is dumped in bunkers and spread to a 2" thickness and paint rollers are used to smooth out.  Once it cures after 24-48 hours, sand can be installed.  The concrete allows water to pass through yet the sand to remain in place during heavy rains.  This will prolong the life of our new bunkers moving forward.

Roughs Germinating

 Back in mid September we applied Tenacity, an herbicide that will remove bentgrass after several applications to all our roughs.   This process takes 3 applications about 2-3 weeks apart.  After the first application, all our bentgrass turned white.  About 5 days after the application, we went in and seeded all the roughs and aeravated them in 2 directions.  Our second application was made 10 days following seeding.  Despite the lack of rainfall, we are seeing germination occurring throughout the course.  A good sign as we start to head into cooler weather which will not be ideal for seed to grow.  As long as we can keep the seed moist and have decent weather, we can still get more germination in the next few weeks.  Our final application will be made with fertilizers on October 20th.  We will assess next June how successful this process was.

3 Down, 2 To Go

 Our new 1st green was sodded yesterday and that leaves us 4 and 9 left to do.  Weather permitting, 9 should be sodded by Saturday or Monday the latest and 1 should take another week once Andy approves.  The goal was to have all 5 greens done by October 15th so we can be aerifying them before the winter.  The good news is the bunkers by 1 green are edged and drained and we have irrigation around the green.  Once CapCon is installed, we can sod, add sand and finish sodding the new fairway leading up to the green.

Finishing Touches

 New Pro Angle sand going in the greenside bunkers on 16.  This shows we are starting to get over the hump of having the hole completed.  Irrigation has been going in on the alternate fairway and hoping to have the hole fully irrigated in next 7-10 days so fairway sod can be completed.

Until we convert from our old irrigation system to the new one, you will see this, hundreds of feet of hose being used to water new sod until heads are installed.  Once irrigation goes in, things will come together quickly!

New 1st Green Moving Quickly

 Between our staff starting to sod the new fairway and LaBar Renovations building the green and shaping bunkers it is a mad house in this area.  Irrigation crews trying to get green irrigated to allow the sod to be put on in the next few days.

We cant complain about the weather, bone dry with no lost days due to rain.  The negative is the amount of dust throughout the property, even with our staff spraying paths and traffic areas to keep dust down.

11 Green Coming to Life

 Pre plant materials going on the green to help the sod get rooted and acclimated quicker.

The green almost sodded with the Travis inspired fescue mounds "chunked" in front of the green.  We harvested fescue sod from our current fescue areas to give it an old thin appearance.  Sand will sit on the ledge between the mounds.  Because this pond slowly leaks, the water level will still come up another 3 feet.