July 1st Rain Storm Continued

The top picture shows a 12" drain the runs down the left side of the 2nd hole.  Apparently, the drain was cut with when the irrigation main was installed in 2005 and even though the drain somewhat still works, you can see the water was pushing up out of the ground and creating moguls everywhere by the force of the water.
The bottom picture shows all the range mats that were in the back of the upper practice tee, washed some 60 feet down onto the service road.  There is not one mat left on the tee.

July 1st Rainstorm Wreaks Havoc on Course

The 2 pictures above are of the ditch that crosses 16 and 17.  Notice on 17, you cannot even see the bridge in front of tee.  The bottom picture is of the ditch by 3 tee.  Here water was flowing so fast it was pouring in from all sides and at one time was passing over the bridges.  Notice the 7th green in background, the water was into the bunker on the right.

Before and After of the 3rd Hole

New Tees on 12 Under Construction

The blue, white, green and red tees are all being shifted to the right on the 12th hole so the hole will now play as a double dogleg.  This is the view from the current black tee and all other tees will be playing from the same line.  We will be able to build these tees while keeping the old ones in play, limiting disruption to the membership.  The dirt from the old tees will be used for the construction of new fairway bunkers in the future and the tee sod will be used for fairway expansions.  We are hoping to have the tees completed by mid to late July.

Stressed Fairway Turf From Excessive Rain This Spring

This is a picture of the 12th fairway where water accumulates during rain events.  It is low lying and very pocketed and from the constant rain this spring, especially June, the turf in this area is stressed from the constant puddling, removal of water and poor location.  The turf will eventually bounce back but we will have to baby it along with some venting and spoon feeding nutrients.  Even though there is drainage in the location, it takes a while for the water to get into the drains, especially during constant rains.

New Bunkers Being Worked On

The new bunkers that were constructed over the past year are getting some work done to them to help alleviate the plugged ball situation.  We are adding a clay like material that is used on tennis courts to the faces to help keep them firm.  This is just a trial and we are experimenting with how much we add to the bunkers so it may not be a complete success at first.  Also, we are instructing the maintenance staff to make sure to check depths of sand on faces each week to make sure we leave only a minimal amount to also help deter the fried eggs from occurring.

Drainage Progressing on 6 Fairway

6 laterals will be completed by Tuesday and we are hoping to have the entire fairway done by the end of next week.  We basically excavate a 12" wide trench across the entire fairway and capture all low areas on the way across.  We then add 3/4" stone to about 3-4" above the pipe and then back fill with a dirty sand mix.  Before, we used to use a 7-2-1 material to back fill but it got pricey as a truckload would only cover about 2-3 laterals.  Now that we are renovating our bunkers over the next 2-3 years, we excavate the old sand with a little subsoil and mix them together to get a dirty mix to use to back fill.  It saves us a ton of money, has some water holding capabilities and drains very well, probably better than the 7-2-1.   I figure I will save at least $10,000 on the 6th hole alone.