10 Tee irrigation

Before any sod can be laid on the new 10th tee, a new irrigation line servicing the tee had to be installed. During the last few days, we tackled that piece of the renovation project. 

A water line was run from the existing fairway, communication wire was laid from the satellite box between 10/11 and two heads were installed to water the new tee. 

 

Course update

The rain last night and today has totaled 1.6" thus far, with most of it soaking right in.  Leading up to this point, we have been extremely dry with only 2" of rain in the last two months and .6" in the last 45 days.  The abnormal dry conditions have no doubt made for some challenging conditions on the greens, some commenting that the greens are too fast and others telling me that they have never been better at FCC.  An interesting fact is that we haven't rolled greens in over two weeks, the greens have just been plain fast without us trying. 

Aerification went great on Monday and Tuesday.  We poured the sand on then solid-tined them twice, once with a deep-tine machine going 10"deep, then once with our aerifier going 4" deep, each machine with 3/4" solid tines.  After the sand dried, the sand was drug into the aerification holes, creating drainage channels and areas for optimal root growth.  Over the next few days we will continue to work the sand in and start rolling the greens to smooth them out.

A load of trees (16 trees) arrived today, they will be planted around the property over the next coming weeks.  3 trees will be planted on the course with the remainder being planted along Country Club Drive in front of the tennis courts.  The coincides with our Landscape Master Plan and part of our front entrance project.

The 10th hole project is going well, most of the sod was laid last week, yesterday we beat the rain and finished the drainage in the four bunkers.  The goal this week is to install the sand in the bunkers, next week we will continue with sod if weather permits.

This is also the time of year were leaves are falling in droves.  We are trying our best to keep a somewhat clean course and will continue to blow and mulch until the last leaf is off.  The recent frosts have slowed the grass growth which is a tremendous help as we are now able to spend time on projects vs. mowing. 

In our spare time we will begin delivering wood for members that burn through the winter.  I have 7 loads on a waiting list that need to be delivered.  If you would like a wood delivery for this winter, please let me know, the wood pile will be disappearing fast. 

Project update

A lot has been accomplished since my post last week.  We started the week by stripping the remaining sod in the area of disturbance, today we layed fresh sod to cover the new features.  Our Shaper arrived Monday afternoon and went right to work, at the end of the day Wednesday, the four new bunkers were completed.  By the end of the day Friday, all the features will be shaped and ready for sod and sand. 

The Shaper started moving dirt every morning by 7:00 with the aid of lights.

Today, the bunkers were edged and trenched for drainage.

The Grounds staff has been very diligent and busy with this large project.  75% of our time has been spent on the 10th hole, trying to get things done so that we can move on.  Yesterday we were busy moving an irrigation line that was in the way of a new bunker.  Today we finished edging bunkers, and started laying sod.  Friday we will focus on drainage and sod.

 

Next week we will be tied up with aerifying greens on Monday and Tuesday.  In between course maintenance, we will continue to work on 10 towards the end of the week.

Renovation begins

The renovation work to the 10th hole has begun.  This week's activity was prep work for the bulk of the project to be done next week.  We have a Shaper coming in next week, starting Tuesday, to shape the new tees and bunkers.  The remainder of the work will be done in-house.

Soil was brought in to build a base for the new tee.  We placed it as it was coming in to gauge the amount of soil needed.  The Shaper may need to move it around and compact it, re-shaping it, next week.  After the base is built, topsoil will be added to make a finish grade.  The top of the tee will be sodded with bentgrass that will come off the current 10th fairway.

About 60 yards from the green, to the right, will be some mounding jutting out into the fairway.  Sod was stripped out yesterday, soil will be added and shaped, this area will be seeded. 

The strategic point of entry to the green will be from the right side, this mounding will make golfers think twice about using driver on this hole.

All the bunker sand was removed from the bunkers.  We saved as much sand as possible, which will be placed back into the new bunkers.  Looking at the pile of good sand that we took out, I estimate we saved $1,500 worth of bunker sand.

The sod around the bunkers will be ripped out, the Shaper will implode the current bunkers and build 4 new bunkers around the 10th green (2 will be rebuilt in the similar location, 2 will be new).

 

The next two weeks will be extremely busy for us as we focus on the project and greens aerification on October 26.  Course maintenance will be at a minimum to allow us personnel to complete the project.  We are currently down 3 men due to unexpected sickness/surgeries, we will do our best to keep the course playable and complete this project.

Change in mowing height

One of the topics of discussion this year with a few members was the rough around the fairways, more specifically the rough between the fairways and fairway bunkers.  Because the rough in these areas are irrigated and fertilized along with the fairways, they tend to be very thick; and these areas of very thick rough tend to jut out into the fairway in places that penalize the higher handicap players.

Therefore after a discussion with the Grounds Committee, we are giving some of these areas a trial run at a different height.  At select locations, we will be mowing these areas down to intermediate height, reducing the penalty of landing in one of these jungles that jut out into the fairways.

Holes that we are trying this on include - 3,7,10 and 15