Work continues, the final slope to the water is really starting to take shape. Below the shovel of the back-hoe is about where the new bunker will be located. This will really anchor the left side of the green complex and contrast with the grassed slopes and mounds.

Closing of the Clowns Mouth

On Tuesday work continued on number 6. The culvert has been extended down below the water level so when the we can bring the water line back to normal you won't see any evidence of it. Some minor grading also took place, so things are starting to shape up.

Hole #6 Update

Just a quick update on the current project on #6... Hartman plans to be here on Tuesday the 27th to continue work. I am hopeful the weather will hold out and the work can be completed by the end of the week. There will most likely be a small pot bunker placed in the front of the green on the bank to the water, however that would not be put in until July when they are here working on #8 & #10.

A quick update on those plans also: The right fairway bunkers on 8 will be renovated and slightly shift into the fairway, more so for the second fairway bunker then the first. The left fairway bunker will be removed and a new bunker built to the right of the ash tree that is along the fairway behind the existing bunker. This creates a larger landing area to the left of the existing right fairway bunker and also makes a landing area to the right of the new bunker for the longer hitters. The first greenside bunker will be removed and the second, or actual greenside bunker, will be renovated and wrapped around more of the front left corner of the green. On #10 the plan is to remove the left fairway bunker and replace it with some mounding, which would have a fairway cut extended partially up the sides. A new bunker will be placed on the right side of the fairway about 110-120 yards out, creating a carry of 245 yards from the white tees and 265 yards from the blues. Due to the new bunker the ash tree next to the 100 yard stake would be removed to open up shots to the green. The rough area to the left of the approach from about 100 yards in will be graded down to a more subtle slope and open up views to the green and greenside bunker. That bunker will be renovated in its existing spot and some of the dirt from grading the rough will be used to build up the backside of it. The rest of the dirt will be used on the new fairway bunker and also a new championship tee for #11. All this work will be taking place in July, the same time frame as the work done last year.

Seedlings

The bentgrass seed is coming up in the aerifier holes very nicely, however it is not showing up throughout the dead areas like I was hoping. For some of the major areas I think we will be cutting sod from the gold tee on #6 since that is nearly 100% bentgrass and replacing the collar. The smaller areas where the seed has been growing we will let it take hold and fill in, between that and the inevitable poa annua seed germination they should fill in fairly quick.

Unfortunately I do not have an update on #6, but with the stretch of nice weather we have been having I would expect to see Hartman working on by the end of the week or early next week. Once they start I am hoping there is only a few days of work and it will be complete.

The range has been looking a little dry, especially around the target greens, and we have finally gotten all the wiring and pipe work done so the range irrigation is up to 100%. We will be aggressively seeding and working the target greens to create a nice stand of grass we can mow at a shorter height then the rough so they should stand out more. The challenge we have with the target green areas is we are trying to grow grass with about an inch or two of topsoil over solid clay. If we can not get something established I think in the future we will have to consider a more major renovation so we can have nice target areas to shoot at.

Uh oh!

I am sure many of you have seen this already. On the thirteenth green we had a hydraulic leak on the greensmower. It was not so much a leak but a lift cylinder actually failed and the end of it blew out, hence the large amount of fluid on the green. For the most part all the turf that was drenched in hydraulic fluid will die shortly and we will have to strip the damaged turf out and replace it. This is a perfect example of why we have grown the bentgrass nursery down near fourteen green. Unfortunately the nursery green is not ready to be cut for sod, I am hoping by the end of the summer we can start using that for repairs. In the mean time we will continue to use grass from the chipping green/collar, this should be the last year of doing that. We will be aggressive with renovating the cut-out areas on the chipping green so you may see some ropes up and the grass may not be cut on a regular basis so we can get it smoothed out and seed to fill in. I will have an update on the dead collar areas tomorrow with a picture of the new bentgrass seedlings that are starting to emerge.

Spring is here, and with it...

On Monday we aerified all the greens with knife style tines. The tines are about 3/4" wide and a good 1/4" thick, they go about 3-4" deep. This has been the normal practice for the last couple of years in the spring. It is a low impact type of aerifying and just creates air chambers without pulling out the soil/organic matter. Our greens have a pretty good rootzone mix of sand/soil from years of topdressing, and the organic matter is not too built up. This allows us to not take cores twice a year, but rather use something that is less obstructive to the playing surface. However, if I thought coring was waranted for the spring aerifying I would not hesitate to do it.

On the same note, we did core aerify the collars of all 18 greens on Tuesday. The timing could not have been better with the 1/2" of rain we received almost immediately after finishing the last green. We aerified, picked up the cores, topdressed with a sand/soil/peat mix, seeded with bentgrass, and dragged it all in. The rain was perfect for soaking the seed and "melting" the topdressing into the turf. We may also do this routine on some of the worst areas in the rough that just don't seem to want to fill in. For the few burned out fairway spots (#10 comes to mind) we will be slit seeding and topdressing those sometime this week.