Indian Hills CC Turf Management

Back on # 9 again...

Once the trees were removed, the stumps pulled, the area graded, and the new trees were installed - we took a look at the 9th hole from the tee. It became very apparent that this is an exceptionally good time to possibly make some progress into the master plan presentation and add a fairway bunker to the 9th hole.

Greens Chairman Nick Pecora was here to see both the removal of the stumps and installation of the new trees. We then discussed the addition of a fairway bunker and decided to "rough one in". This meant our talented Assistant, Phil Rosati, (who should have been a golf course shaper - he has incredible vision and ability) could jump on the skid steer and have some fun. Once the bunker was "roughed in" - sort of a quick, let's see what it looks like idea, I called our PGA pro Joe Laurentino, who promptly jumped in his car to come on over and take a look. Nick Pecora also made another visit to check it out and while all 4 of us liked it - we all agreed that while a bunker needs to be there, it is not quite right because a bunker should not have a tree between it and the green.

With that in mind, we changed our thought process a bit, Mr. Pecora thought if the top end of the bunker was more towards the fairway it would reduce the tree's interference. Back into the skid steer Phil went and with some back and forth conversations and earth moving we changed the one large bunker into two smaller bunkers which would allow for a much larger chance of a ball coming to rest in (what will become) our now expanded and somewhat flatter fairway extension.

Once the "rough in" was near completion, I brought our managing owner - YM Yang out to see what we were doing, he thought it was a very good and a well thought out plan and then, after discussing the financial aspect of the project, stamped his approval to move forward.

As you can now see from the pictures above, the two smaller bunkers on the right have been re-aligned. The bunker closer to the green was moved nearer the fairway and the lower bunker was condensed to provide more of a landing area. We also removed the last "bump" in the series of bumps & humps which will also allow for another flatter lie.

The white lines in the bunkers on the right, allowed us to see the "sand line" from the tee, this insured that the visual of the bunkers from the tee shot was appropriate. The final product will be fantastic!

Hoping the weather stays good, so we can keep working!

Also wanted to post these shots of #16 looking towards #9 green

9 green is No longer in sight from the 16th tee due to the addition of 7 large trees on Tuesday