The 3" pre-Thanksgiving rain was tough to overcome, keeping our predominately clay soils too wet to work with for a good part of 4 days. On Tuesday the 3rd, with sod scheduled for Wednesday the 4th, we were able to buff out most of the surrounds to a point were we would be able to begin laying sod on weds. We had 16,000 sqft of A1-A4 bentgrass shipped in from Southern NJ and began the installation process on the greens once again - on schedule. The greens sod was completely installed by the contractors (DeLea Sod) team by 3pm on Wednesday. The fact that the green surfaces were completed was a huge relief as that is certainly the number one priority area. Irrigation installation was extensive and we all worked with and right behind Friends Irrigation getting it all done in 3 days. Our coverage went from 6 heads per green complex to between 15 & 20, proper irrigation is will be a huge help to our success.
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Me on Thanksgiving day, spent 7 hours pumping out the bunkers that were silted up due to 3" of rain.
Golf Pro Joe Laurentino commented after a visit to our muddy site : "Boy, after walking through that mud today on # 15, I REALLY realized what horrible soil the course is built on." |
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| Rich Friend and his guys getting started on pipe installation |
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| over 30,00 feet of wire was run into the ground |
Early morning on Thursday we received a tiny bit of rain - approximately 1/10th of an inch. Unfortunately, this was enough to wreak havoc for the rest of the installation. Our bare clay soils acted as if they were coated in an inch of grease and made the install so difficult on 15 that we had to delay any further work as we did not want to create more damage. 16 was nearly completed as the soils there we just a little better to work on. We will need to do quite a bit of rolling and topdressing to the fairway area, but it will be fine.
A large amount of pictures with captions will follow, enjoy.
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| we used a kelp/seaweed product to assist the sod with rooting, very expensive, but it works better than anything else. |
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| 15 green |
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| 15 green |
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| 15 green, approximately 9.5 pallets of 750 sqft were put in place |
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| 15 halfway |
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| the crew worked on plywood to no damage sod that was already in place |
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| A1-A4 sod |
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| pallets lined up and ready to go.....wishing the sun stays out |
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| 15 just about done |
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| green completed on 15 |
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| 16 irrigation still going in as the sod begins |
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| 16 |
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| irrigation continues, sod flying |
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| 16 - cranking it out |
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| 16 |
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| 15 from the landing zone |
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| 16 - very little wasted |
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| halfway on 16 |
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| 16 green surface completed |
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| surrounds starting / fairway too |
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| 16 - view from 9 green |
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| 16 back bunker - view from halfway house |
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| 16 |
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| 16 |
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| 16 |
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| 16 - progressing nicely under the eyes of GC Architect Kelly Moran (red) and Shaper Kevin Nolan |
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| 16 from halfway house |
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| 16 |
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| 16 from 9 green |
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| 16 |
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| 16 |
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16 from behind the green
3 different types of turfgrasses were used in the sod process. Our greens, similarly to the renovated 2 & 9, were grassed with A1-A4 bentgrass. The fairway areas were sodded to "low-mow" varieties of Kentucky blue-grass (as were 12 &13 fairway back in 2003). The roughs and bunker banks are being grassed with turf type Tall Fescue/Bluegrass blend and finally the mounds to the right of 16 as well as the top half of the ridge separating 15 & 16 will be hydro-seeded with a blend of fescues that will remain unmowed and beautifully blowing in the wind once matured.
Thanks again for tuning in....more to follow as we get past this next 4 day stretch of bad weather....at least the greens are done!!!
-JohnnyP IHCC |
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