Turf News - August 5
05 AUG 2022
Our bunker renovations are going smoothly. We have 100% completed holes CH 1, 2, and 12 aside from the one short apron side bunker that will be completed as part of a larger project later, and the Chipping green south bunker. All bunkers have a complete 6-inch sand base that we are water packing and tamping to try to firm them up some. Our contractor says that it takes a winter with snow melt, and freeze/thaw to pack them in tight. The next area we have started digging into is the 6 CH green site. The 2 front bunkers are remaining the same shape and size while the far back right green side is getting filled in.
Our new red deck on 12 SW was sodded earlier this week! Ladies, I am sure you are eager to get up there, as am I! It will take a couple of weeks of constant soaking and top dressing to get the bent grass knitted before we can open the tee up…but we are close!
The sod order we had this week was a fraction of what we needed to complete some of the larger scopes that we had prepped. To try and conserve water we have sodded just the tee and immediate surrounds on 12 SW as well as just the skirt around the right-hand side fairway bunker on 12 CH. Once we lay the sod it requires a flood of water to keep it alive in this summer heat. With minimal water left we will be sodding some of these larger scopes once we can capture a significant amount of rainwater.
Our irrigation system has kept our course in good shape these past few months of dry weather. We have emptied our reservoir, while the ponds on 6 SW and 15 SW are getting low. Between the thunderstorm last weekend and the 17mm the previous week we were able to capture and save about 6 million gallons, which is extremely helpful considering we use about 1 million a day at this time of year! We have shut the water off on the rough at the range as well as the Rattler rough, and we have started spraying wetting agents to help us retain water on our fairways.
