Again we started off wet from the rain last weekend. It takes a lot longer for things to dry out now that the sun angle is lower and the days are shorter and colder. Things really started to take off again on Wednesday and the main focus for the Landscapes Unlimited staff has been bunkers.
The bunker building process is involved and once they get going it does not take too long to get them done. First the bunker is rough shaped by the bull dozer. Then the bunker is again shaped and sculpted by Daniel. He came in from Florida and his main job is to all of the features and shapes that the architects want. He works very closely with Tim Liddy to give the bunkers a Pete Dye look and design.
A crew of 4 install the main exit tile out of the bunkers. Hooking this to our current tiles or in some cases we have to install new tiles and surface drains. Once this is done another group of 4 come in and do the fine grading on the outside. They also cut the bunker edge into place.
Then internal drainage is put in place and covered with pea gravel.
Bunker liner comes next with staples place on 1’ centers. Each staple is 6” long, driven completely down and then it is glued into place with Liquid Nails. This is to prevent it from coming up with our Northern climate frost.
The sand is then installed to a depth of 5”. They lay down these tiles cut at 5” and use them to gauge sand depth. Sod is installed. Later after the sod is more stable, the sand will be tamped and raked into place. 5’ of sand is tamped to a finish depth of 4”. This is the depth that we will always try to maintain.You now have a bunker that will be ready for play in the spring!
Some other exciting things took place. First the bridge building crew out of Chicago arrived on site on Friday and then are working straight through to get the new bridge built. They started late on Friday afternoon and they estimate about 7 days to completely build the new wooden bridge.
I mentioned last week that we would be installing some bentgrass on some of the tees. The sod was cut on Thursday afternoon in Chicago. It was trucked overnight and arrived here on Friday morning at 7:00 and then our staff laid it all into place. The tees that were sodded really look good and I have included some photos of the work and also a short time lapse video showing the work.
We are praying that the rains stay away, but if they do come, they are light!