The first part of the week started off with some very good weather for golf course construction. Almost everywhere you looked something was happening on the golf course.
Wall to Wall Concrete finished all of the cart path work from 9 green down the hill to the covered bridge on #10 green. They moved over to #8 and did a big pour on Monday. They completed almost ½ of the hole and then the rain shut them down for the rest of the week. They will be back in town on Monday to finish #8 and then they will move over to #11.
Drainage crews were very busy installing new drainage on #13 fairway and across #11 fairway this week. Last night work started by the drain line next to #7 green taking a drainage line up to the new lower fairway on #8. This is a major trunk line that will drain the bunkers and the new lower fairway.
Sodding crews worked very hard at the start of the week. 4 semi loads of sod were installed on #14 around the green. Also the new Bentgrass fairway on #14 was installed and watered in by the thunderstorm we had on Tuesday night. Basically that shut down the sod installation for the week.
Architect, Tim Liddy was here on late Tuesday afternoon and Wednesday. Again the major thunderstorm slowed us down. However Tim was able to look at #8 green and give his thoughts on some final changes there. He also looked at some future bunkers and tee complexes to keep the contractor going.
Not much work happened Wednesday and Thursday. As I had mentioned we received ¾’ of rain Wednesday. By Friday were back up and moving. On #18 green several large field stone boulders were installed at the water line to help shore up the bank under the 18th green. They look very nice and should serve a very useful function protecting the bank from future erosion.
The muck bag on #18 was opened up and the silt was removed and buried. The expansion on the pond on #18 was started. A hole was dug next to #13 green to generate some good clay for #14 tees. Now the soil from the pond expansion will be pushed into that hole and then the new spectator berm will be built around the right side of #13 green.
A lot of soil was pushed around on the new #14 tee complexes. Soil was hauled to the new Gold and Blue tees. The green tees were roughed in and the new Black tee was done on Saturday. All of the tee tops will be laser leveled and then topsoil will be installed around the outside edges and a new cart path will be graded next to the tees.
All of the work around the new green on #8 was completed Friday morning. A Kentucky Bluegrass ring of sod was laid on Friday afternoon to protect the new seeding. Saturday morning our staff seeded the new green on #8 and covered it to help in the germination process. On Monday we have 2-3 semi loads of sod coming to sod all of the green and bunker surrounds.
Speaking of germinating Bentgrass seed, if you are playing the NW 9 when you get to #18 tee look over at the new 14th green. We had very good germination of the Bentgrass seed and the new green has been rolled once to smooth it up. We will be cutting the green on Monday, 10 days after seeding. Now we will really push the turf to help it fill in and we will also start topdressing the green to smooth any imperfections.
Our staff also took on a project to raise the back left corner of #11 green. We now have a very nice cupping area back there. It was elevated and leveled to accept a fairly level pin position. Our staff did a wonderful job in doing it.
This morning we started laser grading the new tees on #14. They were elevated slightly and shifted right to line you up better with the hole.
