It was an amazing week of progress on the project. LUI was able to work 6 days in a row without any weather interruptions. They are now working really hard on finishing individual holes and moving on to the next one.
The bentgrass on #15 green is up and growing. We are leaving the cover on the green to promote the growth and to protect it from the elements. I would say we might be able to get a cut on this green before we put it to bed this fall. I am very optimistic about the growth we have seen on it and I believe it is further along in its progress than 18 south was last fall. The rest of LUI team finished all of the tees on 15 and installed bluegrass sod around the remainder of the hole. The only item left to complete this hole is to install the bentgrass sod on the tees this next Tuesday.
#15 from the black tee, 225 yards to home
New tees on #10 blue tee and the new gold tee on #14 were completed and then the tee building crew moved their operation back to the tees on #8. They should have them all wrapped up by Monday afternoon and then the bluegrass and bentgrass will also be installed on these areas, finishing them. The tee crew will then move to 9 tees to do the same thing on that hole. Hopefully by mid-week all of the tees will be done.
#14 Gold Tee
#8 Black Tee
Another team from LUI went to work on the bunkers on #14. All of the fairway bunkers were completed by Friday night and then 9 semi loads of sod, (just 0ver 2.5 acres) were installed on Friday afternoon and Saturday morning. It was a great effort by Stensland sodding to work with Al and the LUI team to complete this portion of the hole. There are 2 green side bunkers on #14 to be finished and then this hole will be also be completed.
#14 Fairway bunkers
Architect Tim Liddy was also here mid-week laying out the bunkers on 10, 11, 12, 13 and 16. Those areas are now roto-tilled and Danny has started to do the shaping of these bunkers. Danny has shaped almost all of the bunkers here at DMGCC. He is truly and artist that can take and idea from an architect and make it happen in the dirt. It is really fun to watch this progression take place and be a part of it. All of the bunkers on #12 and 13 are now shaped. Danny will move to 10 and 11 this next week.
The concrete cart path crew will be back in from Georgia this week to finish the concrete work. They will pour the remainder of the paths on 14 and 9. Then they have to do the new path on #12. LUI will be installing the new overflow pipe on this lake on Monday and then another item is wrapped up.
The DMGCC staff has been busy mowing some of the new areas. All of the rough on #8 and 9 have now been mowed once. New fairway turf has been mowed on these holes also. We have a small team of staff working on squaring up some of the bentgrass on some of the old tees. This takes some hand work and hard work but they look so much better once we are completed. The rest of our team has been very busy working on the other 27 holes. We are doing more mowing this late in the year because of the warm temperatures. We have also been very busy pruning the evergreen trees on both golf courses.
#9 all mowed up and looking good.
I am very happy to say that the heavy equipment is now out of here. No more dump trucks, excavators, bull dozers, pumps, etc. you get the idea. After 4 years of this stress we don’t have to look at it for a while. Each fall it really excites me when you reach the point in the project where you say no more items are going to get tore up, we are now just shaping, tiling and putting it back to golf ready. We have reached that point this week. We are now moving towards the finish and we are all excited about it.