November 19, 2016 and we are wrapping up week 14 of the renovation project. The first 2 years projects took right at 14 weeks to complete. Last year’s project went longer because of the weather, this year’s project will also go past the 14th week. Hopefully weather will not be the determining factor on whether we finish the project or not.
We had another good week of dry weather to finish some of the golf holes. Early in the week the LUI crew focused on the 13th hole. There are now 10 bunkers on this hole. Underground it is a big matrix of irrigation pipes and drainage pipes between all of the bunkers. Somehow in the end it all seems to work out just fine. Justin Stensland and his crew arrived on Tuesday and finished the sodding on the 13th. It looks awesome and now instead of being a boring hole, it will be a hole that challenges the golfer to pick a club to decide if you want to take on some of the new bunkers surrounding the green. I think you will really enjoy what it has to offer.
Bunkers on 13 green during work this week and then the finished hole
Architect Tim Liddy was here on Thursday and he was extremely happy with the look of the 13th hole. We then moved over to #10 and Tim made a few small tweaks and suggestions to do before we did the final work on this hole. Al and his LUI crew worked 2 big days on the 10th hole and by dark on Friday evening, Stensland Sodding had finished the grassing on this hole. This should be Tim’s final visit for this 4 year project. He has made several trips to the site since becoming involved in 2009 and I believe the end result that he has done for us in conjunction with Mr. Dye’s ideas are a home run.
10 greenside bunkers on the left side of the green
10 fairway bunkers
We are in the process of watering all of this sod. We have approximately 15 ½ acres of sod on the ground this fall and while a lot of it is rooted down, the new sod has to be watered very heavily before we put it to bed. We will here all weekend watering the new sod and giving the rest of the sod one final soaking before we blow out the irrigation system next week. As always this is a very nervous time for us because once we blow out the only way to water sod is with a water tank or by Mother Nature. As a turf manager I would love to have a good heavy rainfall to put the turf to bed for the winter, the construction superintendent side of me wants LUI to be able to finish the bunkers on 11 and 16 and be done with the project.
This cold 28 degree Saturday morning and 25 mph winds has the LUI staff staying home today. On Monday the temperatures look better for some more outside work. We have laid sheets of plywood down on the turf so the crews could be working 1st thing on Monday morning instead of waiting for the frost to go off the turf. A couple of good days and the 11th hole should be ready for the grassing. There is some precipitation in the forecast so we will see what it brings us.
This should be my last Saturday morning to be in my office writing the blog page construction updates. I will let you know the progress on the project as weather permits. I do appreciate you coming here to read our weekly updates and it has been a great project to be a part of and I do appreciate your trust in us and believing we could pull this off. Jim Cutter and Scott Howe deserve a big thank you for their insight and guidance during this project. It has been a long process from Mr. Dye’s 1st trip here on November 4, 2007 to bringing on Tim Liddy to guide us in 2009 to finishing up the project in 2016.
I will leave you with you with some photos of Mr. Dye and Mr. Liddy at work here at Des Moines Golf and Country Club.
Mr Dye with the original Master Plan Committee
Tim Liddy working with Daniel on shaping a green
The man that started it all in 1966 and finishing it up in 2016
