Opening Day!
- Kevin Moores
- Apr 30
- 3 min read
With the golf season fast approaching we are working toward Opening Day on May 1st. A significant amount of work has gone into getting the course ready and making progress on the renovations that are taking place. We had a couple of weeks of great weather to dry the property and allow our contractor to make progress on Phase 2 work. Unfortunately, the 40mm rain that fell over the weekend has slowed things down for a couple of days. With the course opening on May 1st, we will likely have some temporary alterations to the certain holes to allow the contractor to finish their work safely and effectively; be it a temporary green on 9 or 18 while work is being done there, or moving the tees up on 1 or 9 to allow work on the fairway bunkers. Luckily these occurrences will be short lived and typically last a day or two at most. Updates and daily information on this subject will be relayed from the pro shop.
A summary of the work, progress, and expectations going forward:
Hole 1
New Fairway bunkers. The new bunkers have been shaped, and drainage has been installed. The new drainage exits the new traps and crosses 1 fairway. A strip of sod was taken to lay the new drain tile.
At the time of writing this post the final shaping, and incorporation of fresh topsoil is taking place. Sodding is to begin by the end of the week.
Hole 3
Work on the new tee has gone well. The subgrade work has been completed. New drainage and irrigation installation have taken place. The next step is to bring in the rootzone mix and then sodding the tees and cleaning up the areas around the work. An artificial tee has been installed next to the new tee to be used by people playing the blue and white tees while the sod knits and matures. We will keep you updated on progress.
Hole 9
The new fairway bunker is the farthest along when it comes to the new bunkers that have been contracted out. The old bunker was removed, and a new one was constructed. The shaping and drainage was completed. The worksite has been cleaned up and sodding has begun as of Wednesday Afternoon.
The greenside bunkers have some work to do to be seen through completion. Some minor shaping repairs are to be done after the rain washed out some of the shaping. The drainage is complete. After the shaping is complete it will be ready for sod.
Hole 17
The fairway bunkers have been removed. Excess fill from the excavation of other work was used for the initial fill in. Some minor shaping of the area will be completed before sod goes down.
Hole 18
The left greenside bunker has been removed. We will add a little bit of soil to smooth the area before sodding
The right greenside bunker is being renovated and is under construction. It will be the last bunker that will be completed on the list.
There is also the list of bunkers that were worked on this past fall. These bunkers were renovated and sodded. We will be waiting a couple of weeks for the sod to knit in a little tighter and allow to make some minor tweaks to some drainage and pull back some sod areas where the soil beneath was undermined over the winter. Once completed and when we feel the sod is ready we will make our preparations to install the sand. I would anticipate this happening in Mid May. We will keep many of these areas roped off and deemed Ground Under Repair. Check the pictures below with captions to see these areas. The bunkers we have contracted out this spring will be ground under repair for longer. I am targeting Early-Mid June for sand installation.
Please check back next week for another post providing an update on Phase 2 as well as an agronomic update.
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