Greens, Cart Paths, Misc.

We have spent a lot of time on the greens the last two weeks.  We have already top dressed four times and we roll the greens before and after the top dresser with the retired tennis court roller, picture above.  The transmission blew out the other day so we installed a hitch device to pull the roller with a cart.  The roller really firms up the greens and is making the process work better.  We have already lowered the height on the greens from .190" to .180".  We are filling some of the eroded areas from the winter thaw on the greens with hex plugs and bent sod from the nursery.  Ted Moore finished the back 9 cart path overlay in 11 hours.  We will begin sod edges next to cart paths shortly.  We have had a difficult time pulling sod due to the lack of warmer temperatures, the sod won't stay in one piece.  After the rain, we will try again.  The new cart path areas on the front such as the one pictured above on 9, have been sodded.  The irrigation system has been pressurized.  The debris from stump grinding has been removed and we are already back filling and compacting the areas for sod install later.       

Asphalt, Stumps, Seeding

We are working around the weather to get as much done as possible.  We started last week with the asphalt planer and sweeper and finished the week using the backhoe to remove damaged areas.  The second picture is the grinder that Ted Crews from Ted Crews Service Co. operated.  He ground 40 massive stumps in 9 hours.  The third picture is the amount of debris left by the grinder.  We have already cleaned up the debris from half of the big stumps.  We have also seeded the bottom of #13 fairway where the drainage project was completed last fall.  In between the larger tasks we are progressing on smaller detail tasks such as re-placing the tee monument on #3, painting the St. Clair entrance sign, white pillar and curbs, and reinstalling ball washer posts that had to be removed.  Today we are working on more stump debris clean up, installing rock base in damaged areas and hopefully when it warms up spraying the rough with pre emergent. 

Spray hawk and Temporary chipping green

Since the snow cleared we finally had a good week to get the herbicide and pre emerge sprayed throughout the warm season turf.  All approaches, fairways and tees have been sprayed.  The first picture is of the staff spray hawking the approaches and using a board to stop chemical drift from reaching the surface of the new greens.  The second picture is of the dyed temporary chipping green on located on the chipping fairway at the driving range.   

Greens, Bunkers, Cart Paths

We brought in plugs from the greens to make sure they made it through all of the ice and snow.  The plugs greened up within a few days and are already growing.  I haven't seen any winter disease on the greens either.  The second pic is of the new bunker on 16.  A few days ago the drains were frozen and once the snow began to thaw the bunker was full of water.  The bunker drains throughout the course are working properly with no contaminating wash from thr grass faces.  We started cart path prep on the back 9 yesterday.  We are doing everything we can to continue progress even through the wet conditions.

Green Core Samples

I've had a few concerned members call me about how the greens are doing with the long term ice and snow.  I pulled core samples out of the high and low areas of #5, #7 and #12.  These greens represent the three types of green construction through the course.  After a few days of warmer temperatures in the maintenance building the cores should give us a better indication of the health of the greens.  I will update the results of the cores in a few days when growth begins.

Winter Work

We couldn't get equipment out on the course over the last few days so we rigged a sled with the chainsaws and gear.  We are finishing up the last few trees on the removal list.  I added a tree removal video of a tree that was struck by lightning last season. 

Renovation Day 103-123

The driving range bunker drainage and sand installation has been completed.  In the background of the pic you can see the irrigation system being blown out.  The compressor in the second pic was set up by the pump house.  We have to use a larger compressor to blow out the new HDPE system.  The system was blown out before the snow hit.  We are still making progress on tree work, we have a hand full of trees left. 

Renovation Day 97-102

The drainage project at the bottom of 18 fairway was completed last Friday.  A flowable grout was pushed through the old 24" clay tile to stop the subsidence holes.  We tried to dig a section of the old pipe up to see the depth and the clay tiles were 12' deep at the top of the pipe in areas.  We finished sodding the practice bunker at the driving range yesterday.  It was still too wet to install the drainage.  We will have that project complete shortly.  The front 9 cart paths were finished on Friday also.  We began removing the sod and back filling next to the cart paths with soil to level the edges.  

Renovation Day 94-96

It took the St. Clair staff a long time to prep the cart paths on the front 9 for the 2" asphalt over lay which started this morning.  Ted Moore, with Moore Asphalt, completed the cart paths on 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7 today.  Tomorrow morning he will finish 8 and 9.  You have no idea how much of a scar the old cart paths were until you see the new cart paths in place.  Also, Mike Munie has installed all of the 24" drain tile and man holes.  The pic above is the new junction at the bottom of 18 fairway under the sycamore tree with concrete connections.  The lid will be installed tomorrow and grading the surrounding area of disturbance will be completed soon.   

Renovation Day 76-93

T&A irrigation has all of the main line complete and the new HDPE irrigation system has been hooked up to the pump house.  When we installed the "Z" pipe coming out of the pump house in '06' we poured a couple yards of concrete around the valves as thrust blocks and it took T&A a day to jackhammer the concrete out.  The old hydraulic system that was used to keep the irrigation heads down is finally obsolete.  St. Calir is now a full electric system.  Mike Munie, with Perfect Play, has begun the drainage project below 9 tee through 18 fairway.  Within the next few days he will have the man holes installed and connect the new drain to the lake over flow.  We are still trying to keep the course mowed and leaves mulched up as much as possible.  The St. Clair staff has been doing inside tasks such as installing new plastic on the green house during heavy frost.   

Renovation Day 69-75

We have started the asphalt prep for the asphalt overlay for the front nine.  We rented an asphalt mill to level the current cart paths and an asphalt sweeper to remove the debris.  After the asphalt material was removed we used a cut saw to clean the joints on the asphalt to concrete connections.  The asphalt will again be removed in those areas and filled with a rock base.  The staff has also started grinding stumps and removing the chips.  We have a lot of stumps through the course and we have almost made it through the front nine already.

Renovation Day 66-68

This morning we removed the dew from the green surfaces with a filled hose.  The spray hawk was calibrated for greens and we began spaying.  Fungicide and foliar fertilizers were applied to help continue growth as much as possible.  The greens are filling in very well.  We seeded greens starting September 16th through October 1st once LaBar and Kye were finished with construction.  We have mowed all of the greens multiple times and we are already down to a mowing height of .200", just under 1/4".  Normal mowing height is .120" - .140", so we are pretty close to a playable height.  We will continue to lower the height into November to help promote lateral growth.  T&A Irrigation has completed the front 9 and have started the main line on the back and began 11 fairway today.   

Renovation Day 51-65

LaBar has finished all the large construction areas.  The St. Clair staff is buttoning up areas that didn't get sodded with seed and straw.  The new tees on 1, 3, 7, 8, 11, 14, 17 and 18 have been completed.  Most of these tees will expand the yardage on the score card and will make the holes a lot more challenging.  We are finishing tree work and will begin removing stumps and grinding.   

Renovation Day 44-50

A lot of progress has been made since the last post.  The top pic is the seed, germination, fungicide and mow schedule for the greens.  All of the greens have been seeded except the range chipping green and the nursery at the back of the range.  We mowed a few greens for the first time yesterday, 15 days after seeding.  There are a few thin spots that will fill in and we are adding sand and seed to make them fill faster.  LaBar has finished most of the shaping through the course and will finish their detail work soon as well.  T&A irrigation has completed the front nine irrigation and will work on irrigating the range tees and chipping green this week. 

Renovation Day 41-43

#5 fairway was prepped and sod was installed late last week.  Kye did a great job shaping the contours of the fairway and laying the turf lines to differentiate between the zoysia and fescue sod.  The bottom picture is #12 green with bent grass germination.  We had seed germinate in four days.  The thin areas will fill and hopefully we will be  mowing on day ten after germination.     

Renovation Day 32-40

We have half of the greens seeded.  The irrigation has been programmed to run three minutes every half hour.  The second picture is #5 green with seed applied and dimpled with the bunker rake.  Green shaping and most of the bunkers are complete.  A few more good days of weather and we will have all of the seeding finished.

Renovation Day 25-31

#9 green and the new putting green in front of the pro shop has been drained, lined and filled with greens mix.  Over the last few weeks of heat Mr. Goalby has been passing out water to the St. Clair, LaBar and    T and A staff.  He has been here every day since the beginning of the renovation, he even took my hose while I was watering sod so I could get a drink of water.  Good Man.  Also, Kye was out last Sunday in the rain floating the greens surface in preparation of seeding.  The last picture is #1 with completed sod perimeter.

Renovation Day 21-24

T and A Irrigation installed the HDPE main irrigation line yesterday on #8.  They will tie into the already completed #8 fairway irrigation line.  They have completed all of the green irrigation except for #9 and the new putter.  After the greens loops are installed they will install temporary controll boxes so we can program a watering cycle for the newly seeded greens.  LaBar is sodding #12 green surround and will be completed today.  We have been hand watering completed sod areas a few times a day and we are days away from seeding the green.  #1 tee has been expanded in the front with soil from #9 green complex.  Kye will use a dozer to finish grading the slope and sod will be installed.