Bunker Liners

This photo was sent to me the other day. It looks as though, the liner was exposed when a player was raking the bunker smooth after their shot. The rake caught the fabric and pulled it up, along with the gravel underneath. We have been seeing this quite often, as the liners are beginning to tear. Whenever we see this, it is fixed THAT DAY. Unfortunately, we don't always see what is just below the surface of the sand. With repairs and adding sand to high use bunkers we hope to avoid this situation in the future. If you run across something like this, be sure to inform the golf shop so they can relay the message to have it fixed asap.

Driving Range Project

Following a week spent removing the last 15+ years of topdressing, we laser leveled and installed new sod on the upper tee. The sod went into a little shock, as it was non-overseeded Bermuda out of the desert. It has since began to bounce back.

The new matting is installed much like carpet. After measuring, it is simply cut to fit, followed by gluing to the existing concrete pad.

Ready for use after only one day!

Driving range practice

 

This is especially useful for us here at SHCC as we

don't have a lot of room on our driving range tees.

By using this technique we reduce the impact to just

a small area, potentially allowing for more days hitting

off grass as opposed to mats.

Verti-darining greens

Turf Time West verti-drain service. A quick video showing our upcoming verti-drain service we have scheduled on March 11th. Notice there is minimal surface disruption, even though the machine is pushing 6"-8" deep. This process has been very beneficial in helping us move water deeper into the soil profile.

Drainage problems

 

The course is of an age that many of the drains have lost their functionality. These are pictures of a project we completed in the Spring of 2012. The drain line ran below the cart path on #12, fed from one of the concrete v-ditches on the right side of the hole. You can see the effect that tree root intrusion can have on a drain, as the roots hold debris and soil to create a solid mass of MUCK! Luckily we were able to clear the blockage without the need to run a whole new line. This is just one example of the many jobs we do that don't really enhance the golf course, yet are very necessary.

 

Root pruning

. We have been doing quite a bit of root pruning around the greens. Trees such as the Peppers we have around the course are often planted too close to the greens. The shallow roots grow into the greens, taking the water from the grass, creating stress. Following the trenching, we put in a sheet metal barrier to stop future encroachment.

A bit of disease




BRP fully developed

We continue to see a lot of Brown Ring Patch (BRP) activity. The recent environmental conditions have been ideal for this disease to develop, as it favors mild temperatures and the cool, damp mornings that we experience this time of year. To date we have made 3 fungicide applications, with another scheduled for this Friday. Typically we use a two pronged approach with our chemical applications. A contact to kill the disease on the surface; combined with a systemic which the plant ingests to kill the disease from within. Nothing too alarming here, typical spring disease that we see every year.