Concluding A Few Small Projects ...... Douglas Lowe, CGCS

With the onset of spring the crew is back on the course in an effort to finish up a few small projects before the grass once again begins to grow.

Bunkers

The staff on both courses has been working hard to fine tune the bunkers.  The first step has been to probe the bunkers looking for areas where the sand depth is either too thin or too thick.

Where the bunker was deemed too thin new sand was brought in to bring the depth to an appropriate level (4 inches on faces and 6 inches at the bottom).  When new sand was added to the face of the bunkers that sand was moistened and tamped to reduce the potential for plugged lies in the face of the bunker. Lastly, the bunkers are now being raked with a slightly different method referred to as the Australian Method of raking bunkers. The faces are raked by leveling and/or brushing the surface to create a smooth finish.  The bottoms of the bunkers and slightly up the slopes are then hand raked in a tradition manner.  By not loosening the slopes of the bunkers each time we rake bunkers these areas are allowed to firm up to further reduce the potential for plugged lies in the faces.

Wetting Slope Prior to Compacting

Compacting Slope 

Australian Finish

DRT Pavilion 

New plants were recently added to the backside of the Donald Ross Terrace in an effort to soften the view of the large white painted brick wall.  The plantings included Mary Nell Hollies, Drift roses and Daylillies.  This area was especially difficult to plant due to the large amount of infrastructure below ground in this area.  The first hole that was dug resulted in the discovery of a large concrete slab that had long been abandoned and buried beneath the soil.  The next three holes resulted in the discovery of various electrical cables that had to be cut, redirected around the hole and lastly re-spliced.

Relocating Electrical Wires

Digging Up Abandoned Concrete Slab

New Planting

Additional Screening Material on Hole #6 / US 220 widening 

As the construction continues on Hwy 220 it has become clear additional screening material will be needed to reduce both the view of the traffic and noise from the expanding four laned highway, which is in effect moving closer to the course.  Nearly 40 additional plants were added to this area. The new plantings included numerous evergreen species such as Osmanthus sp., Cryptomeria sp., Aborvitae sp., Ilex sp. and Loblolly Pines.

Carlson Dairy Road Crossing

The cart path intersection at Carlson Dairy road was recently marked in high visibility thermoplastic stripping as an additional precautionary measure for vehicular traffic.