Concrete basins

We have started repair work on the concrete basins around the course. The first one is on hole #9 left side of fairway 200 yards from the green. The particular drain basin has been eroded forever and I'm tired of looking at it.
The crew has gone in and dug down to the pipe that enters the basin and is doing a thorough inspection of any breaks, leaks, and sqeaks that could be allowing to leak into the basin and in turn causing erosion to take place. Once everything has been inspected and additional repairs as needed, we'll take some burlap material and wrap the pipe and drain basin. Theory behind this; Is to allow any water to continue to drain in any leaks and sqeaks but no soil will be allowed to move, therefore your eliminating the erosion. At least that's the plan.
We'll also be doing #7, #10, #11 lake drain basins as well. Good golly lake #10 has been down four to five feet for sometime now. What would it be like to see this lake stay full?

Before

After

The right side of #10 bunker the edge has been re-done and is completed. We're moving on to the left side of #10.

#2 Greenside Bunker

Well folks, we're gonna keep em moving! Off to # 2 greenside bunker we go and that will our fourth bunker for the season completed.
 The turf will be rolled down to the bottom of the trap, so that erosion factors are taken out.

#18 Greenside Bunker

Here we go to the next trap, we are moving on to #18 left greenside bunker. We will have all the sand from around the edges piled in the center for the beginning to mid-week, so be patient with us.
 I am going with a little different look on this one. I wanted to add soil on the side closest to the green to create a flashing (I'm thinking the would be right term to use). reason being the current design of the bunker has very limited visibility from the #18 fairway anywhere from the 250 to the 100 yard markers. If we simply rolled the sod down, then the bunker would not be visible. Once the flashing is complete I'll install a products that helps in stopping erosion. So after it rains the sand will not move down to the bottom. This material allows sand to bond to it which in turns helps in keeping sand in place.
 Back to the flashing area, or we could remove the mounds in front of the bunker. However my feeling is this would allow shots taken from the 200 yard and out area vulnerable to end up in the lake left of the green. The slight mounding in front of the traps cushions the impact from the shot and ends up putting your ball in the trap or general area.
 So I have chosen to simply just roll the sod down to the bottom of the trap on three sides and create a flashing on the fourth side, I hope that makes sense to you. All of this will help tremendously in keeping these bunkers up. Just keep a reminder; We are not re-doing the drainage, so after big rains the trap will still have water in it but no erosion. All we have to do is pump and rake.

Hazard Post

Well if any of you have played the course I have to think you've noticed the new hazard markers going in holes #4,5,6. After we finished clearing out all of the excess debre, we wanted to get the outline marked correctly.
 Many thanks to the MGA again for their support in supplying the pipe and paint.

#9 Greenside Bunker

 Many of you have noticed the massive renavation to the greenside bunker at hole #9. We had began with simply planning to roll the grass on the sides and do away with the walls around the edge of this trap some 20 inches deep.
 Once we finished with rolling the sod around the edges we discovered that we were some two feet below the ground elevation. therefore this bunker could be seen from the fairway anywhere.
 We then removed the sand, by the way 28 inches of sand was removed from this bunker. In fact we took all the sand from this bunker and moved it the two greenside traps on hole #13, three greenside traps on hole #8 and two greenside traps on hole #14.
 Once all the sand was removed we then had to add soil to the bottom and raise the entire bottom of the trap around two feet so we could make the trap visible from the fairway. Once we finished with adding the soil all the new drainage was installed. Then came the sand installed 6 inches deep, this should allow for a 4 inch depth of sand. Remember as the water hits the sand it will help pack it tight and in turn the height of sand decreases.
 We will now be moving on to hole number 18 greenside bunker left side.

#9 Green side bunker

 For any of you who played golf here at the club on Thursday and Friday (Nov 11th & 12th), you may have been able to witness some changes happening to the #9 greenside bunker on the left side. We are in the process of rolling the grass down to the bottom of the trap completely around the the bunker.
 This week we completed the first half of the bunker and the next week we'll be digging out the opposite side. So for all of you playing golf on Wednesday (Nov 17th), be aware of machinery at #9 green. We'll be renting a mini excavator to help in speeding up the digging time, we have a bunch of soil to remove.
 Once this process is finished with the mini excavator we then have to finish smoothing out the soil and then replant the sod.
 After this is completed I will then travel out to #9 fairway and see if the sand is visible from the fairway. If it's not, then we'll return to the trap and remove the sod on the end that is facing the fairway and remove the soil to help make the trap visible.