Welcome to the Jungle!

 We have begun clearing tree-lines around the course to bring a cleaner look to Rivercrest as well as increasing the turf health surrounding these areas.  The crew have been hacking, slicing, raking away the underbrush between holes 11 and 12, 10 green, 10 fairway end, and 9 gold tee. The end of 10 fairway was cleared so that the entire fairway could be seen from the black tees. This not only allows us to utilize the entire black tee, but allows better airflow to the bottom corner of the fairway which has been difficult to maintain.

Thick underbrush along 12 Approach.

Finished look.

 

Even without the leaves 10 green is barely visible.

The guys tearing into the jungle.

Half way there.

Cleared and ready for fine fescue seed.

First look from 10 Black Tees.

Removing underbrush and dead trees.

Complete view from the tee.

Increased airflow to lower portion of the fairway.

Bunker Rehab

One of my main goals this fall and off season is to rehabilitate the bunkers. The bunkers will be depth checked, re-edged, and any contamination within the bunker removed and refilled with fresh sand. One other issue we are addressing is the bunker faces. As the years pass, the green side bunkers will have a tremendous amount of sand splashed onto the grass faces. Many of the bunkers that are southern facing can begin to show decline during the summer as the sand beneath the grass will heat up much faster than the soil. The green side bunker on number 1 poses more challenges due to its southern facing banks (rapid heat up)as well as reduced airflow from the wood-line to the left. After removing the sod from #1 almost 5" of sand was uncovered and scraped away. Once the new sod becomes established we should see much better results for years to come.

Decline due to excessive sand build up coupled with a south facing slope.

Stripping away years of build up.

Re-sodding the face after proper soil amendments were applied.

Finished product!

Face-lift for #15 Bunker

Another of our fall/winter projects is the green side bunker on # 15. This was originally a small pot bunker with sod walls and very little room for a back-swing. We decided to renovate this bunker by raising the height of the floor 2 feet and slightly increasing the overall dimensions. This will allow golfers an unimpeded swing an eliminate the need for a sideways shot.

2 feet of drain pipe added to raise the height.

Soil added and reshaped.

Final hand work and edging before we plate tamped the floor.

New drain installed.

Stapling and gluing down the bunker liner.

15 green side completed!