Bunker Rebuild on #4

These are some pictures of our current project of rebuilding the bunker on #4.  All of the old sand has been removed and we are rebuilding portions of the lip towards the green. We should have sand replaced and some sod installed sometime next week.

Two Bunker Renovations on #6

The crew has been at it again with a couple bunker renovations on #6.  A few posts ago, I showed some pictures of the renovation we did to the back left bunker.  This post is about the other two bunkers we completed. 

 The above picture shows some of what we were up against with the renovation.  The bunker floor on this end was lined with large rocks.  The left side of the photo shows some of the rocks we removed. 

We added a couple sections of drainage lines to help catch some of the water coming off the hill a little quicker.

This is the same area with all new tile and pea gravel added for drainage.

 

Here is the completed bunker renovation with all new sand.

The above photo shows the back right bunker after old sand and drainage had been removed and new drain tile and pea gravel added.

This is the completed bunker on the back right of #6.

Number 6 has had quite a face lift this year.  We added a zoysia approach during the summer and have renovated all three bunkers in the last month.  With all that work, it still doesn't make the green any easier to hit.

For the year, we have now renovated a total of 8 bunkers.  I believe this is the most we have been able to do in a single year over the last six years.  My hope is to continue renovating at least a couple over the winter months.  It will be tough to do when we are down to just myself and my assistant for a crew. 

#6 Bunker and Course Conditions

The following are pictures of the back left bunker on number 6 that we completed renovation of last Friday. 

 

 

 

 

So far this year the summer weather has been fairly kind to us.  We have had a decent amount of rain and very cool temperatures in late July and early August.  As we speak, we are beginning our hottest week of the year with temperatures forecasted in the mid 90's until Labor Day.  The course is currently in great shape for this time of year.  Mowing is usually very slow this time of year, but the grass has continued to grow vigorously for much of August.  We hope after this string of 90 degree days that Fall will be quickly approaching with cooler temperatures.

15 Bunker Renovation

Recently we completed another bunker renovation on the golf course.  The bunker on the right side of 15 green has been completely rebuilt.  This bunkers playability and aesthetic quality has lacked as of late so we reconstructed it from the bottom up.  The pictures below illustrate some of the work that was done.  We began by stripping sod with the sod cutter from around the bunker.  It then needed all of the old contaminated sand and drainage shelled out.  The second picture shows our use of drainage tile to make a form for the new edges of the bunker on the greenside.  Over time, rainstorms and damage from golfers walking out of the high side of the bunker had caused the lip to cave.  New topsoil was brought in and compacted behind the drain tile.  This tile will eventually be removed once the new sod has been able to knit in, and the soil firms up.  The last two pictures show the completed bunkers with new sand and zoysia sod ringing the entire bunker.



After the sod around the bunker and all sod was removed.



Drain tile that was used as a form for the new lips of the bunker.

 

Completed bunker with very little flash left on the face.



View looking towards the green.  The tile used for the new lips is barely visible.

16 Bunker Complete

Yesterday we completed the renovation of 16 bunker.  We watered the sand heavily to help firm it up.  The sod on the face is still knitting in so please do not walk up the face. 

I also took this picture this morning as a storm was moving in.  Thankfully, we only had a few sprinkles.  The course is still trying to dry out from previous rain events.

16 Bunker Rebuild

We are getting closer to completing our renovation of the right greenside bunker on number 16.  We just finished all of the sod work today.  The face of the bunker had to be reconstructed due to years of washouts corroding the face.  The new sand and drainage has yet to be completed, but will be finished early next week. 

#14 Bunker Renovation

This week we completed another conversion of a sand bunker into a grass bunker.  The bunker on #14 was another one that was in need of repair to remain playable.  We decided to grass in the bunker because of its location and susceptibility to washouts after heavy rain events.  As you can see in the picture below, the bunker needed lots of work to return to playable after a couple inches of rain.

Heavy washout with underlying rock exposed.

We started by removing all of the material in the bunker and stripping off the surrounding grass on the face and edges.  Then we began using 20 yards of topsoil to shape the bunker into the way we wanted it to look when finished.  We also added two drainage boxes to catch water coming in during rain events.  The last step was sodding the base of the bunker with tall fescue and the face of the bunker with zoysia.  We did this because the tall fescue will grow a little taller, and will still penalize a shot that ends up in the grass bunker.  The area on the slope of the green was already zoysia so we wanted to continue this along the face.  Hopefully the weather does not turn to hot so the fescue can grow in within a couple weeks.

After sand and grass was removed.

Soil being added to add shape to the bunker.

Soil work almost completed.

After sod work was completed.

#5 and #12 Bunker Renovations

If you are a regular at Swope Memorial, you have probably seen our crew renovating a bunker from time to time.  In the last four years, we have renovated roughly 20 bunkers.  Some of them already need to have sand replaced again.  With close to 50 bunkers on the course, the bunkers become a time consuming challenge for a staff the size of ours.  The recent rains have caused our crew to spend the better part of the morning pumping water out of bunkers that do not drain properly and preparing them for play. 

In the last two months or so, we have converted two of these bunkers from sand into grass.  Here are a few of the before pictures when we were just starting to remove the old contaminated sand.

#5 Fairway Bunker

#12 Greenside Bunker

#12 Greenside Bunker after all the contaminated sand was removed and drain tile exposed.

 Both bunkers were in dire need of repair.  The bunker on #5 was surrounded by trees, had a face to steep to keep sand pushed up on, and was not appealing to the eye.  The greenside bunker on #12 was much the same.  Over time, the face of the bunker washed out more and more with every rain event leaving little choice but to take action.

After all of the sand was removed from the bunker, we stripped off all the surrounding sod so we could begin shaping.  Then we shaved off the soil from the edges to create a gradual slope into the bottom.  Lots of pulverized soil had to be brought in to shape #12.


Sod stripped off the perimeter of #12 and edges shaved down

#12 shaped with pulverized soil

The bunker on #5 took lots of tilling with the tractor mounted tiller.  We lowered the mound that surround the bunker substantially to allow our mower to traverse up and down once we were done.

Sod stripped off the perimeter of #5

#5 after lowering the face of the bunker

Once all of the reshaping and dirt work was finished, we ordered our sod and had them finished the next day.  Our goal with this project was to make these areas more maintenance friendly and appealing to the golfer.  The bunker on #12 will still be somewhat of a hazard because we plan to let it grow a little longer so make sure to bail out right!  It will be a couple of weeks until the sod has a chance to knit down and we will open them back up for play.  Until then, they need to be played as ground under repair.


#12 Completed

#5 Completed