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.

#6 approach

We have converted part of the approach on #6 to zoysia this last week.  We thought an approach that we can mow down to collar height (.5 inches) will have greater playability then the 2 inch rough we had before.  It will also look nice from the tee.  We stripped all of the cool-season sod off and used to patch other areas on the golf course.  The zoysia all came from our nursery.

 

Cool season sod stripped clean.

Different view of prepared ground.

Finished product with zoysia in place.

Annual Flowers

This last week we got our annual flowers planted in the flower beds.  We are lucky to get a large amount of flowers from the cities greenhouse to help spruce up the course.  Here are just a few pictures of some of the flowers.

Truck and trailer full of flowers



Flower bed next to 13 tee.



Flower bed by 15 tee.

Storm Damage

Last nights storm caused a few trees to come down and some larger limbs.  All in all, I think we did alright considering how strong some of the winds were.  We will have most of the cleanup done today.  Below is a couple of pictures taken this morning as the cleanup began.

The largest tree to fall between 18 and 10.

This tree luckily fell the opposite direction of our irrigation control box.

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. 

Greens Aerification

Aerification.  The process the golf course superintendent loves and every golfer hates.  Most courses around town are completing greens aerification about this time and Swope is no different.  We wrapped ours up on Monday afternoon with very few hiccups.  I'm hoping this year we will have a shorter healing period than last year.  This is partly due to the great rain we received Tuesday night into Wednesday, and the use of a slightly smaller tine then last year.  We opted to use a smaller tine but more of them.  Instead of the aerifier having 24 large tines, we had 30 tines of a smaller size.  Last year we never had a nice, soaking rain post aerification.  This rain helps to flush the greens of built up sodium from our irrigation water and promote a flush of growth.  The cool nights forecasted will slow the growth somewhat, but by the weekend we are hoping for warmer temperatures.  Hopefully, in a week to ten days the greens are rolling back to normal. 

We are within one month of hosting the Kansas City Match Play Championship and have lots of work to do.  There are a few bunker projects and a few tees to resurface that we would like to accomplish before the tournament.  With the grass popping out of the ground, we will have to start focusing on more mowing.  With heavy downpours, the course gets extremely wet making it difficult to stay on top of the rough.  Be sure to bring a few extra golf balls because it can get pretty hairy out there!