Course Changes

At Leslie, we have changed the fairway on #11. A couple of years ago, we put a cart path that crosses the fairway in front of the green. It used to be fairway right up to the path. Last month, we cut out some of the fairway and laid in rough sod.

This video was taken in February. It is hard to see, but the path cuts across the fairway.

This video was taken in May, after the bluegrass sod has been placed and the fairway was re-shaped.

This picture is taken from above the green on #11 looking back toward the fairway.

At Huron, we began to lower and enlarge the 14th tee last fall. We seeded it this spring.

This was taken April 25th, one week after seeding.

May 2nd

May 10th

May 16th

May 25th.

Next week, we will begin mowing the tee. Hopefully, it will be fully open in a few more weeks.

Restoration

The fall of the year is a great time to grow grass. This is a good thing, because we need to do some restoration of some areas, that for one reason or another, do not have grass on them.

During the senior tournament, we had a hydraulic oil leak on #1 green at Leslie Park. This resulted in three and a half lines of dead grass spanning the width of the green.

Dead grass.

We took some sod from the practice green to repair the area.

One line has been replaced.

Right before the City Championship in July, we also had a hydraulic leak on #5 fairway.

After a month, you can hardly see the area we replaced the damaged grass.

The area near the front of #4 fairway where we took the sod to replace #5. The bentgrass is growing in nicely, for the most part.

You might wonder why we took sod out of one place to put it in another. In this case, the extreme slope on #5 would have been very difficult to get grass to germinate on, without the bare soil eroding away. Taking it from #4, which is not a landing area but is pretty flat, allows me to control the soil moisture more easily.

This hydraulic leak on #3 is in a flatter area. This will probably be cut out with a sod cutter and seeded.

The end of the cart path on #9 got beaten down from cart traffic. It got some top soil and seed. It also was roped off to let the seed germinate.

The end of #4 cart path got a similar treatment.

The end of #8 path was very sandy and rocky. The top soil was added and then roto-tilled to make a better root zone.

The end of #3 was roto-tilled to loosen the soil before adding top soil and seed.

This area near #16 green has never recovered from the Traver Creek project. Hopefully, this time the grass will take.

Hydraulic Leak

On Monday, June 17th, our greens mower suffered a hydraulic leak in one of the hoses that run the cutting units. This happened on #1 green. Leslie Park uses a hydraulic oil that is not petroleum based. This makes the chance of a hydraulic leak killing the grass a little smaller, but often the culprit is the heat from the oil as much as the oil itself.

Since the leak happened on #1 green and the morning was relatively cool, I had hoped that the grass would recover from the leak. This past weekend, I determined that the grass was damaged enough to replace it with sod from the practice green.

Here is the leak. Unfortunately, it was right in the middle of the green, lined up with the fairway.

The leak a couple of days latter.

We used a sod cutter to run a strip right over the leak.

Sod is rolled up from the practice green and ready to be transferred to #1.

We are half done with laying the strip of new sod down. You can see the sand we put down under the sod to help level the new sod to the playing surface.

Almost done with the sod. We put sand down along the seams to fill and true the surface. This was then brushed into the turf.

Ready for play.

The sod strip three days latter. Slightly different fertility levels between the practice green and #1 green account for the difference in color. That will be rectified when we next fertilize.

Substantial Completion of the Traver Creek Project

With the laying of the sod on #10 fairway and tee, as well as the seeding of the remaining areas of rough, substantial completion of the Traver Creek Project has been reached. Substantial completion does not include the cart paths that need to be replaced, the spoil pile to the west of #14 tee and the irrigation system (which has some kinks to be worked out.)

#10 tee ready for sod.

Bentgrass sod being delivered and rolled out on #10 tee.

The tee is taking shape.

After the bentgrass sod was laid out on the tee, the contractors went to work on the bentgrass in the fairway on the front half of the fairway. This area was raised about a foot in order to facilitate drainage. They then put down bluegrass sod around the tee. This is the predominate grass type in our rough. In the next couple of days, the contractors were able to finish grading and seeded everything. Now it will need some time for the grass to germinate and grow.

I am hopeful that this tee and fairway will be open in a couple of weeks, although it may be longer before carts are allowed onto the new fairway section.

Traver Creek Project Update #11

Anderson-Fischer brought some of the bentgrass sod for the fairways early last week.

The skid-steer with the attachment for laying big roll sod. Big roll sod is 30 inches wide and 100 feet long as opposed to the usual 18 inches wide by about 3 feet long.

The guys pulling the sod tight against the last roll on #14 fairway.

A short video demonstrating the process.

Rolls of sod waiting in the staging area.

As soon as the sod was laid out, we needed to get water on it. It is still dormant (hence the brown color) but water and warm temperatures should help to bring it out.

#11 fairway. Note how wide and flat the landing area is now.

#11 from the green. The areas that are bare soil now will be rough and will be seeded later.

The area between the north pond and Traver Road was hydroseeded with native prairie plants.

This blueish area on #12 was hydroseeded with a rough mix. The straw mulch blankets were put down after seeding with native wetland plants.