Bunker restoration

We are trying a bunker restoration on the greenside bunkers on hole #11 at Huron Hills. The sides of the bunkers were very steep between the sand and the green. This area was starting to collapse from lack of support. We are going to soften the slope while shrinking the bunker size slightly. We would also like make the bunker have a flatter bottom so the sand does not wash out after heavy rains. We are starting on the left hand bunker. We hope that it will be the easier of the two bunkers, which will allow us to perfect out technique before trying trickier projects.

You can see how the edge has started to collapse. Over the years, this has expanded the bunker toward the green.

The boards allow us to form the new edge.

The slope has been taken down and used to fill in up to the boards.

Looking east, toward Huron Parkway.

The fill was covered with topsoil and raked out.

The bunker face will be sodded next week.

This slope will be easier to maintain.

July 2016 Weather Summary

Lack of precipitation is again at the top of the weather worries. The month of July had 10 days of rain but that rain only totaled 2.38 inches, with the highest daily total falling on the 30th. (0.70 inches) For the year, we have gotten 15.42 inches of rain, which is about 4.5 inches below normal. According to the U.S. Drought Monitor, we are abnormally dry in Ann Arbor, but other parts of Southeastern Michigan have lapsed into a moderate drought. Ann Arbor is not included in this area due to a couple of nice rainfall events in the early spring. There were 10 days with at least a trace of rain and seven with over a tenth of an inch. There were also only seven rain "events," as three times the rain started before midnight and continued into the morning. The weather station records the rainfall for each day, starting at 12:01 AM, thus that number can sometimes be inflated.

The high temperature for the month of July was 93.0 degrees, on July 23rd. There were 3 days were the high temperature got above 90, bringing the total for the year to 5. Each of the last two years had only one day above 90 each. I should note that this is not what the TV weather people think. The official weather for Detroit is taken at Metro Airport. The golf course is away for all of the buildings and concrete. The grass and trees help moderate the temperatures and keep those high temps lower than official. The low temperature for the month was 49.0 degrees (July 2nd.)  The average temperature for the month was 73.8 degrees.

The average windspeed for the month was 1.6 mph. The highest sustained windspeed was 32 mph, on the 21st.