Another bunker renovation update

We continue to move forward on our bunker work. Although there have been some slow periods of progress, we are nearly complete on #14.

Waiting for sod has been our biggest challenge, as we discussed last week. However, 3 of 4 bunkers have now been sodded and the grass for the last bunker is on site and ready to be laid. We will get the last bunker wrapped up early this week.

This is another example of the sand build-up
around the edges of the bunker. The red line
to the right is where the bunker edge
was before we started working. The red line
to the left is where the original bunker edge
was constructed. 

Another view of the sand build-up.

Once all the grass is down, we will give the new sod a few days to root into the soil before we spread the bunker sand back out. This keeps the bunker as Ground Under Repair and minimizes the foot traffic on the new sod. It is especially important that golfers don’t attempt to climb up the steep face of the bunker because the new sod will not easily support the effort.

As we wait to reposition the sand on #14, we will head down #15 and begin moving sand and removing old sod on all the bunkers on #15. The process will be exactly the same and as the Grounds staff gets more comfortable with all the steps, it should be faster as well.

As a side note, our green deep tine aeration is currently scheduled for 11/18. This is something we added to our agronomic program several years ago and you can read more about it here.

Also, November thru February will have only one post each per month. Thank you 

Etiquette Reminder of the Month

Now that it is legal to leave the flag in for putting, please be extra conscious to not damage the lip of the cup when retrieving your ball.

Also, as part of a Golf Committee initiative to improve course etiquette, we have included links to videos teaching proper on course etiquette. Please take a moment to watch:

Ball Marks - How to properly repair

Bunker etiquette

See you on the course!

Joe

jvillegas@bwrc.org

Bunker renovation update

We have been working on the renovation of #14 bunkers for just under a week. The project has been moving along very good. Our first load of sod is coming as soon as possible, so some of the exposed soil will be covered.

Stripping away the old sod

Unfortunately, an issue that we will face this year that we have not faced in other bunker renovation projects, is the availability of sod. Normally, we have a sod supplier that is just down the road from us. We can have sod delivered, but we normally go pick it up ourselves, which saves a delivery fee. We also can get it quickly if needed. For example, say we finish our other work early and have time to do some sod work. We could call up the sod farm, order, and be back with some sod in less than an hour total.

A finished edge of the bunker. The
old sod and built up sand has been
removed.

This year, however, this local sod farm is out of sod for the season. Due to the extensive rain last year, their fields of sod for the upcoming years did not mature well. The field that they used this year is now empty and they don't want to sell immature turf. So they have stopped selling for the season. This means we have to order our sod from another supplier that we trust. But this supplier is on the eastern shore of Maryland. It takes much more coordination to get the sod here when we need it. We also try to split the delivery fee with someone else who wants sod around the same time as us, so only one truck has to come for both companies.

Removing the built up sand around the
edges of the bunker.

This arrangement works, but it may lead to exposed soil slightly longer than we would normally like. However, we will do our best to keep every step of the process as short as possible.

Thank you for your patience.

Also, November thru February will have only one post each per month. Thank you 

Etiquette Reminder of the Month

Now that it is legal to leave the flag in for putting, please be extra conscious to not damage the lip of the cup when retrieving your ball.

Also, as part of a Golf Committee initiative to improve course etiquette, we have included links to videos teaching proper on course etiquette. Please take a moment to watch:

Ball Marks - How to properly repair

Bunker etiquette

See you on the course!

Joe

jvillegas@bwrc.org

Bunker renovation preview

Features on a golf course have an expected life that they can last. Tees and greens can last many years. Fairways even longer. But bunkers’ expected life is much shorter because of the shifting sand, debris clogging drains, and creeping in of sod edges. Typically, we try to keep our bunker renovation on a 5-8 year timeline. This year (and actually started last week) we are renovating the bunkers on holes 14, 15, and 16.

The yellow paint line indicates how far out
from the bunker we will cut
and remove sod.

We will continue to post updates as the work progresses. This is a process we have already carried out on all the bunkers on holes 4-9. You can read specifically about the work on #7, starting with an overview here, and a recap with many pictures here.

The biggest issue for bunkers is the way that the sand gets into the sod edge and gradually the edge moves in closer to the middle of the bunker. The shape of the bunker can change as well as the overall size. There is also a pronounced build up of a lip immediately around the edge. These are all detrimental to the playability of the bunker and are the key factors to determining when a bunker needs to be redone.

At the bottom of the picture you can see
some tan Bermuda grass, just
inside the yellow line, that we will be able
to remove during the project.

Occasionally, the bunker sand in a particular bunker may also be so contaminated with finer particles that it no longer drains properly. The water gets hung up in this thicker material and sits in the bunker much longer than it should. This requires the total removal and replacement of the sand. Luckily, we don’t see this issue in any of the bunkers we are working on this year.

For this year's work, we will be removing the old sod around the bunkers. We then scrape away the built up sand and soil that was not originally part of the bunker shape and remove it.

Lastly, after we have re-established the proper edge of the bunkers, we put down new sod. With this new sod, we can remove poorly performing areas of green surround rough and replace with fresh, healthy turf, and remove patches of Bermuda grass. Some bunkers require

more sod to be laid around them than others, depending on how many other issues may surround a bunker.

This will be weeks-long project, with the bunkers we are currently working on being temporary Ground Under Repair. Thank you for your patience.

Also, November thru February will have only one post each per month. Thank you 

Etiquette Reminder of the Month

Now that it is legal to leave the flag in for putting, please be extra conscious to not damage the lip of the cup when retrieving your ball.

Also, as part of a Golf Committee initiative to improve course etiquette, we have included links to videos teaching proper on course etiquette. Please take a moment to watch:

Ball Marks - How to properly repair

Bunker etiquette

See you on the course!

Joe

jvillegas@bwrc.org

Drought

Notice the ring of brown grass around the tree.
From the base of the tree out past the drip line,
the tree roots are out-competing the grass roots
for water.

September was a very dry month. One of the driest over the last two years. It has been a while since we have discussed what happens when it is very dry.

At this time last year, we were discussing how wet it was. 2018 was a record year for rainfall throughout the area. Water was seeping out of the ground across the property. Our mowing schedules were all out of whack and we had several storms damage bunkers and the soccer complex.

While the ground water was certainly replenished by all that rain, the surface can dry out again. This is where we find ourselves right now. We would love to be able to store up rain from a wet time and use it in a dry time, but it doesn’t work this way. September was a time we could have used some extra rain. We finished 3” under our normal rain totals for the month.

One of the first things you can notice as the soil dries out, is the brown grass underneath trees. Tree roots compete with grass roots for the same water. Tree roots are larger, more extensive and more capable of extracting the water, so they win the battle. The result is drought stressed grass.

An example of how dry the soil is. The brown
lines veering off to the left is where the
old cart path used to be. It is visible
now because of how dry it is.

We also must heavily rely on our irrigation system when conditions are this dry. Our system is very capable, but any system would show inefficiencies when used this much. Having to irrigate as frequently as we have recently, overly wet and dry areas start to appear. Certain areas that have irrigation coverage from more than one sprinkler start to get soggy. We adjust how long certain sprinklers will be on, coordinate to only run one or another at any given time, and rotate through our irrigation programs, but problems still arise. Similarly, areas that receive poor coverage from sprinklers can also continue to be dry. To combat this, we will run the sprinklers that best impact the dry area for extra time, or multiple times in a day. But no irrigation system has coverage and consistency like rain.

We were extremely wet last year and now the pendulum has swung back in the other direction. We look forward to some upcoming showers and hope that we get out of the drastic weather shifts.

Etiquette Reminder of the Month

Now that it is legal to leave the flag in for put

ting, please be extra conscious to not damage the lip of

the cup when retrieving your ball.

Also, as part of a Golf Committee initiative to improve course etiquette, we have included links to videos teaching proper on course etiquette. Please take a moment to watch:

Ball Marks - How to properly repair

Bunker etiquette

See you on the course!

Joe

jvillegas@bwrc.org