October 17, 2 weeks to go

It has been more fine tuning for the golf course this week. We are still working on mulching, drainage, defining fairway cuts, compacting bunkers, and all sorts of stuff.

Here the staff is running a compacting plate tamper in the bunkers. We are trying our best to compact the bunkers as much as possible to avoid the "fired egg" lie.


After compacting the sand, we run one of our new sand rakes through the bunker to smooth out the surface.


Drainage work contines. Here we are installing some extra drainage into the road side swale by #9 green.


Casey is checking the grade to make sure it will drain properly


And the proof is in the pudding....


We have been very busy finishing up all the little bit of sodding around drainage basins that held water, trying to get everything perfect for opening.


This is not one of those crazy murals you stare at until your eys go out of focus and then all of the sudden a space ship pops out from the back ground. These are all of the yardage tags for the sprinklers. We are going to mark the heads between 50 and 230-ish yards.


Establishing the perimeter cut of the fairways is a difficult ordeal. As you can see here, I moved the line in a little bit more to get around the drain basin a little better. We have to repaint the cut line a couple times a week, sometimes adjusting the line so we get the perfect contour, until the roughs are thick enough to have a very distinguished differential.


Part of the preperation process is smoothing the ground so there are no sharp creases. A great way to do this is to aerify. We have already done the greens a few week ago, and now we are doing the collars and approaches. After aerification, we will roll the areas to really "iron out" the wrinkles.


Here is pic of the new sign landscaping after having the area mulched, flowers go in on Mon Oct 19th. The grasses that were planted are just plug size, and need some time to mature. When they fill out to their mature size the area will be solid with native grasses.


Just a reminder for those of you that are in Naples, be sure to sign up for the last "offical" tour of the golf course on October 27th. Come join your friends on a guided tour and see the course, get all your questions and curiosities answered, and then stay for dinner. We look forward to seeing you and sharing your enthusiasm for the new course. It's absolutely spectacular!!!