It has been a tumultuous couple of weeks! The crew has a little competition going on to see who works the least amount of hours in one week. Last week's winner came in with mid 60's on the time card. Today when I got home, I didn't even take my clothes off before showering I was so dirty, just turned on the water and stood there trying to rinse off a couple pounds of dirt from my cloths before it got into the washing machine....and I was the cleanest one on the crew. I don't want to make it seem all bad. The crew and I are having a great time, it's just at the hardest part and seems like when we see light at the end of the tunnel, it's another train coming at us. Yet, when we feel a little over whelmed we cruise the first 6 holes, see what we have accomplished, grin a sly grin of achievement, and then go get back in the hole we were working in.
A quick update on the construction before we start with the pics...
*all drainage is in on the entire course except 1,2, & the range and working well. We had 4" of rain in two days and had no standing water
*all shaping on the course is done except a few targets on the range
*all earth work is 99% complete
On with the show, so here we go
The grass on 6,7,& 8 is at about 60% coverage in a month. Prior to mowing though, we drag this 5 ton roller around to smooth out all of the creases, and smoosh down any bumps.
We will start mowing everything at 3/4" and when we have coverage, we will let the roughs grow up to 1.5" and lower the fairways and tees to 1/2"
On the flip side of ready to mow, here's a pic of 18 from the Gold tees right after planting
Here's a pic of a boulder the size of a cart that was pulled out of 18 that was about 3 inches below the soil. Good thing we found it now.
Remember all of the lake enhancements to the lake on 3 tee / 4 green last posting? Here is the new view behind 4 green looking at 5
Here's the view from 4 green looking at 3 tee
If you think that's amazing, here is the view from the new white tee on 13. When this fills in, I wanted it to look like an everglades river of grass.
Plans are moving forward with the new putting green. Here the new look from the big tree behind the clubhouse to the range
Here's the new green roughed in. The plan is to have the green's collar the same height as the white tee on #1 and kind of blend into the tee so it can all be cut as one area the same height. The back of the tee will look like it wraps around the putting green. It should be pretty unique and visually will tie the green into the "starting complex" very well.
Remember the huge grass area between 14 tees and 18 green? Here's what it looks like now. We used this area to generate dirt, as well as dramatically enhanced the view from 14 tee and coming into the finishing green.
Here's the before on 16 tee
Here's how it turned out. From the new back tee, its one hell of a hole!! Plans are in the works to bury the power wire so the view will be unimpeded.
Same tee, looking down the hole
Here are the old tees on 4...now you see them, well part of them
Now you don't
Part of the project was to get rid of the old well that was next to #1 red tees. Here the contractor is pulling out the pump part that was down in the well. He had to raise it up, put a collar on it so it wouldn't fall back into the well, and then cut it off 3 times. The well "box" and old pump is officially gone.
When the contractor got to the range and started shaping it, we still needed dirt. Knowing how dry Mary's Pond gets, the project team decided to have it enhanced a little. We were able to dig it down another 5-6 feet and enlarge the pond a little bit, taking it all the way to the cart path.
Even after digging out Mary's Pond, we still needed a bit more dirt. Here's a pic of the area on the left of the cart path as you drive up to #2 green. The new littoral generated just enough dirt to finish out our fill requirements.
Again, sorry for the delay. Promise to not forget the memory card again.
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