Wednesday 28th November.
Work commenced this week on the reconstruction of the 8th green and it's complex.
Turf was removed from a portion of the 8th fairway and stored for re-laying once final shaping is completed.
The turf on the 8th green was removed and disposed of so as to avoid contaminating the new soil with the weed bank of Poa annua (wintergrass) that has accumulated over the years.
The whole site was then rotary hoed to break up soil layering, green site relocated and shaping of subgrade commenced.
Once final position and shape of the putting surface is achieved, a new irrigation ring main will be installed to service the new green and then sand will be imported for the putting surface from an offsite sand pit and final levels completed.
Work will then turn to the shaping and positioning of surrounds, bunkers and fairway approach before installation of irrigation stations to service these areas.
The final stage will obviously be the grassing of the site and the grow-in stage.

Harvesting of turf from fairway approach.

 

Turf cutting and removal of old putting surface with contamination of Poa annua seed.

Rotary-hoeing of complete construction site to break up soil layering.

 

Bulk earthmoving to find clean sand for construction and relocation of features.

 

Shaping and preparing sub-grade of putting surface to create character and fall in the putting surface.

 

 

Saturday 10th November 2012
Work will commence on the reconstruction of the 8th green and it's related features on Monday 26th November. At this time the current 9th hole will be broken into 2 temporary holes while the 8th hole is out of play.
The temporary 8th hole will be a Par 3 measuring 140m and be played from the existing 9th tee to a temporary green on the 9th fairway. The 9th hole will then play as a par 4, 330m hole and members will play from a temporary tee on the 9th fairway to the 9th green.
Once complete the normal 8th hole will measure approx 155-160m in length which is about 10-15 metres longer than is current. There are restrictions on marking this hole longer as this would involve the removal of a significant amount of both planted and native vegetation that currently exists at the rear of the green. If this vegetation was removed it may reduce the safety margin that exists now and make players on the 8th green vulnerable from play on the 12th hole.
Every effort will be made to keep this disruption to the minimum from a time viewpoint but this is a significant project and as such will take a significant amount of man hours to complete.
I will keep you all updated on the progress of the project through this blog with photos and comments.
We thank all members for their understanding.