Monday 24th December 2012

Much of the reconstruction work for the 8th green is now complete with the final turf going down last Friday 21st December and this is all now in the grow-in stage.

The turf on the putting surface itself is showing good growth and regular mowing is now underway. This surface will be topdressed for the first time very soon and this will help firm it up for play.

Some extra grass will be planted on the extremities of the construction site to blend turf to surrounding areas and this should develop fairly rapidly.

A light scarification of the older fairway turf on the approach soon, will encourage good recovery of this turf that had been stored for a couple of weeks and looks somewhat scarred.

Once turf on the surround has established itself well enough, the bunkers will receive their final shaping and have bunker sand placed in them.

All things going well, the anticipated opening of this hole should be mid February.

Friday 14th December

We have had a very productive week this week with the relaying of the 8th green and the commencement of turf laying on the approach and surround.

Next week the remaining turf on the surrounds and around bunkers will be completed and a irrigation station will be installed to water this surround.

All turfing should be completed by the end of next week and grow-in underway over the Xmas break.

The finished turfed green.

 

Approach to the green has been re-turfed with just the turfing of surround and bunkers required.

 

Wednesday 12th December.

Work has progressed well on the reconstruction of the 8th green complex. Harvested turf from fairway has been relayed and the irrigation stations to serve the approach area and green have been installed.

Final levelling on the green was completed earlier in the week and the laying of the putting surface started on Tuesday. The laying of the green will be completed by Wednesday.

Thursday will see the installation of another irrigation station around the back and sides of the complex to service the surround areas and we shall also commence the returfing of the remainder of the approach and surrounds. As this is quite a large area, I am expecting that this will go well into the middle of next week.

 

The relaying of turf on the approach and operation of new irrigation station.

 

 

The laying of turf on the putting surface using turf grown on our bentgrass nursery for the past 9 months.

 

Thursday 6th December.

Work is progressing well with the reconstruction of the 8th green complex. Final shaping of the green and bunkering as well as the approach area is almost complete. A ring main to service the green and an irrigation station to service the approach have been completed and work will commence very soon on the re-grassing of the approach area. Turfing of the green will most likely start around next Tuesday 12th December.

Shaped greenside bunker.

Installation of irrigation on approach area.

 

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.

This Wednesday 31st October greens are starting to recover nicely from renovation undertaken last week. Poor weather last week when the renovation was being conducted, made it difficult to incorporate topdressing sand. The result is that this sand has hung around on the surface a little longer than desirable, but this is improving now as growth increases and as we have been able to complete several brushings and waterings. Renovation fertiliser was applied last week and we are now seeing an increase in growth to the point where the greens will probably recieve their first mowing tomorrow, Thursday 1st November.