We are very appreciative of the many favorable comments regarding the golf course during all of the tournaments. The crew worked very hard to bring you the best conditions possible. As with any golf course, we will always have areas to improve on and we work hard to identify them and make changes for the better. We appreciate any and all feed back, it really does help in this process, thank you.
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| A view up #10 from #18 green prior to the Men's MGI |
We have been working hard to get the bunker edges and sand distribution in the bunkers in good condition. Some have received some new sand, but most just need the sand moved around a bit. We will continue to address problem areas as we continue to improve our raking and mowing techniques.
The following photo was taken on #10 fairway bunker. You can see how the grass edges are coming in nicely.
Irrigation Improvements
As many of you may have noticed we recently had another irrigation blow out on #15 in the front bunker. After many attempts to correct the problem,we decided it would be best to eliminate the lateral line from the bunker and move it around in front of the bunker. We think that because this area is one of the lowest areas of the golf course we may be experiencing what is known as hammering. As pressure fluctuates in a system it can create a hammering effect that can cause undue pressure in specific areas, which in turn can cause pipes and fittings to fail, especially with aging systems such as ours where pipe is 25 years old.
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| #15 Irrigation repair |
We've also recently repaired some sprinkler heads on #4 and #6. As the irrigation system ages, we have been experiencing some underground wiring issues that has prevented many sprinkler heads from working on the automatic system at night. When this happens the sprinklers have to be turned on by hand from a selector located at the head itself. This can become quite time consuming for the irrigation staff which has to spend time away from other areas that may need attention. We've tried using wire location equipment with mixed results and often times we end up chasing wire all over the place wasting time. We only spent approximately an hour and half to complete each fix. On this day we were able to fix five heads. We haven't given up on wire location equipment as we have tested some good ones and will be looking at securing something in the near future. It's not the complete answer, but will help with these kinds of problems and other wiring issues we face from time to time. As time allows we hope to repair five or six more heads with similar problems. Normally we wouldn't attempt something like this during the middle of the summer, but with the recent rains it has allowed us a window of time to get it done without disrupting our normal schedule of maintenance.
The following photos show what is involved in correcting the problem. We basically are tapping into a working sprinkler head nearby that can handle another head on the same station during the watering cycle.
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| Getting ready to sod cut from one head to another |
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| With sod removed Irrigation Tech Jeff Ellison is digging the trench at about 8 inches in depth so that when we aerify this area the tines will not damage the wires. |
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| Assistant Supt Jason Kelly and Irrigation Tech Frank Pablo make the necessary connections and place the new wire in the trench |
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| Once the trench is filled the sod is replaced |
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| In a few days this area will be as good as new. |
