Above, the rock curbing around the 11th tee box will keep this area in better shape, where carts notoriously get off the path.
On the 5th hole, we had a local grading contractor bring in a large excavator and remove all the rhododendron roots and trunks that were left after we cleared the bank before Christmas. You can see below, the material was short hauled back behind the 5th green, where it was dumped along Cobb Road. From here, it was loaded into a tandem style dump truck and taken off-site.
My main concern was erosion if we were to get a heavy winter rain event. Therefore, the whole area was raked smooth, even seeded and then covered it in 4,800 square feet of the straw matting you see in the photos. While the seed won't germinate anytime soon, it will ultimately come up in the spring. Birds will eat some of the seed as well and we'll probably end up going over the area a second time with Fine Fescue seed in the spring. This area is going to be a great improvement!
It's hard to explain or show just how steep this bank is!
My trusty sidekick, Teeter, is inspecting the drainage installation on #15. Once a week, he and I make time to spend about 2 hours together touring the golf course. It's time well spent for both of us and I always look forward to our time together each week. I always enjoy hearing stories about Highlands CC and how its evolved through the years.
Teeter gives this project 5 stars out of 5! 😀
The apple trees on #5 look a little sparse right now. I know this aggressive pruning job probably wont be well received by everyone, it was something that needed to be done. Both of these trees are in a serious state of decline. In fact, the center of both trunks are hollow and are being supported by a ring of wood that's 3" in diameter. By aggressively cutting these back and leaving the younger vegetative growth, we hope to encourage new growth that will allow us to enjoy these trees for a few more years.
Above, on #6, this rocker hammer attachment that fits on an excavator, has been sitting on the pallet it was delivered on, brand new. Now that we are through the toughest part of the golf course, I'm happy to say it's still sitting on the pallet, brand new! My biggest concern with the irrigation project was traversing the hillside on #5 fairway and #6 fairway. I though for sure we'd get into solid rock. While it did get rocky, the boulder size pieces continued to break apart and we were able to get all the main line and laterals installed without issue. Again, I really thought this area of the golf course would present a major challenge. We are fortunate with our soil conditions at HCC. Speaking with my friends at the other area clubs, they faced a lot of rock issues that make keeping a project on budget, difficult. Blasting rock can get very expensive and unfortunately is an unknown before a project like this starts.