After a week off for the holidays, the guys were ready to get back at it!
One of the challenges with an old golf course compared to that of a new golf course is the constant need to update, replace or improve aging infrastructure. Over the last few years, we've made an effort to replace many of the old, rusted drainage culverts below the golf course. This 12" pipe on #15 has been in poor shape for a while and as it rusts through, the ground cavitates, causing sinkholes. In this case, the edge of the cart path is even sluffing off. Safety issues like this can be dangerous for walkers and golfers. We started by removing all of the rock boulders that lined the creek to expose the rusted pipe. We are cutting the cart path and then locating the 12" pipe on the fairway side of the path. Rather than replace the whole pipe now, which wasn't approved in our budget, we are going to sleeve the end of the 12" pipe into a plastic 15" pipe. This way, we can restack to rock and repair the cart path. In the future, we can replace this entire culvert by simply tying on to the new 20 foot stick of 15" pipe without have to disrupt the cart path and rock headwall a second time.
Above, our irrigation team got through the 5th hole without hitting any substantial rock! I thought for sure that rock would have been an issue on the hillside leading up to the green.
A herd of deer made their way across the practice facility today.
Later this week, we'll be starting on two important drainage locations on the 15th hole. One is on the approach and the second is in the fairway, right where the cart path crosses the creek.
We continue to be focused with picking up aerification plugs on the back nine fairways. Mother Nature has not been kind to us with all the rain lately. It takes the golf course substantially longer to dry out this time of year compared to the other 3 seasons. We're doing the best we can given what we are working with.