The bunker renovation project is moving along. We have filled several bunkers with sand and we continue to move forward. We purchased the sand from Ruby Specialty Sands based in Port Huron MI. We have had to do several additional things in order to make this renovation successful; we've added additional drain lines and increased the size of the bunkers in order to access the existing drainage. With bunkers shrinking in size over time we have found that a lot of the drain tile is under the grass and old sand. This week we are hoping to get several more bunkers ready. We have currently filled the greenside bunkers on holes #1, #4, #10, #11, #12, #13, #14, #15, #16 and #17. The greensside bunkers on hole #2 are going to be turned into grass bunkers and we hope to have those sodded by next weekend. E and M Golf construction was brought in to help us with hole #13 as those particular bunkers had several drainage issues. E and M is going to continue helping us with holes 6, 7 and 8. Below are some pictures of this work.
Also, we have aerated all of the greens. The aeration process is something that nobody likes (including the ground staff). However, I am happy to report that we are done pulling cores on greens. Last fall we used a 5/8" solid tine and we found that this type of aeration had many additional benefits compared to core aeration. With proven research and soil samples to support this type of aeration we have found that healing is much quicker than core aeration, and you do not need an army of employees to clean up all the cores. The one thing we have noticed with this type of aeration is that a lot more sand is required to fill the holes (and getting the holes filled is extremely important). I have also added some photos of this type of aeration; the last two photos are what the greens look like a couple of days later.
