Day 20 and 21 - Drainage and More Drainage

Well by now I think most of you who are following this blog know that the current priority for the project is the installation of the drain tile. We continue to move at a swift pace and are making tremendous progress. By the end of work tomorrow, we should only have the 1st and 17th greens to complete next week and all but the 7th, 14th, 6th, 17th and 1st greens will have the mix installed. Completing the installation of the drain tile and mix should be wrapped up Wednesday or Thursday of next week.

The irrigation component of the project has reached the half way point today and we anticipate completing 6 more greens next weeks. That would bring the total to 15 greens by the end of next week and leave only 3 greens to complete the week of August 9th.

What all this really means is that by the later stages of next week, we should be starting to do the "finish" work around the greens and may even begin to install the Bluegrass rough sod around the perimeters. This would mark the true beginning of putting the pieces of the puzzle back together.

One other item of note...Next week we intend to go into the 2nd green complex and finish everything, including the bunkers. From there we will complete the 3rd and 18th tees. With the work completed on 2nd green complex, 3rd tee, and 18th tee we can remove the existing haul road and begin the final shaping efforts on the new 17th hole.

Day 19 and 20 - The Final Third

As I write this post this morning, we have moved to the final third of the greens that need drainage and gravel installed. With only 1, 6-8, 14 and 17 remaining, we are in the final stages of installing the drain tile and gravel layer. By weeks end, we anticipate only having 2 greens remaining to install drainage on next week. This pace means that we will be shutting down the practice putting green on Monday August 2nd in order for the construction process to begin there.

The installation of the new rootzone mix will be rapid today! With four greens (#'s 9, 10, 11 and 13) ready for mix to installed, the contractor envisions a large effort today to get most, if not all, of those greens completed. Should they be successful in that attempt there will be 12 greens with mix installed. It appears that by some time mid to late next week all 18 greens on the course should be drained and have mix installed. At that point, we will be just waiting for the irrigation to be installed and the finish work to be done before sodding of the surrounds and seeding of the greens, approaches and fairways can begin.

The irrigation component of the project has moved to the 7th complex of the project. Completed to date are the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 15th, 16th and 18th complexes. The work continues this morning on green #5 and should move to green #12 sometime late in the day today. This means by the end of the week one-half of the greens will be completed from the irrigation stand point.

Please know that we will be holding another Member-Info session this evening at 5:30pm. At this meeting, I will outline the lengths of quality control procedures that we are engaged in to ensure this project is done right and that your investment in your club is protected.

Day 18 - Battling Mother Nature Again!!!

Could somebody please bring out the sun? Friday afternoon the course was belted again with another 1.5 inches of rain in as little as 30 minutes. The good news is the weather pattern appears to be breaking in our favor this week. There is a chance of rain Wednesday, but the the rest of the week looks high and dry.

During the planning stages for the project, the MacCurrach team developed both a "wet" and "dry" plan for construction in the event we experience weather like we have. With this extra planning we have managed only to lose about 10 hours of construction time even though we have received 4" of rain in the last 10 days.

With the rain from Friday night, Saturday presented an opportunity to begin some of the "detail" work of the project. We were also able to install drainage on the 9th green as it is always "high and dry". The detail work involved settling out the greensmix along the edges of the new greens using "jumping jack" packers and checking the depth of the rootzone by probing the actual depth of the mix. Below are some photos of these processes:



The process begins by back-filling behind the plastic liner to prevent the collapse of the liner during the packing step.



Next, the edge of the greens is packed using the "jumping jack" packers. Here you can see the MacCurrach staff working on the 12th green.



After the packing, this traditional mechanical bunker rake is used to level out the mix. Numerous times during this process the operator will get off the machine and check the depth of the mix with a metal probe marked at exactly 12 inches.

In the coming weeks, I will have extensive photos that demonstrate the length we will go through internally to verify the depth of the mix and check the contractors work. We promised to do this right and we will!!!

Day 16 and 17 - Drainage and Mix Continue

The drainage and mix train continues to roll through the course at great pace. We have now offically crossed the half way point with the installation of drainage and the mix will cross that point today - with Mother Nature's cooperation. Before the heavy rains came again yesterday, we had begun the drainage process on the 13th and 11th greens. These two greens mark the 10th and 11th greens to go through the drainage process. Having not yet completed three full weeks of the construction schedule, I could not be happier being where we are. Everything continues to point to a third week of August seeding date.

To Date:

Drainage Installed On: 2, 3, 4, 5, 12, 15, 16, and 18 (13 and 11 in process today)

Mix Installed On: 2, 3, 4, 12, 15, 16, 18, (#5 to be done today)

Subgrades: All approved by Tom Doak