Each fall we try to finish one big project based on customer comments, feedback and what is good for the golf course. I can tell you now next year will be a redo of 27 green. We plan to strip the sod off the back half and lower the huge mound to create more cupping area and with luck and good weather put the sod back. We will also add some smaller mounds and new trees to separate the green from the clubhouse and driveway. The redo of 27 was not done this year because the WSGA (Wisconsin State Golf Association) asked us not to due to the State Best Ball being played at Rolling Meadows next spring.
But this year we started with a goal to build a chipping green near the putting green to give customers a great option for practicing their short game. The area needed to be raised and have some mounds around it so we secured a large amount of free fill for the project from a building addition down the road. Unfortunately the free clay fill turned out to be mainly concrete and blacktop so we had to turn it down.
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| The chipping green site right of the putting green. |
Our second option for the needed material was to re-construct the nearby 10th tee as per the master plan drawn in 1993 but not done during the expansion to 27 holes. The project takes the old "runway" type tee and separates it into 4 tees while moving it right to line up with the fairway. The original tee was leftover from the old course and was set up to cause golfers to hit into the 9th fairway because the original first hole played up the current 9th hole and ended near the current 2nd fairway. We choose the 10th tee because it was close, had the extra material we needed, was un-level and one of four tees not redone during the expansion to 27 holes or since then. (5, 19, 24, 25 are the others)
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| The new tees line up with the hole the way it was designed. |
The 10th tee project will give us enough material to start the chipping green project but will probably not have enough for the mounding. We did hire a bulldozer to shape the tees and green but the rest of the work is done in house.
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| The staff removing excess soil from 10 tee to take to the chipping green. |
The building of a quality chipping green will require a lot of in-house work. First the base of the green is built to match the final grade which in this case the green will have 2' of slope from back to front. Then a 7" lip of clay/soil mix will be built around the green followed by 3" of topsoil. The green will then look like a 10" pond. Drainage will be installed in the green and through the sand bunker. Then irrigation will be installed on the outside of the green. The 10" "pond" or green-site will be filled with a 2" layer of clear pea stone and a 8" layer sand/peatmoss mix.
It is our goal to get the tee and tee surrounds and green surrounds built and dormant-seeded this fall and covered with straw blanket and seed the green in the spring. All of this is weather dependent of course. Under normal conditions the areas should be open in mid summer.
We also hope to construct a new red/silver tee on hole 17 to replace the current tee that is too small and is having problems with root encroachment under the tee causing a dangerous situation if the tee markers are placed in the wrong place.
This weekends rain will slow the project down a couple days but was very needed to settle the tees and green-site along with filling the ponds and marshes. This was the first time in 16 years the marsh on holes 13/14 were empty so we could mow them.
Feel free to contact us with any suggestions you have for future projects we can consider. Items on our list of possible projects include.
- Drain hole 9 pond and bring the bank back to the original design.
- Level the back of 27 green. (Scheduled for 2013)
- Re-build 19 tee to master plan.
- Ease the approach to 25 green or enlarge 25 green.
- Re-build 7 fairway to allow for easier second shots over the marsh.
