Golf Course Renovations Have Begun!

Tuesday, August 26, the first cutting of the collar on 11 for the greens expansion.

Coring out and hauling away the subgrade on 11.  We will be adding 10 inches of our greens mix to the expanded areas.

Here is an US Government aerial photo from 1949 showing the original size and shape of 11 and 16 green.

Day 1 by 4:00 on 11 Green.

Newly shaped greenside bunker on 11.

17 green in 1953 with 10 green to the left and 18 tee in the background.

17 green ready for greens mix to be added.

I know some soil scientists that would love this photo!  Rob Britton, the superintendent before me was topdressing greens with sand for 9 years, then add my 28 years of topdressing and this is our greens mix profile.

Wednesday 5:00 pm removing the approach and collar. 

Three green from the 1949 aerial.

Number 3 approach, green & collar expansion just like 11 and 17.

Wednesday, still day 2 of the project and they are already moving the removed collar on 17 green out to a fairway and approach expansion on the right just before the bunker.

Same area as the above photo, but looking the other way at the fairway and approach expansion on 17.

Up next, 2 and 10 green expansions. 

 

Tuesday, August 26 - Holes 11 and 17 are Closed

 

The inaugural meeting, Monday August 25 at 3:30.

Golf course construction starts tomorrow, holes 11 and 17 will be closed. Please follow the small flags to get to 12 tee and 18 tee. The extra two holes will be after you play #18, go to 10 then 9 again.

We will have 11 people from the George Lay Construction crew on site at 7:30 am. They have their equipment staged left of hole 6 and are excited to get to work on the Gem on the Hill. They will be working 10-12 hour days, six days a week. Their day off will be Sundays pending the weather.

This week they will be stripping sod off of the collars, stripping the sod for the expanded putting surfaces, coring out the soil around the greens, adding new greens mix, leveling the tees, expanding fairways, expanding the bunkers, moving irrigation heads and the list goes on and on!

Communications during the project will be via email, the top of the tee sheet and my blog. The 2025 Golf Course Improvement Plan has arrived and will be on overdrive from here on out!

Steve Hammon 

GCIP Update - Sunday August 24

Click on this link and you will be redirected to the latest GCIP update video from me.

https://youtu.be/Yb5qbxjexCQ?feature=shared

Week of August 18 * Construction equipment arriving on site

Monday 8/25  * All 18 holes open

                       * Construction crew travel day from Pennsylvania 

                       * Pre-construction planning meeting for holes 3,11,17

                       * PM member email announcing course routing 

Tuesday 8/26 * Construction begins 

Have You Stopped by the Secret Garden?

Have you stopped by the Secret Garden yet?  It's right next to the pool house and all of the landscape plants are absolutely at their peak right now.

All of the plantings have identification labels next to them for your education.  There are a few that I definitely want to buy and plant at home. 

The stone walkway was purchased at Blue Star Landscaping and the material in between them is called diamond dust. 

The butterfly bench, the peace sign and this iron tree really give the secret garden some character.

Love and peace!

Two of the three butterfly bushes around the bench were nibbled on by some local rabbits over the winter.  In the spring, we came across a little nest of baby rabbits too.

 

We need to cut this butterfly bush back this fall to match the new ones planted in the spring.  We replanted the damaged plants outside the fence on the slope and they are doing pretty well.

Hydrangea trees are my favorite!  Have you seen the size of them on the west side of the pool house near 10 tee?  All of those shrubs really love that morning sun and the afternoon shade. 

 

Crossed paths with Peg the other day, one of our two secret garden curators.  Peg Johnkoff and Michelle Buday have done so much work with the secret garden.  On behalf of the Club, thank you for your time and effort ladies.  Peg wanted me to remind you to book your next lunch or dinner at the table for four inside the garden.  A morning coffee or sip on a cocktail and enjoy the secret garden with friends!

The 2nd annual Ladies Social Society party in the Secret Garden!

 

Rockne Brat Fest!!

Thank you very much to Tom and Jana Rockne for setting up their  annual grounds crew cookout again this year!  Tom brought his trusty sou chef John Kuipers for set up, feeding prep and clean up assistance.  Thank you to Linda Kuipers for the wonderful deserts too.  Lots of brats, sides, chips, cookies, and all of the brat fixings as well as the soda and Gatorade.

    

                  

The homemade flyer was a huge hit this year and everyone was looking forward to it.  My team was really well taken care of and had so much to eat!  Thank you!!

Another Storm!! This One Really Packed the Wind.

Path from 3 green to 4.

East of the driving range and on the shoulder of Cass.

Right of 13 green and look at that crisp white hole edge!

Left of 15 fairway.  We were lucky something this big didn't fall right on top of two of the fairway irrigation heads there, that would have made a real mess.

Hollow and it's been falling apart for a few years.  

Behind the clubhouse.  Chef Devon says to save the mulberry wood for some great meat smoking!

 

Just Under 3 Inches of Rain - Another Storm Bullseye at The Club

Last Saturday morning we had another whopper of a storm hit the club directly.  Just under 3 inches of rain in the morning hours.

We had water collected in areas we have never seen before.  Wait until you see the last picture in the post.

Here is a picture looking back at the driving range tee.  The city engineers received a copy of our driving range plans back in 2004 before we built it in the fall of 2005.  They added the berm to the east which included a rock river spill way to slow down the water if needed.

Another view in front of the driving range tee.

17 approach, call it our south pool.

This one even took me a few seconds to figure out as my assistant Dan shared this one with me.  

This is 11 approach looking back down the fairway towards the tee.  No carts today, yes no carts :).