Bunkers

Drainage pipe laid flat in a shallow trench

Everyone's favourite topic. Over the last 2 winters we have begun to renovate our bunkers. This renovation program will continue each winter with new drainage, re-shaping and new sand added. The main problem with the bunkers is the poor drainage. Over time drains become blocked, soil/silt is washed into bunkers contaminating the sand and not allowing water to drain away quickly. With the use of the new drainage pipe we are able to put the drains in quicker as no trenching is required and no gravel needed.

Due to this sand/soil mix in the bunkers and compaction due to heavy rain many of the bunkers become very firm and difficult to play a normal bunkers shot from.

Soil washed into a bunker on the 9th hole

So, there is a different technique for playing from a firm bunker. Considering the following advice next time you are in a firm bunker.

• play the ball a little further back in your stance than you would for the “normal” bunker shot
• set up a little more square to the target line
• aim to enter the sand around 1 inch behind the ball rather than the normal 2 inches
• hit the shot a little softer than normal as it will come out little quicker
• try using a club with less bounce than the normal sand iron as you don't want the club to bounce on the hard sand

My best advice is however, try to avoid them, they are hazards. Most of us would probably find it easier to hit a chip from the grass than play a bunker shot.

Good luck and happy golfing!!!

Huge Storms

Last night we had around 60 mm of rain in some large thunder storms. The rain was much needed as we had not had significant rainfall for some time our stocks in the dams were getting quite low. The dam at the 5th is now full and the main dam is around 4 feet from full. The rain has also given the entire course a good soak with many of the fairways suffering with the extreme hot weather.

The course seems to have held up quite well with the bunkers the exception. Many of the bunkers have considerable water in them and quite a bit of damage has been done with sand and soil washed off the faces. The bunkers will require considerable work now to get them back up to scratch. We have also lost most of a large gum tree in the garden bed near the second putting green. A large branch has fallen across the path to the 10th tee blocking the path.

Tree on path to 10th

More tree

And more ....

Bunker on the 9th

Damage to bunker the 9th

Water coming from the dam behind the 15th into the main dam

Another angle of the pipe from the 15th

Overflow pipe out of the main dam

Re-modelling of the 17th Tees

We are looking to re-model the 17th tee to provide a greater variety of length across the 4 par three holes. We currently have 3 long par 3s where some players may be hitting a similar club. By shortening the 17th  players will be able to hit a shorter club than on the 9th and 13th hole. I will put up some material in the club also. Feel free to leave comments on the blog, speak to myself directly or leave comments with the office. Below is what is proposed.

Aim:

• Shorten the Blue and White tees to provide greater variety of length (this should assist in bringing the White course rating back to 72)
• Change the angle of the Blue and White tee to bring the right bunker more into play
• Enlarge the Red tee and incorporate the Green tee into the teeing ground

Proposal

• Relocate Blue and White tees to the right hand side of the path behind the Red tee – elevated above the height of the Red tee
• Teeing area to be around 20m long by 10m wide
• Red tee enlarged to incorporate the Green tee and widened slightly
• New suggested distances: Blue - 156, White -148 (approximately 1 club more than the 4th hole)
• Bottom tee on the left of the path is to be retained as an over flow tee – top 2 levels to be removed

Work program

• Approximately 6 trees to be removed 
• Garden bed and seat behind Red tee to be relocated 
• Pipe placed under tee to take water run-off – this would be connected to existing pipe under the path 
• Fill placed in area of tee to create an area elevated above the Red tee 
• Teeing area laser levelled 
• Irrigation installed – approximately 8 sprinklers plus pipe and valve required 
• Turf from existing tees used to turf as much of the new tee as possible – remaining area seeded

Green areas show new teeing ground

Happy New Year

Hi all, welcome back after the Christmas break. Apologies to all those that have missed the blog updates.

The boys are flat out at the moment trying to keep the course alive. With the extreme weather we are experiencing it is difficult to keep the entire course alive as we are struggling to get enough water on the course each night  with the irrigation system and the time available to water.

What has been happening:

• Some drainage has been put it on the front left of the 1st green to dry this area out where water has been surfacing.
• We are trialling a sand box on the 4th tee so that players can fill divots when waiting for the green to clear. This will be filled regularly with a sand and seed mix. If successful we will purchase further boxes for the other par 3 tees as these are the most divoted.
• Removal of garden beds - we are removing a number of garden beds around tees where maintenance if difficult and the beds have become unsightly. Work has begun on the beds on the 2nd tee and will continue over the coming weeks. The bulk of this work is being completed by a number of members who volunteer their time during the week. For anyone interested there is a regular group on Tuesday and Thursday that do work around the course.
• Fairways aerated with an Aerway - this machine punched slits into the fairways are assist water and air getting into the soil.

Sand box on the 4th tee

Thursday volunteers removing sleeping around garden beds

Aerway used to aerate the fairways