Expanding to meet demand

One thing that is perfectly clear at "THE" Country Club of Naples is the members love to play golf. In the same vein, they love to practice as well. One improvement being done this summer to help more people practice better is the redesign of the chipping area. 

A month ago I had Gordi Lewis, our course archetitect, out to look at expanding the chipping green practice area. Everyone has been to the chipping area and had to hit off of old divots because the concentration of use is so small. So the focus of the renovation plan is to provide more area to chip from, not make the green bigger. 

The plan is to lower the mounds on the front right side of the green and rough and then cut the approach way around to the right side. This should more than double the chipping area. 

The area inside the yellow line will be lowered to provide the new chipping area. The sod will be removed, dirt work done and then the sod replaced. 

Because part of the mound that needs to be lowered for the newly expanded chipping area runs into the green, I am going to have to strip the chipping green putting surface as well to make the appropriate tie-in's. The plan is to use the green's aerification cores next week to replant the putting surface which will save the Club money. 

Another part of the work in the area will be to lower the bunker wall as well. Over the last 5 years, all of the explosion shots have thrown sand onto the grass and has raised the height of the sod almost two feet. In the next two pictures you can see the dramatic difference. The first picture is of the rarely used side by the rest rooms and the second picture is of the highly used side by the practice tee. Both were taking at the same height and both were constructed the same. 

Notice how little of the putting surface you an see in the second picture. This is the result of thousands of sand bunker shots throwing sand into the grass face. 

Much like the new chipping area side, the bunker face area inside the yellow line will have the sod removed and the underlying dirt removed to lower the sub-grade. Once the sub-grade is fixed, the grass will be replaced. This will also provide a lot more usable area within the bunker. Now that the bunker floor doesn't immediately start to rise, we will be able to rebuild the bottom of the bunker to be flatter. This will represent our course's bunkers much better. 

The reconstruction will take a few days, with grassing of the putting surface completed early next week. The grow-in of the putting surface will take a few months.