Fountains

I am in the process of repairing all of the fountains on the course. The one on hole five fell victim to an alligator's desire to use the float as a basking platform, Mary's pond fountain blew its nozzle off over the weekend and the one on hole 15 has something jammed up inside of the impeller. All necessary part are on order and will be installed as soon as they come in.

Hedge row on Solana

Just a quick update on the hedges on the north side if Solana. Although the hedges look like dead sticks, they are alive and well. They are leafing out very nicely from their hair cut a few weeks ago. Another week or so an they will be all green again.

Solona Road landscaping

I'm happy to report that the Solona Road landscaping project is completed. The new median landscaping looks wonderful. The project was a combined effort from the community home owners association and the club and was spearheaded by John Wolski. Another great improvement for the Club.

Clubhouse green revisited

I was asked yesterday why the clubhouse green is now so flat as compared to what it used to be.  The simple answer is that is needed to be rebuilt due to the original improper construction.  Short cuts were taken during construction which would never allow the green to be reflective of CCN's high standards.  The Board of Directors approved a plan to modify the surface contours to correct the original short cuts, total budget was $5000.  Large undulations can be built into a USGA green but to do so correctly means a complete removal of the old green, then a completely new green built.  The cost to do a completely new green of that size is approximately $40-45,000. To help illustrate how poorly the green was originally constructed I have reposted part of my blog which explains how a green should be built as compared to what the clubhouse green used to be.

 

 

 

Clubhouse Green Renovation Update

The work on repairing the clubhouse green is nearing completion. Here is the progress in the project thus far.

Step one was to strip off all of the existing grass. A sod cutter was used to cut the grass into strips. The strips were then cut into smaller section that were rolled up and loaded into carts for disposal.

Once all of the grass was stripped off a grid was laid out on the surface (the red dots) to tell the staff where to dig the holes down to the gravel drainage layer. This "pot holing" process is the only way to be able to check the soil profile to see where the sand depth is out of the 12-14 inch parameter for soil depth of a USGA green. The stakes are then marked at 12, 14 & 16 inches from the point and buried in the holes with the points of the stakes resting on the gravel layer. Once the grid of stakes are buried in the soil profile, it is easy to determine what action needs to be done to the surface. If you can't see the lines you have to remove sand, if you can see all three of the lines you need to add sand.

In this picture you can see that the sand is almost up to the top 16 inch line. This means in this area that approximately 2 inches is to be removed to get it to within the 12-14 inch parameter.

In this picture of the soil profile of the large humped area of the green you can see where there is almost 20 inches of sand, 6-8 inches will be removed to be within the allowable parameters. This is one of the reasons why the area was always drying out...way too much sand. 

In this picture you can see that there is barely 12 inches of sand. This was taken on lower drop off area by the pool.

Here's the solution, start moving sand with shovels and rakes. Not a lot of fun, but highly effective.



The end result is that all the stakes show a consistent soil depth of 12-14 inches...perfect for greens.

Once all of the soil depths have been corrected and are now within the 12-14 inch parameter, the surface was tilled and fumigated to sterilize the sand before planting.

The fumigation of the clubhouse green occurred yesterday, Monday - July 16th. The fumigation plastic tarp needs to remain in place for 24 hours before being removed. Once the plastic tarp is removed the soil is allowed to air out for 24 hours before planting can occur. It just so happens that I have MiniVerde sprigs being shipped here tomorrow, Wednesday - July 18th to replant the clubhouse green with. Once planted, it will take 10-12 weeks before the green is playable.

Stay tuned for more updates on the clubhouse green as it grows in

Solona Road median is being planted

I'm pleased to announce that the Solona Road median project is underway...and almost done.  This project has spanned 3 CCN Presidents and almost 4 years in the making, but it is finally here.  Enough with the words, time for the pictures.



median plants being unloaded

the view looking West
 

looking East

 

 



Bunker maintenance

The golf maintenance team is just finishing up the sand shuffle and compaction process for the season. All the bunkers were checked to make sure there is a uniform 3-4 inches of sand throughout the bunker, followed by a compaction process that will help eliminate the dreaded fried egg lie. This process provides or the exceptional playability of CCN's sand traps.

Clubhouse putting green is reopened

The long awaited reopening of the clubhouse putting green is here. Erick and Trevor did a wonderful job of correcting the soil inconsistencies and growing in the putting surface on time and on budget.