Since labour day the weather has been a virtual roller coaster, we have had lots of rain, some sunshine, warm temperatures and a variety of all three in one day. Throughout this weather our staff has been hard at work trying to restore our bunkers to the original shape and size. Over the years turfgrass begins to encroach into the bunkers, especially on the back or low sides. We have been using the pitchfork method to work our way back from the inside edge. The pitchfork is inserted repeatedly moving back from the edge until the original soil edge is found. The edge is then torn back to this soil/sand interface. Then the existing edge is tamped down to force the grass edge down to the sand, therefore reducing the soil lip on the back sides of the bunkers. This creates a more traditional, Stanley Thompson look to the bunker surrounds. As you will notice from the first picture, the red stakes are in place prior to the edging. In the second picture you can see the amount of over growth and shrinking that the bunker has experienced.
The past few days we have been able to make great strides on the bunker project on #17. All three of the new bunkers have been shaped and drained. Tuesday morning Ian Andrew our consulting golf course architect, will be painting the final contours in the bunkers. We will then install the bunker boards and back fill with topsoil to the new edges. Once the edges are established we will add the new sand and await sod. The rain and snow that we recieved over the last couple of days has had little effect on the rough shaping process. We are hoping for some drier days to complete the fine tuning and sod prepping.
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