What a great renovation we have had so far.  This project has gone better than we ever could of expected and we are grateful.  Perfect, and we mean perfect weather has been the norm for this project.  Who would've thunk? 

Nothing works perfect.  Here is the 18th fairway with some difficult areas not yet filling in.  They will eventually.

 

 

Here is some of our finest soil found on the 3rd fairway during construction.  Yep that's rock only several inches down and probably the issue on 18.

 

 

The 3rd hole starting to take shape.

 

 

Covering the bunker drains before the rain on Saturday.  We received 1.1 inches of beneficial rain.

 

We decided to seed the 3rd hole entirely with the great weather we are experiencing.  Forty yards of compost were added to the soil to improve the seedbed.  The compost was rather "fragrant" but it should grow great turf!

 

 

 

Working the compost into the existing soil.

 

 

Followed by seeding.

 

Curlex fiber matting was laid down over the entire seedbed.  This will enhance establishment of the bent on bare soil. The mat will be removed once the seedlings are rooted in.

 

 

The 5th tee work has begun as well.  Here the concrete wing wall at the lower end of the spillway is being cut to grade.

 

 

Subgrade of the green tee with the concrete removed.

 

 

Cutting soil for the red and white tees and moving it to the championship tee.

 

 

Working on the back tee.  This is going to be awesome!

 

 

The first mow on number one.  Only twenty days after planting!!!

 

 

Quincy loves Crystal BlueLinks bentgrass.

 

 

Number 16

 

 

Moonlit fairway number 15 on September 20th.

 

 

Hole 7

 

 

Number 12 looking from the green.

 

 

New cart path at the 16th tee.

 

 

Pylex herbicide with the second of three applications. There is a temporary yellowing of the tall fescue and hopefully a permanent browning of the bermudagrass.

 

 

Not a bad way to start the day!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On the seventh day the Springfield Greens Crew completed seeding the course and took a rest!  We hit perfect weather for the most part and were able to complete seeding on Wednesday.  Perfect conditions initially allowed us to see bentgrass germinating in four days!  Hot and humid conditions  paid us a short visit this week before the cold front came through last night with beneficial rainfall and no washouts.

 

The very first seed pass on one fairway.

 

 Seeding perpendicular to insure the best germination.

 

 

 Once the tractor is finished small seeders are used to ensure the fairway edge is maintained. Notice the red line.

 

 

When the fairway is complete the roughs are next.  Here David is seeding on the outside of the red line.  By doing this we are able to have excellent definition between the two types of turf.

 

 

 

 The tractor then follows seeding the rough.  Luis goes over each pass twice.

 

The roughs are then dragged to improve seed to soil contact followed by an application of starter fertilizer.

 

 

Finally we can turn on the water!

 

 

The ninth fairway eight days later! The tall fescue rough takes longer to germinate.

 

 



While all this is going on we also aerified and seeded the greens and collars.  Weak greens 3,4,5,10,12 and 13 were double aerified and seeded in a procedure similar to the fairways.

 



Bentgrass is tiny and difficult to calibrate at the correct seed rate. There are approximately 6-7 million seeds per pound!  No wonder it is hard to see.

 

 

Five fairway Friday morning one week after seeding.

 

 

 Friskey's plaque is next to McPherson's by 15 lake.  Many thanks to Bill Darden for taking care of this.