With the help of architects Brian and Blake, we are now seeing what the new bunkers look like. This one is on 10 green right side. They will not have the fescue "eyebrow" we have had in the past. For more updates, please follow me @BrendanJByrne01 on Twitter.
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Today marks the beginning of mobilization of equipment on # 8 for the upcoming restoration. Our golf course contractor is Total Turf and with golf course architect Brian Schneider from Renaissance Golf, they will be teaming up to open a new chapter in Llanerch's storied history. You can also follow the progress on Twitter @BrendanJByrne01.
Another day without rain. That has been the story for the last 2 weeks. We have been working hard to keep the course with just enough water to keep the plants alive and still be firm and fast. You will also notice that we are no longer mowing the intermediate cut around fairways. With the planned addition of 3 to 4 acres of fairway, it was deemed unnecessary to keep it. If you have any questions regarding the renovation, please feel free to contact me at your convenience. Thank you and see you on the course!
As the sun comes up, we are only 21 days from the start of the golf course restoration. On October 9th, we plan to begin construction on the the green, new tees and fairway on #8. We will also start the development of new tees for #9. I will be posting pictures and progress reports as the we move forward. Thank you for your patience!
We are looking to wrap up most of the last stages of aerification today. The top picture displays the aerification size on tees and some fairways. The bottom picture ids of the greens. We did not do the traditional bigger coring hole with sand topdressing due to the hot temperatures. These holes will heal fast. In later October, we will core aerify greens. The course will be open Thursday at 8:00am. Thank you for our patience.
As the next heat wave comes upon us, we are taking many pro-active steps to protect the turf. As many readers of this blog know, I have a steadfast rule that when we have temperatures in the lower and mid-90 degrees or above, we stop rolling greens until it cools down. For some reason, the greens start to "thin out" when we roll them in high temperatures. That being said, this coming Thursday's forecast calls for a day where temperatures might drop back below our threshold. If so, we roll on Thursday. Thanks for your understanding regarding this matter!
Over my 32 years greenkeeping, I have been asked 100s of times "what is the best? Replace the divot or use divot mix"? It is easy to decide! 1.) When the divot is a decent size and/or one or two solid pelt(s), please replace it. 2.) If the divot is "shredded" or ripped apart into tiny pieces, use divot mix. But either way, I would ask that you do one or the other. To do nothing results in a potential terrible lie for someone else and could risk the area to the encroachment of poa annua . Thanks for helping!
After close to 3 inches of rain, we are finally seeing a brief break from the clouds. We are still in "tournament" mode as we are in the second day of the 16th R. Jay Sigel hosted by the Pennsylvania Golf Association. We have heard many compliments regarding the course and it's condition even with all the rain. Tomorrow will mark the last day of the Match Play. From there, we will start to "hunker down" for what looks like another heat wave next week.
This is our first few runs using the drone. We are preparing to drone the entire course before the restoration starts in October. Then, when it is all done, we will have some great "before and after" images. I hope you like it!
Well, what can I say? Another day, another rain event. We had a total of 1.75 inches of rain over the last 24 hours. We are concentrating in getting the course debris free and mowed. Carts will not be permitted this morning but we will look again at around 11:00- 11:30am to see if we can let them roll. As always, we appreciate your patience!
After 2.5 inches of rain over the past three days, the sun has returned! We are still wet but will be able to have carts by 11:00am today. The Staff is focusing on wrapping up some loose ends at the Pool and pond. We are also putting real interest in "detailing" the course. Hope to see you out on the course!
Since spending the winter removing dead and/or dying trees, we are making a push to replant. As you can see here, we have over 50 trees just dropped off on property to plant throughout the course. The main concentration of hedges and trees are on the left of #2 fairway, #4 tee, #17 tee and the 8th hole. Even though it takes about 2-3 years for the plantings to really start "maturing", you will still see much improved horticultural specimens right away! That is not to say some beautiful new fall foliage later this year!
As we closing in on finishing the pond, the contract is adding rip-rap stone along the edge of the pond. We are also adding some round "boulders" to the base of the spillway to reduce erosion by the stone wall. If the weather looks good, we will shoot concrete on the back of the pond wall to assist in stabilizing it and stop any leaks. The finish sod work will be performed in the first 10 days of April.
As you can see in this video, we are in the final stages of dredging the pond. If the weather holds up, we should be finished by the end of the day tomorrow. Then boulders and rock will be added to the spill way. As of now, we are still on scheduled to be finished by April 3rd.
The snow the other day slowed us down for 24 hours but now we are off and running! As you can see in the picture, the left side of the pond wall is getting close to being fully restored. We are only using the original stone that is on site to keep it looking like it did in the past. We have some more research to do yet but we think the wall is at least 100 years old!
As you can see, we have started the pond project. We drained the pond on Thursday and Friday. Now we are working to remove all the concrete around the spill way. We discovered a beautiful stone wall underneath the concrete. We are trying to restore that instead of building a new one. Will be giving more updates later this week!
Yesterday, we were out on the course to check on the snow and it was great to see the City of Philadelphia Skyline!. The snow is melting quickly but it will be very wet afterwards. We are working on some drain work on 11 and 1 today. In other developments, we will be starting the restoration of 18 pond late this week or beginning next week, dependent on weather. We will be sending updates as we progress.
Last week we removed all the overgrown privet hedges surrounding the 17th tee. They were preventing good air movement and sunlight on the tee surface. Without those two elements, it becomes much more difficult to grow grass, especially from divots. We will be replant some small hedges to secure safety from 10 fairway. In this picture, you can see we sodded some of the area already. We will finish sodding it once the hedges are planted in the late winter and early summer.
As most of know, I have not been blogging much since October due to the individual emails that were being sent to you and the Informational Meetings that we conducted in December. Now that the Llanerch Golf Course Restoration has been overwhelmingly approved by membership (thank you!), I will be returning to the blog to keep the membership up to date an our progress. In the next few days/weeks, I will be posting pictures and narratives about what we are concentrating on and what is planned over the next few months. Even though the construction of the project does not truly begin until early October 2019, we have started to clear some areas to facilitate a speedy construction schedule. Stay tuned for more information very soon! Thanks! Brendan.