Llanerch Golf Course and External Activities

The 18th green restoration is moving forward. We plan to open the hole on Saturday the 14th. The green has grown in well but is still putting a little slower compared to the other greens. We will be working all next week to get the green to "speed up" some more. As for the fairway and approach, the grass is ready for play. The rough needed some sod in the weaker areas. There might be some "uneven" lies when comparing the established rough to the sod. As the season progresses, we will try to grow a more "consistent" play surface. I appreciate everyone's patience as we complete this project. Happy Easter to everyone and their families.

The 18th green is right on schedule. It has benefited from the mild winter. We continue to lower the mowing height slowly and add sand topdress to smooth the surface. The cart path is scheduled to be adjusted more to towards the creek in the next few weeks. We are still planning to have the hole open by April 15th.

The 18th Restoration is moving along quickly. With all this unseasonably warm weather, the grass has started to grow roots and "fill in". We have been spreading sand and rolling the green and new fairway to continue smoothing out the surface. We have already mowed the green over 15 times! More sod will be installed on the right side of the rough next week.  

Our contractor is wrapping up the project today! They are finishing installing sod and compacting sand in the bunkers. Some of the bare areas in the rough will be seeded Monday. Some excess soil left over from the project will be used to fill in the stump holes. We are going to give the new sod some much needed water and fertilizer to promote root growth. I hope you like the end result as much as we do!

Starting yesterday, the construction crew began sodding the 18th green complex. They have installed bentgrass for the fairway extensions, low cut bluegrass for the intermediate cut and turf type tall fescue for the rough. They also installed some fine fescue on the bunker edges. We plan to finish sodding by tonight but might need to purchase a small quantity more next week to fix some construction wounds. 

The construction team is finishing the drainage in bunkers and installing the white bunker liner in all four bunkers today. They are also preparing the site for the placement of sod that arrives tomorrow morning. The Grounds Crew is rolling and topdressing the greens sod. This will help smooth out the putting surface in the future. We are still planning to be done sodding by Friday evening. We will still have some minor clean up that we will complete later. 

The 3 inches of snow stopped work on 18 for the last three days. Our contractor is bringing extra labor in today in pursuit of " catching up".  We will be putting drainage in all of the 4 new bunkers and preparing the site for sod. I hope to have a new update by the end of the day.

 Yesterday we finished edging out the three bunkers surrounding the green and rough shaping the new fairway. We are planning to install drainage in them on Monday. We will also begin edging and draining the new fairway bunker on Monday. Sodding of the entire green surround will begin on Wednesday. Of course, this all is weather dependent. A snow storm could potential push the whole schedule back a few days.

Yesterday was a success for us. The contractors were able to finish sodding 18 green completely before the rain came in last night. The sod came from our nursery by 5 green. I am hoping that it will "knit in" and start to grow roots into the soil within the next 14 days. Weather will be the biggest factor. Unfortunately we can't move to draining the bunkers until tomorrow. The rain has turned the soil into mud.

Today, we are focusing on installing the internal drainage for the 18th green. At the same time, we are also  installing new irrigation heads. We will then smooth out the green surface one more time. The goal is to sod the green by the end of the day tomorrow. We have to finish tomorrow because....you guessed it...rain on Thursday.

Wow! Greg Hufner, from our contractor Total Turf  is standing by a 6 foot long rock that we pulled out of the back right side of 18 green! So far, we have found over 5 large rocks on the right of 18 green that weigh at least half a ton! Total Turf has been great in finding ways to remove them and put them some where else on the course. It is funny what "buried treasure" you find at Llanerch.

The 18th Project was suspended on Tuesday because of rain. The contractors will start up again today despite the muddy conditions. We plan to strip the sod around the bunkers and start lowering the right side in preparation of the new fairway. The rain has moved the schedule back a day but we will continue to work on Saturday to try to catch up.

The 18th green restoration starts today. We will start with the removal of a few trees, delivery of construction materials and removal of sod. I plan to include photographic updates as the project proceeds. Of course the forecast rain for Wednesday will delay some of the construction. It would not be the 2011 golf season without some rain.  

Here is the architect Stephen Kay's drawing of the Restoration of the 18th hole. The construction will start in mid-October. During the project, I will keep the blog up to date on it's progress. CLICK on the drawing to see it in more detail.

THE 18 TH HOLE RESTORATION This year it has become apparent that 18 green needed to be modified. The green, as everyone knows, is very sloped on the front half. The right side is very sloped from right to left. As the greens matured from the 2004-2005 Master Plan Restoration, the green keeps getting faster in speed. It has left the green keepers with only two or maybe three pin placements that seem “fair”. This stresses the turf on the green to the point that it barely stays alive every year. It also makes the hole set up the same almost every time. This was the same problem we had back in 2003 on number 17 green. That year we brought in Golf Course Architect Stephen Kay to redesign the front of the green. After his plans were approved by the Club, the Grounds Maintenance Department “lifted” the front of the green 14 inches with soil and planted bentgrass. Once the green healed, the project was deemed a success. It solved our problem of having only a few “fair” pin placements and the ...