#18 Drainage Project Update

Many of you have been watching the progress of our drainage installation project from the windows of the grille in the clubhouse and seen some of the progress that we have made over the past couple of weeks.  If you are among the crowd following the progress from the grille windows, my guess is it has had a lot to do with the weather we have experience as of late which means it has been WET and RAINY.

As you can imagine, wet and rainy are not necessarily a friendly combination with the heavy equipment required to complete this project.  We have had to use lots of plywood to protect the turf including a trash pump on several occasions when the freshly dug ditches have filled completely with water.  To add to the fun, our soil type has a large number of boulders a bit larger than the size of a basketball.  These slow down the progress as special care has to be taken to pry them out of the way and remove them.

The good news is that we have been able to install just north of 1,000 linear feet out of the 4,000 feet that we plan to install.  To keep the pace of work moving along as smoothly as possible in addition to mandatory worker safety, we have needed to move the tee blocks forward onto the fairway to keep golf balls from hitting the drainage crew and the equipment.

This practice will only occur Monday-Friday with the blocks being returned to the tees each weekend.  We will do our best to keep the yardages as long as possible, however, there may be days where we need to play this hole as a par 3 in order to keep the balls in front of the active work site.  If you remember, this is the same practice that we utilized two years ago when we did large-scale drainage installation on holes #8 and #11 which as you can see today, worked wonders!  Short term pain = long term gain, right?  Your patience is much appreciated as we work to get this course improvement project completed.  Here are a few fun pictures of the progress we have made along the way.

First and foremost, I would like to thank and recognize the team responsible for the
hard work on this project.  From left to right, Sam Bonda, Miles Brownell and
our contractor, Daniel Soushek of Golf Plus Construction.  Great work!

We started on the left side of the fairway between the bunker complexes to capture
as much water coming off the hill as possible with two trenches following
the contour of the fairway.

This picture shows some of the WET conditions that the team has had to
work with so far.  Notice all the surface water flowing into the open trench.

This photo shows the area between the fairway bunker complexes where much
of the work to-date has been completed.

Daniel has a very organized approach to installation:  dig, install pipe, add gravel,
top with sand followed by resodding all within an hour of opening up a new trench.

This is what 4,000 feet of drainage pipe looks like.  A LOT!

One of the many rocks found.  Nobody gets excited to see these.

And another.

And again.  

#13 Green Views, Goats and Drainage!

If you have a child, relative or friends with kids under the age of 10, you probably know the catchphrase, "To infinity and beyond!" from the Toy Story movie that features the toy space ranger hero, Buzz Lightyear.  I love this because this describes exactly the impact of what I am about to discuss here regarding one of our latest course improvement projects.

In my last post, I talked a little bit about the natural features of this property that Jack Nicklaus did such a good job of highlighting in the routing of the course.  Just like the canyon on the left of #15, the area behind the green on #13 had become quite overgrown in the last 15 years and the fir trees on the hillside were beginning to create a little bit of a wall and dilute the spectacular view off the back of this green.  I found another picture from the early 2000's that shows what this hole used to look like.

#13 in the early 2000's.

Now, flash forward 12 to 15 years and this next picture shows how much the trees had grown over the years, blocking off that once clean edge of the canyon.

#13 in 2014.

This morning, we sent three professional loggers from Cedar Falls Tree Service with chainsaws about 60 feet down the edge of the hillside for a few hours and BOOM!  Look at the difference!  The trees no longer block the view like before.  We now have what I have personally dubbed the "infinity and beyond" green in which your eye follows the approach, rolls onto the green and jumps off into the sky, Mount Si, the valley and everything else- "to infinity and beyond!"

#13 Green in 2014 AFTER tree removal.

                         

Here's an up close shot of what the edge of the cliff looks like now.  Dramatic!

                        

You can even see all the way to the 15th hole with the trees gone!

Pretty cool huh?  We still have a little bit more work to do on the right side between the switchback in the cart path and #14 tees.  On Friday that little grove of trees right there will be cut out and we will then have a nice seamless line running from behind the green all the way down and around the 14th hole.  

While we are on the subject of view lines, we also did a little bit of light trimming on the "V" that  gives you the peek-a-boo views of Snoqualmie Falls from the 12th tee so that view line will also be much better than it was previously.  And of course, the action down on the 15th hole is going great.  We started out with 37 goats in the pen over the weekend and as of today, we added another 27 goats to get our total up to 64 and make quicker work of things.  The plan is to let the goats eat whatever they can and everything that is left over will be cut by hand such as the blackberry canes and the small to medium sized trees.

setting up the chute to move goats from the trailer into the pen.

                        

Notice the difference between what is inside and outside of the fence.  What is inside used
to look like the outside.  These goats don't leave anything behind!

"Selfie" of Assistant Superintendent Tate Berg and one of the baby goats.

Everyone works at their own pace.  You may see some napping but rest assured,
  come 3 AM, they will be logging their hours and doing their part.

                         

Ready for more?  This truck from Golf Plus Construction showed up in the agronomy maintenance yard this morning and unloaded a couple of nice pieces of equipment specifically for drainage work.  This past winter, the agronomy crew was able to install 2,000 feet of drainage in-house using our own equipment.  While this is a LOT of drainage- we have decided to do more, this time with a contractor with specialized equipment that can make quicker work of things.  About 4,000 feet more!  Our agronomy team along with the ownership are committed to improving shoulder season playing conditions and this is part of the effort to keep this initiative moving along.

               

Much of this work will be concentrated on the 18th hole and will take about two weeks to complete.  Our contractor Daniel Soushek with Golf Plus construction has an extensive resume that includes work performed on many area golf courses and he worked with us in 2004 when the left side of the 12th green washed down the hill.  

Our plan is to begin tomorrow morning with a "soft start" and as we move along, things will move along quicker and we will work to minimize the impact on play.  There will be days where we may need to move the tee markers onto the fairway out of the line of work in the name of safety and our contractor's pace of work.  We will be working with the golf shop to direct daily communication and placement of the tees.  

This is an exciting time for the club with the many new improvements happening on the course along with the extensive remodel of the clubhouse that began today.  I will do my best to keep the blog fresh with the latest happenings of what we are doing.  I want to thank everyone in advance for their patience as we work to get these projects completed and hope that you feel the same enthusiasm for these projects as we do.  Feel free to wave me down on the golf course or shoot me an email if you have any questions, I'm always happy to chat and thanks for taking the time to read through this long post!

Goats and Aerification Healing

Just a quick update regarding the goats.  Our  contractor has been hard at work the past two days down in the thick abyss clearing trees and brush to make room for the electric fence that will keep the goats contained.  This has taken him a little longer than anticipated so we are now looking at Thursday morning rather than today for the arrival of the first batch of  goats.

Electric fence just to the left of the bunker complex near #15 green.

      

The  greens are doing great post-aerification.  The photo on the left was taken on Monday and the photo on the right was taken this morning.  It is pretty obvious that the holes are healing pretty quickly and it won't be long before we are back to normal.                           

Remember When . . .

I love coming to work every day and one of the reasons is because I enjoy spending time on our very special back 9 here at TPC Snoqualmie Ridge.  The back 9 is a special place not only because of Jack Nicklaus' phenomenal course layout but the magic of  how he incorporated some of the natural landscape elements to bring some drama into the each hole that you play.  Some of the most striking features that he had to work with include the panoramic views of the Cascade Mountain range that follow you as you rise and fall with the elevation changes and the steep cliffs that line holes #13, 14 and 15.

Jack did a great job using these elements to bring a little bit of a psychological aspect into the game, making the golfer give serious consideration when choosing the type(s) of shots that are played out here.  One of my favorites is from the 15th tee which sits right along the canyon that runs all the way down the fairway and around the green.  I came across the old photograph below some time ago of this hole as it was back in 1998 a few months before the course opened.

In this photograph, you can really see that Jack's intention was to use the canyon as an intimidation factor when selecting what kind of tee shot to play.  The two choices forced the golfer to choose between running the risk of getting their ball swallowed up by the deep abyss on the left but reaping the reward of extra yardage if you manage to stay out of the canyon or playing it slightly safer on the right but sacrificing some yardage and putting the first set of fairway bunkers into play.

Hole #15 in 1998 a few months before the course opening.

Today, this hole still retains the same elements- the bunkers, the extra yardage the only difference is that the edge of the canyon isn't as dramatic as it once was.  Everything in the Pacific Northwest grows so quickly with our moderate climate and aggressive vegetation that this edge has gotten a lot softer over time.  Normally, this would be an off-season brush clearing project however, because this specific canyon is so steep, the work is very slow going and can be a major safety obstacle when operating trimmers and chainsaws on this type of terrain.
                     

Hole #15 as it stands today.  Overgrown and not as dramatic as it once was.

I am excited to say that despite the obstacles, there is a solution that we have never done before here at TPCSR and we will be putting into play this week.  Goats!  Bunches of them!  If you know anything about goats, they love to eat and will eat just about anything not to mention they don't seem to mind steep terrain.   

                     

                   

We are working with a contractor that has worked all over the Puget Sound with clients that include the City of Sammamish, Mukilteo, Issaquah, Maple Valley, Sound Transit and Puget Sound Energy.  The plan is to start down near the 15th green and work our way up towards the tees all the way through the top of the canyon on hole #14.  In order to keep the goats contained and protected, trails for the erection of temporary electric fencing will be cleared ahead of the goats' arrival on property and the fencing will be set up in sections and moved up as they eat their way through the canyon.  

The electric fences will be powered via our irrigation control boxes so you will see extension cords running from these to the fence lines.  For safety and visibility, we will be marking these cords with red irrigation flags.  We will do our best to route these extension cords to minimize impact on play the best we can.  Should your ball come to rest up against the cord, you may lift and place it within one club length no closer to the hole.  As far as the fencing, please do not touch it.  As the name, "electric fence" states- you will get shocked if you touch it.  There will be signage all along the fence reminding everyone of this safety factor.  

If all goes as planned, about 25 to 50 goats will arrive on property early Wednesday morning and be placed in their first pen via a corral constructed behind #15 green.  It is hard to anticipate exactly, how long they will be here but my guess would be two weeks until they are finished.  It depends on how fast they eat and how nice the weather is will affect how fast they move along since they are more active when it is nice and no so much when it isn't.  

We are excited to see the before and after impacts of this project not to mention goats are pretty cool.  I will make an effort to post updates here on the blog of their progress along with some before/after pictures as this project takes place.  We also have a few more exciting projects in the works- but those are for another blog post once we get details finalized, stay tuned!

Spring 2014 Greens Aerification

Well, I think it is safe to say that we NAILED IT!  The weather was perfect, nothing broke down during the process, we were able to pull a great plug and the sand went down into the holes beautifully.  It feels great to be DONE and after a string of long days, I know the greens crew feels the same way although everyone's got a smile on their face now.  We are excited to get the greens healed up and start conditioning them for the 2014 golf season.  Here are a few snapshots that I was able to capture of the process, enjoy!

Putting green getting aerified on Sunday afternoon, only 22 more greens to go!

Our aerifers have a bar placed behind the tines which collects the cores into
windrows, making clean up much easier.

Here, you can see the sand beginning to dry (light colored sand) and the
dark colored sand (wet sand) is slowly disappearing.  This means it is
almost ready for bushing, blowing and brooming into the holes.

Derek brushing in the sand.  We followed behind with push brooms and
backpack blowers to finish it off.       

After brushing we gave the greens a healthy drink of water to help the
sand settle into the holes.

Here is #1 green at about 6:30 PM on Monday afternoon after brushing
and watering in the sand.  Looks pretty good!