In response to a few issues with #1 fairway drainage laid
out by the Playability Sub-Committee our staff addressed the following:
- Wet area from middle of fairway down towards the creek at 125 yards on #1 fairway
- Wet area on the left side of the fairway and rough to the creek at 85 and 50 yards on #1
- Exposed large drain pipe in left rough #1Our staff utilized the scheduled closed day on Monday, January 27, 2014 to work on these issues. We used our new John Deere skid steer with a trenching attachment to excavate the trenches (Figure 1). This machine allowed us to move through the digging portion of the project much more quickly and efficiently. Only a small amount of hand excavation was necessary to obtain a satisfactory sub-grade for our drainage lines.
Trenching Attachment
TrenchA large contributor to why we had standing wet areas on the course was the fact that the lower 20 to 40 feet of the fairway and rough was not capped with sand to specifications. This area contained essentially no sand and lots of heavy clay and rock. Not only did this area not drain, but it kept the areas above it from draining as well (Figure 2).
Figure 3 shows the cross section of the drainage installation we used, utilizing four inch corrugated pipe, pea gravel, a sand capped layer, finished with the sod. Some of the clay-like soil and rock we excavated was used to cover the large, exposed drain pipe in the left rough on #1.
With help from White Wing and Legacy Hills crew members we were able to move quickly through the process, completing the entire project in one day. All three areas are marked as Ground Under Repair (GUR) with white paint. Our staff has plans to continue to improve the drainage on holes #3, 6, 9, and 12 in the future.
