Cowan Creek #6 Drainage Update (2/2/16)
Submitted by Craig
Loving
The left
side of #6 at Cowan Creek has progressively worsened each year regarding its wetness
and playability. Last year, we
discovered a 10” pipe under the fairway in the landing area that was crushed,
which caused the drain to fail and keep the area consistently wet. The pipe was fixed and replaced at the time,
but this year we are still having issues with the area staying wet. In addition to this, the catch basins along
the left side of the fairway (near the green) need additional surface drainage
to keep from staying wet year-round. The
following paragraphs will detail why this is and what we are doing to improve
playability in these areas.
Over the
years we have had several floods that have swept debris down through the low
area on #6, across the driving range, and over the spillway at the tee complex
on #1. The entire area is relatively
flat to begin with, but these rain events have accumulated debris (tree limbs,
silt, grass, etc.) in the native in between #6 and the driving range. This has created a natural dam, so even
though the water now flows freely through the drainage pipe, it has nowhere to
go once it daylights into the native. (Figure A)
There are
also some willow trees in the area that we allowed to grow tall, with the idea
of isolating the hole from the road and blocking the view of the driving
range. Unfortunately, this had a
negative effect on the drainage in that area. (Figure B)
Our first
step to alleviating the drainage problem in the landing area was to cut down
the trees that were collecting debris.
With the trees removed, we dug a trench with a backhoe to allow the
fairway drainage pipes to effectively drain through the native and into the
driving range drainage pipe (Figure C).
There will be needed periodic upkeep to make sure that these trenches
are performing as we planned, but hopefully this should fix the wet problem in
the landing area. We still need to
extend the 10” pipe another 20 feet so that the daylight is further in the
native and not near the lateral hazard line.
We also
began trenching and adding herringbone drainage in the fairway inside 100
yards. Once the drainage pipe is
installed, we will add gravel and sand, and we will overseed the trenches with
perennial ryegrass. The area will be
marked “ground under repair” until the overseed is established. We will later sod the trenched areas with bermudagrass after
transition in late spring.
The added trenches and pipe (Figure D) should help the playability of
this section of the fairway. However, we
still won’t be able to move the directional cart path signs up much closer than
they are. This is due to the slope of
the rough near the cart path, and the wear that occurs with heavy cart traffic.
Drainage
will continue to be an issue at Cowan Creek every year. We have seen improvements with the
playability in the areas we have worked on in recent years (#3 2015, #1 2014),
and our crew works hard to try to continue to improve course conditions. We hope to soon attack other trouble areas
(#9 landing area, #3 at 150 yard marker) in the weeks to come.
