Course Work

The three years that I have been at The Rim Golf Club I have dealt with many challenges. The first major challenge that has plagued the golf course has been water. The second was disease and insect pressure and as we peeled away these issues, we are now dealing with bunker contamination and drive off path deterioration.

The water problem has been addressed in earlier posts and how we have dealt with that issue. I will have much more information in a near future post to show the hard data on water savings over the past few years. I am completing my presentation for a BMP plan for water conservation for The Rim which will potentially give us a guideline to continue to save more water each season.

The disease and insect pressure has been discussed in detail as well. Two years ago we created an IPM plan for outlining a combination of approaches to monitor, and control insect and disease pressure. Not only have we been successful in our efforts but we continue to grow our IPM plan and eventually introduce more biological control and begin to move away from synthetic pesticides.

To make a long story short we have made large advancements in what I have always deemed the core of golf course management. Playability and presentation. These two attributes go hand in hand by complimenting one and other. When I first got to the property both were suffering and the course was in a downward spiral with the grass being under every kind of pressure you could imagine. Heat and drought stress, insect and disease pressure and excessive thatch. We have been able to reduce some of the stresses through water management and preventative plant protection applications.

So that brings us to now a sigh of relief when we talk about getting to the drive off's and the bunkers. Our efforts can be better directed to getting these areas better. We have finished the bunker work which has given us consistent depths across each bunker for better playability. We are looking at better ways to get sustainable cart exits from the turf.

The root of the problem in our bunkers was the lack of lining when the bunkers were reconstructed. We have revealed that all the renovated bunkers are not completely lined. They were lined on only faces or the steepest part of the bunker which helps that area hold sand during the rain, but this does not aid in keeping rocks from surfacing from the underlying decomposed granite.

We are trying to get the Nolte sand cleaner into the bunkers when we stop water around the bunkers. The machine is relatively effective in removing rocks off of the top 2-3 inches. The inevitable truth is that the rock will continue to come back from underneath. This process will at least give us some temporary playability. We will also try to couple this with back pack blowing the rocks off of the surface into a pile and removing with a shovel. Both processes are both a temporary fixes until the bunkers are ultimately renovated and lined properly.

The Drive offs around the course are definitely a tough fix. We have tried many ways to get the paths to hold up to cart traffic but they have all failed and the paths have gradually gotten worse. I am looking into a soil stabilizer or mixing cement into the top few inches of the granite to see if we can get better stability.

We are trying what we can for the issues on our course. That is what makes this job interesting and fun. Problem solving is rewarding when you can figure out the solution. So far we have done a great job with insects and water. We will find the solution to the bunkers and the drive offs. We just haven't discovered the best fix.