New tees

The new tees at the 3rd, 4th and 5th have all been completed finally, after a very wet October and beginning of November the weather has turned in our favour and allowed us to laser level the tees and turf them. 

The tees at the 3rd and 4th have been moved over to the left, with the angle of play changing on these holes to make them more of a dogleg. This encourages players to hit up the right hand side of the fairways (away from the houses), giving the best line in to the greens. This is all part of the long term course improvements plan put together by our course architect. 

Moving the tees will compliment the bunkering that was carried out on these holes last year. 

3rd Tee

The front corner of the tee was remodelled along, the mound removed

The turf off the old tee area was lifted and used around the course.

The soils from the mound and corner of the yellow tee were used as a subsoil base for the new teeing area left

Finally once the rain stop and the tee dried out the irrigation was added and the top soil was added and shaped

The tee was then laser levelled and  turfed with big roll. This allows us to turf high amounts of turf quickly and with less manual handling for the staff. The tee looks great and has become one of our biggest on the course.

4th 

One of the major tasks we had to do on the 4th was to remove the some scrub and trees that were blocking the line off the new tee. As you can see a lot of land was gained back. 

Again the turf was lifted and used on other areas. The rootzone was then run in and spread around 

 We then cultivated and laser levelled and turfed.

5th

The new tee at the 5th was built forward, this will create a new blue tee at the back with the whites moving forward. Again this was part of the plans by Ken Moodie, the greens Commitee and the board. 

By reducing the length of club required at  the hole not only improves our variety of lengths of the pars 3's but reduces the risk of balls leaving the boundary. 

A lot of work soil movement was required to build this tee in particular. We required 140 cubic metres just for the base. 

The mound on the left of the 8th was the perfect size to be moved over. This also improved the view from the 8th tee. 

The base was then built up in layers

The irrigation was then added before the rootzones were added

The tee was then laser levelled  

Then turfed and rolled. 

Summary 

During the renovation of these tees we- 

• Moved over 300 cubic metres of subsoil

• 160 tonnes of rootzone was placed on the new tees

• Removed trees and scrub to give the new tees the land required and these were moved to the compost area

• Added or extended the irrigation to all the new tees

• Laser levelled all the tees

• 1300 metres of big roll dwarf rye turf laid

• Used the turf from the tees to repair other areas around the course

• Tidied and repaired the sites after we finished

The new tees will be ready in the spring and I think they will add to the already great improvements to those holes. 

With most of the winter projects being completed earlier in the winter than last year is fantastic. This gives the golf course a rest from heavy traffic and minimises damage. It allows us to repair areas around the course, clear leaves and work on the woodland areas in the coming months. We will also start building our material bays in the new year. So no rest for the wicked ;-) 

Sorry about the longest blog ever! 

Matt