Country Club of New Bedford Turf Care Center: October 2014

Work is progressing nicely on the 2nd hole bunker renovation. The ultimate goal is to have the finished product be similar to the recently renovated bunker on the first hole. The exact same renovation techniques will be used with a few small differences. First, the grass face of the bunker on #2 is in much better shape than the grass face of the bunker on #1. There isn't anywhere near the amount of sand build up in the face of the 2nd bunker as there was in the face of the bunker near the 1st green. This will allow us to leave most of the face untouched. Second, the drainage system in the bunker on #2 needed a complete overhaul (more on that later), where-as in the bunker on #1 we were able to leave the existing drainage intact. Last, the bunker on #2 is obviously a MUCH larger bunker which naturally makes the scope of the project a bit larger as well.

Why did the bunker near the 2nd green need renovation?

An overall poor design and improper drainage installation caused the bunker to constantly "wash out" and require repair after every moderate to heavy rain storm. Pictured below are a few photographs from this spring that show what happens to the bunker after a heavy rain storm.

In a heavy rain storm water drains across the collar in front of the second green and into a small square collection drain that sends the water into a drainage pipe. That pipe then carries the water through the bunker to the left of the green and exits by the cart path near the forward tee on the 3rd hole. You can see the black drainage pipe exposed in the picture above. In theory the design is great. The only problem is that whoever installed the black drainage pipe that carries the water through the bunker installed a perforated pipe rather than a solid pipe. In a heavy rainstorm the perforated pipe fills up and forcefully leaks water out of the perforations in the pipe. This leakage effectively blows out the face of the bunker washing all of the sand and loam down into the base of the bunker. The steep slopes into the bunker and the flashed sand faces that extend up the slope do very little to help the cause as well. The constant washing out of the face of the bunker badly contaminated the sand in the base of the bunker with loam and rocks. These contaminated, darker areas of the bunker can be seen in the pictures above.

What is our plan to fix the problem?

We have already installed a new drainage system in the bunker. First, we removed the perforated drainage pipe that carries water through the bunker and replaced it with a proper solid drainage pipe. We also added new drainage lines to the base of the entire bunker. Second, similar to the renovated bunker on #1, we will eliminate the giant "lip" around the bunker and all of the flashed sand faces to allow for a flat sand floor. This will eliminate the potential for the sand to "wash out" in a heavy rain storm.

The renovation process began last week and will most likely continue into the end of next week. Below are a few pictures that illustrate the process thus far.

Below is a picture of the bunker before we began to excavate all of the sand. The orange line is where grass face of the bunker will extend down to when completed.

Picture below the sand has all been excavated from the bunker. Again, the orange line is where the grass faces will extend down. Inside the orange line will be the edge of the sand.

Pictured below, trenches for drainage lines are dug with a backhoe. All of the material removed from the trenches was so rocky that it needed to be completely removed from the bunker.

Picture below, the drainage trenches are completely dug. Drainage pipe was then added and covered with pea-stone.

Pictured below, all of the new drainage has been installed. Veins of fresh sand have been added to cover the pea-stone and drainage pipe. This will prevent the exposed loam in the floor of the bunker from contaminating the new drainage.

What's next?

The floor of the bunker will be raised slightly with fresh soil. This will allow us to have the base of the bunker be relatively flat when completed. Next, we will frame out the bunker with "bender boards" and back fill soil to the boards to form the new grass face of the bunker. Once that is completed we will remove the "bender boards" and lay new sod on the face of the bunker and throughout the entire base of the bunker. The sod in the base of the bunker will provide an organic liner that will prevent small stones and other contaminants in the sub-surface of the bunker from forcing their way up into the new sand. The same exact process was used on the renovated bunker on #1 with great results. Once the sod has taken root reasonably well we will fill the bunker with sand and open it for play. As we progress through the process I will continue to post pictures and brief descriptions of what is pictured!

UPDATE: 10/16

The drainage is complete and was put to the test in a heavy rain-storm this morning. So far it passed with flying colors draining the heavy rain water exactly as expected / planned. Work will continue on Friday framing out the edges and faces of the bunker.

UPDATE: 10/22

Nearly 200 wooden stakes were hammered into the ground and composite bender board put in place to frame out the edge of the bunker. Loam will be back filled and graded behind the bender board after the rain storms this week.

UPDATE: 10/28

We have begun back filling loam behind the bender boards to shape the new face of the bunker. We will finish shaping on Wednesday morning and expect sod to be delivered and installed on Thursday morning.

UPDATE: 10/29

Ready for sod! It will be delivered and installed tomorrow morning!

UPDATE: 10/30

The sod was delivered and installed this morning. After the sod takes root we will add sand to the bunker and compact it. We anticipate the bunker being closed for the remainder of the season.