#18 Durabunker Construction Day #1

Yesterday (Monday) Southeastern Golf had two experienced personnel arrive to help with the Durabunker installation. Miguel has more experience than anyone in the United States constructing these types of bunkers and we are fortunate he was working with Southeastern on a project nearby in Maryland. He immediately had us set-up a system to cut the pieces of material so they would fit the shape of the bunker.

The material, which is impregnated with sand needs to be constantly wet during the cutting and installation process in order to not lose the sand. Therefore a system was set-up with hoses for this purpose.

There are two types of cuts made. Depending on whether the bunker shape moves inward or outward.

The upper piece in the above picture is what the Durabunker arrives as. The next piece in the picture has two straight cuts made about 1 inch from the top of the material so when laid the piece can be fit along an inward facing curve. The third piece from the top is the second type of cut made in which two triangles are removed. These pieces are laid to fit along an outward facing curve. An example of this is the bottom piece in the above picture. I will try and illustrate how these cuts are used through pictures of the installation process in another post.

Finally yesterday, some fine shaping was started on the bunker itself.

The plan for Tuesday is the finish the fine shaping and get the base made and compacted where the Durabunker will be laid. We will also continue to cut the pieces of the Durabunker material in preparation for the beginning of installation which should occur late Tuesday or Wednesday morning.

Upcoming Schedule

Starting today for the next 3-4 days we will be working with Southeastern Golf to install the Durabunker portion of the fairway bunker on #18. Next week we will be working on the drainage and floor of this bunker with in-house labor.

Unless we find a major leak when we start our irrigation system at the end of the week the halfway house restroom should be open for the weekend.

Starting next Monday we will bring in some outside labor on a temporary basis to work on getting the bunkers into shape. First starting with the greenside bunkers then the fairway bunkers.

Seasonal Labor

Each year we bring back a very experienced staff of workers from Mexico through H2B visas. Some staff members have been here for 15 years. Their knowledge of the course and how we operate along with an amazing work effort gives Fieldstone a major advantage. Without this staff we would need to hire additional workers to make up for the shortfall of not having the knowledge already in place that our associates have.

Last week I hosted an informal lunch of local superintendents with the major discussion centering on labor. Some courses can go through as many as 100 job applicants to find 20 that work. Only to have to retrain new staff each year due to the seasonal nature of the work. This is time consuming and costly.

Through no fault of Fieldstone's the government has delayed the start date of our returning workers. This is the case for the entire H2B program. Their exact start date is not known but we are hoping by the end of April. In the meantime we will hire an outside contractor to help with course clean-up and bunker repairs. The mowing will be done by myself, our mechanic Tim and Assistant Superintendent Matt. Potentially a new staff member will come in to also help with the mowing.

A replacement for former Assistant Superintendent Carey Bailey will come at the end of May via the University of Delaware's Plant Science Program.

As of now our weather forecast is the following:

It looks like the recent streak of warm weather may be it for awhile.

Please do not hesitate to contact me directly regarding any questions or comments about our current labor situation.

Good Luck to Assistant Superintendent Carey Bailey

Today is Carey Bailey's last day working at Fieldstone Golf Club. He has been an Assistant Superintendent here for the past three years and is a major reason for our success during that time. His new position is Golf Course Superintendent at Heritage Hunt Country Club in Gainesville, VA. We wish him and his family the best of luck in this great opportunity!

We are proud to have had two Assistant Superintendents move on to Head Superintendent jobs in the past year. This shows how strong Fieldstone's reputation is for turfgrass management and helps us attract better assistants who are looking to further their career in golf course management.

#18 Fairway Bunker Prep

Last week we removed all of the old material from the fairway bunker on #18.

As of right now, next week the DuraBunker material will be installed.

#18 Fairway Bunker

This morning the material arrived for the construction of the stack sod bunker in the middle of #18 fairway. This bunker was redone in 2012 but due to the organic nature of using stack sod, decomposition has caused the face of the bunker to fail.

This is standard for all stack sod bunkers which last only a few years before needing to be re-built. Even in an advantageous climate such as Scotland these bunkers are constantly being re-done.

In order to lessen the cost of re-building the bunker we looked into options such as removing the bunker completely or making it a "regular bunker" such as the majority of the bunkers on the course. These options were not suitable to following the original design and intent of the course architecture. A product called Durabunker (Durabunker website) was recently used at a Troon managed course in Tennessee with great results. This product mimics stack sod but will last for over 20 years. There are plenty of pictures and videos on the website.

This morning the material arrived from England.

Up close pictures using Pinki as a reference.

The next step will be done in-house over the next 1-2 weeks which is to remove the old material from the current bunker. Then a certified installer will come, hopefully the week of March 7th, who will work with us to install the material.

Course Opening

Had some nice weather today with snow melting and it looks warm for the weekend as well. Although the next few days are forecasted to be cool. Just wanted to reiterate something I wrote on the blog a few years ago:

While out on the course today I realized that some may have questions as to why we have frost delays or close the course when the holes around the clubhouse look frost and snow free. While this is true, there are holes on the interior and far side of the course that for various reasons stay colder and the frost and snow are still present.

Also, when we get into freeze and thaw periods root shearing can occur. This is when the top 1/2 to 1 inch of the soil is thawed out but the soil below is not. Therefore traffic causes the top, unthawed, layer to move and literally cuts the roots away from the area below which is frozen. Of course we do not want this to happen!

We will be reviewing the course every day this week and weekend so we may open at the earliest possible time without damaging the course.