Thursday, October 17, 2013

#12 Forward Tee

We've been hard at work on #12 this month.  If you've been wondering what we're up to, the structure is going to be a new forward tee.  The old tee is very small and gives players a very poor angle to the fairway due to the growth of trees located along the player's right. 


Old tee showing limited shot options.
The new tee will give a much better angle to the fairway and will open the hole for multiple shot options for all players.  This tee is also much larger.  The idea is to be able to place multiple sets of tee markers, allowing this hole to be played as a driveable par 4 from the blue tees.  We feel this wrinkle will add some fun and excitement from time to time, but we do not intend to place the tees forward very often for pace of play concerns.

Building the base to elevate the new tee.
 
Thoroughly drained.

Sand capped

Sod and seed.
 It is late to establish turf via seed, but plants established from seed usually always fair better over time.  We did not want to harvest sod from our bentgrass nursery for two reasons.  First, the tees are a different variety of turf than the fairways and we want the new tee to match perfectly.  Second, the differing soil properties would not be compatible and would require us to "wash" the sod (removing the soil from the roots) which is incredibly painstaking.  We will be utilizing a grow cover to give the seed a better chance.  Purchasing washed bentgrass sod is a more expensive option we could go to in the spring should Mother Nature not cooperate this fall.