Jeff, I'm glad you started a separate Erin Hills thread, as I was confused trying to keep up with
mention of it on 3 different threads.
Troy, welcome newcomer. Are you a super, where? Are you planning your own project?
I have questions, I hope anyone connected with Erin Hills can answer, or at least one of our regular GC archies might help me understand.
The articles says this:
Twelve or 13 of the fairways were not altered at all, according to Fry. Landscapes Unlimited mowed the grass, installed the irrigation, applied three applications of Roundup and seeded straight into the soil. The land was so perfect for golf that Landscapes Unlimited irrigated more than half the holes before crews moved any dirt at all.
And Grieser’s crews did little topsoil stripping to keep the land’s organic content. They simply scraped off the top and cored out the green sites to install drainage and build California-style sand greens, retaining all the contours. Fine fescue was planted directly into all the fairways and roughs, while A-4 bentgrass was used on the greens and Penncross on the tees.
Looking at the above photo, how can you seed directly to that soil for fairways? I have walked a good number of kettle-morraine properties in that area myself. The glacial till of rocks as seen above is common. How do you prevent the rocks from surfacing every season with freeze-thaw cycles as we have here? Similarly, how do you trench irrigation lines in without backfilling sand and basing pea gravel (not this conglomerate rocky stuff) without the freeze-thaw breaking your lines?
Don't get me wrong here. This course is the bomb!
I am thrilled for Dr. Hurdzan, Fry, Whitten, and supporting cast like Rod Whitman, to create what is shaping up to be something VERY SPECIAL here in Wisconsin. The cheeseheads are on a roll!
Mr Trattner, I am totally jealous of you for finding this land, finding a serious developer, and ramrodding such a project. As I allude to above, I have been a wandering cheesehead in Badger land looking over hill and dale for the same sort of deal. You lucky stiff!