In reading how Erin Hills Golf Course was built I’ve often wondered specifically about the fairway construction and how they apparently:
A. just cut slits in the existing turf to bury the irrigation lines
B. simply sprayed the existing field turf with Round Up and then planted the fairway grass seed in the existing top soil
Am I correct in assuming that most all of the time when constructing a golf course, you go ahead and strip the top soil, set it aside, then shape the dirt underneath and then reapply the topsoil – or something like that anyway?
As I’ve mentioned a few times on here before, I think and dream of how to get a golf course built on our farm someday. The method used in constructing Erin Hills intrigues me. It is my belief that what we have is a great site for golf. The fields and corridors for play are gently rolling with enough natural contour, natural drainage and elevation change where I don’t believe I would want to see it shaped all that much and secondly, this method sounds like a relatively inexpensive task, compared to the alternative, which is WAY WAY IMPORTANTO if it is ever to see the light of day. All this and a quarter will get you, well, a quarter.
Realistically, what are some of the pitfalls of this sort of fairway construction? Any other examples of good golf courses doing it like the team at Erin Hills did it?