Nice work Ran,
In addition to all those thanked in addition to the nematodes, we should thank the diseased mature pine trees that were deemed a safety hazard to golfers around 8 years ago. The club pulled out thousands of trees at that point. (as I have witnessed in photos, you couldn't see across fairways due to massive, thick pines, ie 13, 14, 15, those which are shared fairways today. You can imagine the shade.
And as importantly, not leave out BRAD KLEIN for helping the club realize how they should embrace their pedigree more, explaining how much this course could be improved. Dave Wilber is also high among those whose involvment was so important. The GM of almost 30 years Dennis Mahoney was the perfect guy to have at the helm.
Also, on the straight "getting things done" side of thanking management people, assistant Grant Johnson and Roger Smidstra put long hours in to help carry out all the in house activities, which included tree clearing, stump gringing, chipping, hydroseeding, bunker drainage and finish work
To answer a few questions...
So far, the bunkers have drained excellent, and there have been few wash outs to date, and minor washes at that. We plan to install sand trapper matting in those few spots this year.
As for the number, most felt strongly we should not stray from what we found on the 37 and 38 aerials, given the pedigree there. So we do have a lot, but not quite 150. It is high 130s or low 140s on the course itself. I would mentally count them now, but have exams to study for at Rutgers.
The crew that maintains them is small, but does have a lot of work, this is mainly because we hand rake them all and cut a lot of the grass with weed eaters. We feel these things are mandatory given the artistic nature of these hazards.
On the hole though, the fine fescue that surrounds the bunkers grows slower than the old poa annua and we do not edge the bunkers mechanically, which was very time consuming on the old course. We will attempt to keep them from shrinking over time, but not by mechanically edging them and cuttiing into soil. Also, many fairway edges go directly into the fronts of traps and as far as we can tell, those edges are less maintenance, the sidewinder riding mower can cut that grass in one or two passes. No handwork really necessary there.
No sod was used on this project, which is something we are really proud of. (except for right around the clubhouse where some walk paths were redesigned). We hydroseeded 100 percent of the grassed areas, including bunker edges, roughs, natives, fws, and hydromulch capped greens and tees after drop seeding them.
One final note, when ranking courses how much do you weigh the variety of shot options and shortgrass around all the greens? I consider it pretty important.