Great job by Dan Meersman and the entire team: ALL Wissahickon greens have been sodded! Given the full-scale nature of our project, achieving this within three months is a major accomplishment! We are very appreciative of the team we have in place that made it all happen.
Medalist Golf- each green requires about twenty, 23-ton truckloads of greensmix and gravel. In addition, Medalist has to excavate twenty truckloads of material from each green cavity prior to construction. Balancing the management of all of this activity around the weather, and all the other course-wide activities is quite a chore.
Tanto Irrigation- The sodding of any feature following fine-grading triggers the passing of responsibility from Medalist to PCC Staff. With irrigation needing to be installed between this transition, there is a tremendous amount of pressure applied daily to our irrigation contractor to quickly finish their work so sodding can proceed. Tanto employees have worked feverishly, in sync of the contractor, to ensure we transition smoothly from construction mode to course-conditioning mode.
East Coast Sod- Initial communications with East Coast Sod began when Dan first started at Philly Cricket, nearly five years ago. Last August, almost a year before our project began, East Coast seeded our greens at their farm in New Jersey and has nurtured them carefully ever since. Their specialized staff is the best at laying greens sod, and they have installed all our greens, tee, and approach sod.
Keith Foster- Keith spends much more time on-site than most golf course architects, and the club benefits from that in numerous ways. Regarding greens, there were many days where Keith stayed much later in the evening than originally planned to help us achieve approvals on final grading. This allowed us to sod the very next day.
PCC Staff- It is often difficult for individuals to execute cautiously, yet relentlessly, but this is exactly what our staff is doing in executing our intense greens grooming program.
In particular, Drew Barnett, our Wissahickon Superintendent has done an outstanding job. Between sand, gravel, and sod, this project is requiring over 1,000 truckloads of material; and all material invoices are being purchased through the club, not the contractor. Drew and our Administrative Assistant, Patricia Tobon, have done an outstanding job tracking everything accurately. Their skill and discipline allow Dan to forecast spending ahead of billing, and manage the project with confidence. Drew is also accomplishing this while overseeing all our employees' daily tasks, and performing tasks himself.