Sand Capping.

[Dane Hawker]

It worked out at another 33%. I forgot to mention these also need fungicide, wetting agents etc.
It was bad enough trying to maintain 27 holes let alone have these.

We have to close the course for four days to core our areas.

[JMEvensky]

Dane,a hard question to answer,but does the membership consider the added expense worthwhile? Are they more happy with the improved conditions than they're pissed off about the higher maintenance costs?

I think I'm in David Tepper's boat--trying to figure out the cost/value ratio.

[Dane Hawker]

Its a hard one.

90 percent of golfers wouldn't even know they are there. Some liked them so much that they wanted all the fairways to be done.
The higher maintenance costs were never passed on to members. They pay the same sub plus inflation.

We are on a full clay course and get high rainfall every winter. I personally think it was the wrong option to spend so much money making the course semi playable for 3 months of winter when golfers play most of their golf in Spring/Summer/Autumn.

Also these sand carpets were mostly built during the early - mid 2000's when they used to chuck around heaps of water and fertiliser.

We have transitioned 2/3rd's of our fairways from Poa Annua to Colonial Bentgrass and these do not get as wet during the winter. We have 9 holes of Ryegrass fairways which get super wet in winter. I believe under the current management practices most of the areas that were made into sandcarpets would probably be fine now. We also invested in a vertidrain which has helped heaps!

[Eric Smith]

Heard from Grandpa Joe Hancock tonight! Here are some relevant pics (along with Joe's description) from the course he's helping to build in Louisiana.


The fairway is cored out in preparation for drainage and sand capping


The drainage is installed on a fairway


A fairway w/ the sand capping in place

[Steve Okula]

Judging from the landscape in the background, that is some flat, low-lying ground and likely a challeng to drain effectively.

Is that the Lake Pontchartrain causeway?

[David Davis]

Here in The Netherlands, they've actually done the reverse. (please don't try this at home - incompetence at it's best!) Laying a layer of clayish dirt over a pure sand based dunes land. the reasoning, because they wanted the grass to grow quicker.

Adding insult to injury the clay/dirt contains spoils from garbage with a high battery content, deemed safe for use way back when until the same organization came back and declared it unsafe ground and assessed the most outrageous price you could imagine to have it removed, to the point that none of the clubs could even consider being able to afford the removal costs...

 

[Joe Hancock]

Judging from the landscape in the background, that is some flat, low-lying ground and likely a challeng to drain effectively.

Is that the Lake Pontchartrain causeway?

Steve,

That's the I-210 bypass around Lake Charles, La. It's in the SW corner of the state, about 30 miles upstream of the Gulf.

Most of the property was 4-5 feet above sea level before construction. Now, the waste areas are at a minimum of 4 feet, with everything else running at 5-13 feet. You're right, drainage is a challenge.

Joe

[archie_struthers]

 

When we built Twisted Dune at the Jersey Shore we capped all the fairways with indigenous sand we gathered on site . Approximately 8-12 inches per fairway . It wasn't quite as expensive for us as we were already shipping  tons of material off site daily and we just diverted the sand to the fairways.

Can't  really comment accurately on the  drainage had we not done so, but the soil profile was bad and I was concerned that we needed a better medium for growth. We were quite unlucky in that  despite cutting and removing millions of tons of gravel we just kept hitting more. In a perfect world we would have cut more , which we were able to sell , until we hit sand. Time constraints precluded this .

Despite lots and lots of rain during the final stages of construction the sand never morphed into a slurry, or anything resembling the early stages of concrete. It just didn't . In fact except for the biggest slopes the sand stabilized and held well. The rain did wash out the seed on lots of slopes , and was quite sad to watch . Just reseeded and waited for Mother Nature to give us a break .as any superintendent or growers know , rain is a Godsend , in moderation.

[BCowan]

When we built Twisted Dune at the Jersey Shore we capped all the fairways with indigenous sand we gathered on site . Approximately 8-12 inches per fairway . It wasn't quite as expensive for us as we were already shipping  tons of material off site daily and we just diverted the sand to the fairways.

Can't  really comment accurately on the  drainage had we not done so, but the soil profile was bad and I was concerned that we needed a better medium for growth. We were quite unlucky in that  despite cutting and removing millions of tons of gravel we just kept hitting more. In a perfect world we would have cut more , which we were able to sell , until we hit sand. Time constraints precluded this .

Despite lots and lots of rain during the final stages of construction the sand never morphed into a slurry, or anything resembling the early stages of concrete. It just didn't . In fact except for the biggest slopes the sand stabilized and held well. The rain did wash out the seed on lots of slopes , and was quite sad to watch . Just reseeded and waited for Mother Nature to give us a break .as any superintendent or growers know , rain is a Godsend , in moderation.

Archie,

    Your site at TD was rocky and sandy?  So you were selling the gravel and buying topsoil or other materials?  Interesting.  Solid thread