Seminole has too much sand, 1981

[Neil Regan]

If you want to see a great article with color pictures of major work done at Seminole in 1981, check out this article:

And The Sand Runneth Over[/size]
by BILL WHITAKER, Golf Course Superintendent,
Seminole Golf Club, North Palm Beach, Florida
http://turf.lib.msu.edu/1980s/1984/840709.pdf

An excerpt:

… In 1981 several of the 193 bunkers at the Seminole Golf Club, in North Palm Beach, Florida, had between [/size]two and four feet of sand! [/b][/size]Over 50 years of bunker sand accumulation had occurred. Even though digging out this amount of sand would be a sizeable task, the Board of Governors decided to go ahead and re-do the greenside bunkers during the summer of 1981.Their intention was to bring the depths back to conform to the architect’s original plans. Donald Ross designed and built this course in 1929, and it was obvious to me, from studying his plans, that no sand had ever been removed from the bunkers. I was faced with moving approximately 9,000 tons of sand. We rented two nine yard dump trucks and one Gradeall with an operator. …

[Neil Regan]

Another excerpt:

It was amazing to view a sand profile three feet thick that had built up since 1929. Both bunkers behind number 14 green were very carefully hand-dug to the bottom. As I stood there looking at the layers of old sand, I couldn’t help but wonder how deep this bunker sand was when Pearl Harbor was attacked in 1941. One of the old timers, who had worked for the club for 41 years, explained the black ring about six inches from the bottom. He said, “That’s from growing [/size]watermelons[/size] in the traps during World War II.” The club was closed from 1942 through 1945.

[/color][/size]

[Evan Fleisher]

Another really interesting piece you have come up with...where did you find these things?  Great to see the accompanying pictures as well...

[TEPaul]

That kind of research material is just so incredibly valuable to a club and an architect interested in bunker restoration. I only hope that the club learned from that in the last twenty years and that the last bunker restoration took that into account.

With that kind of information in hand the club and their architect could also begin to measure the evolutionary "sand kick" build up on the top profiles of fronting bunkers and begin to get a clear idea of what the architectural depths of their original bunkers was and if they wanted to restore to that or perhaps even preserve the evolutionary changes due to decades of play!

That's the raw research material from which intelligent and competent decision making emanates!

[TEPaul]

redanman;

You and I may not see completely eye to eye on the issue of trees on golf courses but you're sure right about the rationale of that man at Oak Hill who said that trees needed to be planted on all golf courses to prevent courses and turf and such from eroding away or blowing away or whatever.

That rationale is somewhere between a real stretch and complete bullshit!

However, there's a somewhat analagous phenomenon at work on my farm here this year regarding leaves. I was too damned lazy to get them raked up and taken away this year and chose to apply my grandmother's stated method of just doing nothing under the theory that they'll just blow into someone else's property.

This year that seems to have happened like a charm. But it occurs to me that since it happened the very strong wind might have been blowing one way. It occurs to me if the wind turns around and blows just as hard in the opposite direction that my grandmother's theory will probably be somewhere between a real stretch and complete bullshit!!

[ian]

A note on Oak Hill:

The trees at Oak Hill were all carefully selected and cultivated from acorns from all around the world by a (medical) doctor who was an origional member. I wish I could remember his name. The oaks are said to be one of the great collections in arborculture. Golf aside, it is one of the more interesting stories.

[TEPaul]

"We are also closer than you think on the tree issue."

redanman:

For that to be so you'd probably just have to come right out and admit that a William Flynn, for instance, actually did occasionally center some of his strategic hole concept around the use of trees and that he did it well! That's completely provable by the way.

[SPDB]

Evan - May have been indicated on another thread, but the Turfgrass Information Center at Mich. St. has a ton of resources available to the public. Including USGA Green Section Records dating back to the 20's. Click below to link to the Green Section Archives.

Green Section Records

[Brian_Gracely]

Ian -

The Oak Hill member's name was John R. Williams.  Their annual four-ball amateur tournament is named after Dr. Williams.

[Neil Regan]

Ian,
  Another recent thread links to an article by Mr. Williams about his tree project at Oak Hill 50 Years ago. The thread is
The Utilitarian Value of Trees[/size]

Click here to go there

[Evan Fleisher]

SPDB,

Thanks!  Got it bookmarked now...

[ian]

nregan,

thanks.

Ian