Tell me about your Elks course.

[Tom Roewer]

Dan M. - A good friend caddied @ The Futures Tournament @ Kankakee and 3 friends played.  I looked @ the aerial and it sure appeared to me that many bunkers had been grassed in over time.  I would like to se that old aerial     thanks

[RSLivingston_III]

I think I'll start a thread on Kankakee Elks with more photos tonight when I have some time.  The 1939 aerial shows little or no sand on the course.  It also shows very few trees except for a grove where the 8th green and ninth tee were inserted.  By the greens being better than Lawsonia I was referring mostly to speed.  More tonight.  

p.s.  At Kankakee Elks in the LPGA Futures Tour tournament this year Seo-Jae Lee set a new record of -8 over 54 holes besting Nicole Castrale's -7 in 2005.  

Hopefully the 1939 USGS(?) has enough detail to show the "ghost" outlines of the filled-in bunkering. The 30's were definitely a bad decade for the earlier courses.
Does Tufts Archives have any plans or notes for the course?

[Dan Moore]

I will post the aerial later in a seperate thread on the course; hopefully I'll have time tonight.  

I would think there was sand there too once upon a time if I hadn't seen the aerial and wasn't aware they didn't put any sand in the bunkers at Spring Valley.  It took a while to convince me they never had sand at Spring Valley, but I am convinced now even if the old plans show 65 sand bunkers.

[RSLivingston_III]

I would bet they were designed as bunkers and the golf committee and/or construction team didn't follow through. Or depending on what year it was built and how close to the depression that was, they were probably filled in relatively quickly.
Get a 3' soil probe and go down into the middle of them. They tended just to be top soiled over and you can find a substantial layer of sand down there. I was told by the super that the bunkers at my old Ross course could have been dug out, refilled and be right back into business.
Running around with a soil probe on an old course is a lot of fun.
You will learn a lot about the green pads too.
This is of course based on the course not having been worked on too much.