Thank you Forrest.....and I think its interesting to note that our two courses in the Baja Peninsula couldn't be farther apart!....distance wise that is, and
I'm sure they have a hole host of similarities.
Actually sand fence has already become a staple for sand drift control, but usually as a temporary measure until we can re vegetate and stabilize the up wind sand share sources that tend to migrate quite freely when the wind blows above 25mph.
We have three or four holes that are in high sand mobility areas, which I have had serious concerns about from the beginning....enough concern at times to be not quite sure if we should commit the effort to build them....and just as much concern about saddling the future maintenance staff with having to maintain them.
I don't have these fears now, for a variety of reasons:
The existing dune sand was tested and found to be excellent greens mix and topdressing, with an exceedingly high perc rate.....and was good enough that we would not need to amend it with organics, or need to provide any sub surface drainage piping.....in the greens, bunkers or fairways.
Basically the whole site is one of bringing water to where you want to grow grass, add fertilizer and grow!
The grass we chose was a variety of paspalum, "Supreme", that has the ability to be used as the green, fairway and rough.....essentially, since we have only one kind of grass, the type of playing surface we want is determined by cutting height. We are not bound by a green shape or size....we can change it at will, or we can let the wind change it at will! The blowing sand top dresses and raises areas that work well aerodynamically and provide play interest much of the time....in fact throughout the shaping process we would routinely just punk up areas and go away to let the wind finish the shaping work for us.
As I mentioned previously, the ability to have movable cart paths by the use of RR ties was another important part of the flexibility puzzle.
Water is another.....because putting water on the surface reduces its ability to move, and this was driven home to me last year, when by poor planning on my part, I was able to sit through a Cat 1 hurricane.....peak winds maybe reached 100 mph.
After it passed, I made my way to the site expecting a lot of wind blow outs and damage.
Much to my surprise there was none to speak of....in fact it was almost finely polished and looked better than before the storm!
The rain that accompanied the wind held the sand in place, and I learned much about how to use irrigation for erosion control.
Anyway....just a few random thoughts....I'm getting out of here.
