Back 9 Open

After a cool and wet spring, we have now decided to open the Back 9 at Leslie Park Golf Course. There are areas that have bare soil and are marked "Ground Under Repair." If your ball goes into these areas, please do not hit from inside the ropes. Pick up your ball and drop it at the nearest point of relief outside the roped area. There is no penalty for this. Also, please do not hit from the sodded areas. Treat this the same as the seeded areas.

Enjoy the weather and be aware that work will still be progressing during open play times.

Construction Project Update #12

Anderson-Fischer came in this week and laid bluegrass sod behind the four rock walls near 10,12,17 and 18 greens. This will enable those areas to be playable much sooner than if we had seeded the rough there. Unlike the fairway sod that was laid last week, this sod is the normal 18 inches by 36 inches.

The design engineer checks out the sod on #10 and calculates the area.

#12 green is to the left in this picture looking back toward the tee.

#17 green.

A close-up of the seventeenth green.

#18 green, looking back toward the tee.

The view from behind the green.

Project Update #11 (We have Sod)

Anderson-Fischer brought some of the bentgrass sod for the fairways early last week.

The skid-steer with the attachment for laying big roll sod. Big roll sod is 30 inches wide and 100 feet long.

The guys pulling the sod tight against the last roll on #14 fairway.

A short video demonstrating the process.

Rolls of sod waiting in the staging area.

As soon as the sod was laid out, we needed to get water on it. It is still dormant (hence the brown color) but water and warm temperatures should help to bring it out.

#11 fairway. Note how wide and flat the landing area is now.

#11 from the green. The areas that are bare soil now will be rough and will be seeded later.

The area between the north pond and Traver Road was hydroseeded with native prairie plants.

This blueish area on #12 was hydroseeded with a rough mix. The straw mulch blankets were put down after seeding with native wetland plants.

Project Update #10

The weather has finally started to turn and work is progressing nicely. The spoil areas are starting to be finished and prepped for seed. The seeding of some areas should begin on Saturday. The contractor added a rock wall to the left of #18 green. This will give the hole some relief for shots that go long on the finishing hole.

The new berm along Traver Road get power raked.

With the delay in spring warm-up, the opening of the back 9 of the course has been delayed for two weeks. We are now targeting Friday, April 12th.

Update #9

It has been a while since I have updated this project. The reason for this is the weather. The temperatures are at or below freezing and that has slowed down the progress. Things are starting to turn around now, so here are some pictures.

The trees have arrived!

Unloading the trees.

Digging the holes for the new trees on #11.

A hole ready for the tree that is right next it.

Trees for the mound next to the north pond. (#17)

A video of the rootball digger.

Working hard on a cold and snowy first day of spring.

Update #8

The excavation of Traver Creek through the golf course as well as the excavation of the arrowood drain are complete. These areas have been seeded with a native plant mixture and covered with straw mulch blankets. The crossings have been fabricated and are usable. Rough grading of most of the spoil pils on the golf course is complete. There are three major piles that still need rough grading, the berm along Traver Road, the hill between #18 tee and #10 fairway as well as the hill to the west of #14 tee.

All of the spoil piles need final grading as well as seeding of the turfgrass varieties. Sod will be laid along #11 fairway, #10 tee and fairway as well as any area where haul roads crossed fairways. Some of these areas include #14, #16, #13 and possibly #18.

Golf Course staff are looking at finalizing plans for tree replacement. There are over 100 trees that are budgeted to be planted after the ground thaws.

One other major assignment will be the repair and replacement of damaged irrigation pipe and heads that either needed to be moved or were damaged during construction.

Most of this work cannot be acomplished during sub-freezing weather, so the construction crew will be taking some time off and will be back in a couple of weeks.

Here are some photos of Traver Creek about to crest above the "low flow channel" and into the "high flow channel." This allows the water to signifcantly slow down and deposit sediment that it has picked up before finally making it to the Huron River.

Near #12 green.

From #13 tee. #10 tee is the large mound of soil to the right of the creek.

Looking from the bridge near #13 tee toward the practice green.

The convergance of the new arrowood drain and Traver Creek.

Update #7

After taking some time off at the end of the year, progress has been steady on the Traver Creek project. Unfortunately, snow has fallen and pictures do not come out well in snowy conditions.

Here are some.

On the bridge between #12 green and #13 tee, looking toward #11 green.

Same bridge, looking toward the practice green.

#13 tee.

New crossing over the Arrowood drain, looking toward #11 fairway.

Same crossing, looking back toward #11 tee.

Wetland between #11 green and #12 green after seeding. Taken from the bridge near #12 tee.

Same view,  looking toward #13 tee.

This video was taken from #13 tee. It shows three excavators working on the creek and wetland.