#3 Is Done

Number three is done, not fully open yet, but we are getting close. Expect to use a mat on the tee box for a week come Friday. The second green will need some more time prior to opening. A comment was made recently about the variety of the bluegrass sod used for the area. As I mentioned before it came to us from Emerald Sod Farm in Commerce City, CO. The bluegrass blend consists of four different varieties that are proven highly successful on research test sites in the Rocky Mountain Region. These varieties provide a natural dark green color, drought tolerance, disease resistance, shade tolerance and density. However, no turfgrass is drought resistant but going forward we strive to find the best performance overall turfgrass.

The latest on #3

Almost there, a bit short on sod on Saturday. New sod will be cut today to be delivered and installed tomorrow. The top part of the hole along the new cart path and the old cart path are all that remains to be installed. The sod is coming from Emerald Sod Farm in Commerce City, CO. 3" cut is being put down for all rough areas, tees and fairway sod is at 3/4".

This is a view from the cart path in front of the forward tee looking back. You will notice an erosion mat on the right side of the hole and soon to be on the left side. These areas are going to be native and grown in by seed.

The final completion date has been rescheduled to next Monday, June 15th due to the recent rains we have had. There remains a little more drainage work, but everything here is on the right track.

Opening these areas is uncertain right now. The sod must begin to root before any play or traffic of any kind is allowed. My biggest concern is the hillside between the holes. That must be safe enough to walk on before opening the second green. But everything should be open by Fathers Day Weekend.

Grassing On #3

Grassing on #3 is almost complete. The last truck of sod will be here on Tuesday to finish. The tees, slope to 2 green and the approach area are completed. The sod will need 10 days to 2 weeks to root and begin more growth before we can open them up for play. Especially the slope to the left of 2 green. This area needs to root so walkers climbing the hill can safely make it to the tee box without sliding.

A New Cart Path

Cart path is done! After a few days of drying the base and prepping, Friday marked another high note for happenings at Vail Golf Club. This is not asphalt and not concrete, it is called Sta-lok. It is a native road base and sand mixture with polymers to bind together and make a path material. It has a much softer feel than the two aforementioned products. The path looks and feels more like a trail rather than a road. Sta-lok is also flexible, with the frost heave from the winter, this material will easily fit back into place if there is any cracking. It was installed with an asphalt machine for the smoothest surface. A little raking and grooming was involved as the material would harden. Finally a sheet was placed down and rolled with a heavy duty drum. We are excited to see the results when the season gets under way on the front nine.
Today, LUI continued to prep for laying the sod down this coming week. If Mother Nature is kind to us we'll have it grassed beginning Tuesday, hopefully fully done by Thursday. I will wait to see how it comes out to determine the limits of play.

#3 Update

Here are some of the latest pictures of #3. The irrigation will be completed today. The greens heads and surrounds are already done. The new central command computer has been installed to the office to control these heads. Since there are no field satellite controllers with this system it is imperative for an accurate computer system.
The top picture was taken from the end of the new cart path. It ends lining up directly with the path at 4 tee box. The old path has been removed, topsoil is being incorporated and prepared for sod next week.


Road base will be installed on the new cart path location today and the new tee boxes are ready for sod. Kevin Atkinson, (golf architect) will be here today and/or tomorrow to review the project and we will discuss tree placement. Once irrigation is complete on the hole, trees will be planted. Next week will include final grade with topsoil and sodding.

Drainage

Here is a trench coming down the 3rd tee box into the 2nd approach. The drain will continue across the hole and pick up surface water between the 2nd and 8th hole. The drain will daylight in the rough on the 8th hole, heading back towards the tee on 8.

Notes from the Architect

I just opened my email to read this from Kevin Atkinson our course architect working on #3. He visited the site yesterday and came up with these notes: (I need a picture of him)
"Here are some informal notes from my visit today. Things are looking good. Discussed creating slopes soft enough to allow walkers to walk from #2 green to #3 tee. These access "paths" are going to be maintained turf and approximately 10 -12 feet wide. One walking access "path" is on the back right corner of the new rear tee. The second walking access path is shaped parallel to the slope between the tees and the approach fairway. We will not need a wall along the right side of the new tees. This slope will be grassed to a native seed blend. The black tee was roughly measured 25 x 50 and we re-staked the alignment to point toward the middle of the green. The blue/gold tee was roughly measured 40 x 80 and will be 1 foot lower than the black tee. The forward tee will bee approximately 30 x 40 and the sub-grade height looked fine."

#3 Proposed

At this time google is not allowing me to post pdf files to the blog. So if any of you out there know a way, I would love to learn. I want to post the proposed drawings, so you have to believe me when I tell you that sometimes in golf design and build, there can be changes in the field from what is on paper. What you can not see from these drawings are the approximate size of the new tee boxes, new cart path and new plantings of trees. However after doing much of the grading over the last week, there is no need for walls in the area. New trees will be scattered around the hole and course to make up what came out of the area. The new sand traps will not be incorporated into this year's plan. New drainage will be installed to assist with chronic wet conditions in front of the second green.

Wet Conditions

This picture was taken by LUI's Superintendent for #3, Tom Keefe. This scene is not good for moving dirt. We'll have to wait another day to see any progress with the shaping of the tee box. So far it is looking great. We recently found an old valve that we have struggled for years to find. Hopefully it still works, it would be a big help with tying in the new system with the old for a couple of months.

Green Light

The trees are gone from the 3 tee box area and all of the silt and construction fence is in place. All critical rootzones for remaining trees have been located and protected. Now it is on to the demolition of the walls.
The main reason for this work is to correct a life safety issue. Due to the severity of this, Vail Golf Club has no choice but to correct this issue ASAP. As you can see here the retaining wall is failing and the surface of the tee box is beginning to slide. The tee box is in poor health and does not set up properly with the green.
In this project all of the tee boxes will be re-shaped and expanded, most of the walls will be removed by a grass slope. The cart path will be re-aligned and trees, native grasses and even some wildflowers will be incorporated into the area. The timeline for this project is about 4 weeks. A temporary green for 2 and a tee for 3 will be in place until the new sod for the tee box rooted properly for play which could be mid-June.
There was a separate bid process for this work and Landscaped Unlimited won again. Along with the irrigation system, the goal is for both crews to work simultaneously to have the area prepared for irrigation so the new tee boxes can be established properly.

Three Tee Box Update

This was the scene on Friday amidst the snow/rain we were having. Fortunately we did not get close to what the Denver area had, but it did not help with melting.
With temperatures in the 50's on Sunday and Monday some of this snow has melted away. Here, Tony is using the snowcat to move snow into sun exposed areas to encourage melting and speed up a construction start date. Demolition can begin at almost anytime, however there is still too much snow in this area to shape the soil. The dilemma is getting Landscapes Unlimited started in this area for a couple of days to demo, then only to stop and wait for further melting to continue. By the end of the week we should have a better idea with a construction schedule. All in all, we are looking at a 4-5 week process to have the 2nd green and third hole buttoned up.

Just Another Day

I guess the Front Range and Denver area are getting lots of snow this weekend. Not so much here in Vail. Just a few inches have fallen since Thursday, however there hasn't been much accumulation. Friday we spent some time removing snow around the third tee box and the second green. We will also be doing some renovation work in that area and eliminating the failing retaining wall. We are excited to begin this project as soon as the snow is gone. There will be significant improvements to the tee box area and should solve many traffic issues.

Tomorrow is the last day Vail Mountain is open for the season. It should be a fun time and from there it is mostly all business.