Yeah absolutely on the liner. Was even thinking of doing a fine gravel under the liner for drainage purposes, but will have to look into that deeper before committing (imagine the PDF you attached will answer a lot of my questions). Thanks for sharing.
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if you are feeling up to it you could add french drains to the bunker and run the drain out to the creek (if the land movement allows).
With the Road Hole bunker, could easily trench out a drain to the creek. Love that idea and may only cost $40ish bucks. Will keep the sand in better condition for minimal effort.
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Man, this is living the dream. Looking forward to watching the progress.
Another update: Augusta #12 replica hole is officially on the table.
Hopefully this gives a better idea of the #scale of the property. Working on revealing the creek and elevation changes where the tree line is now.
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You have a local university/college nearby that offers an agronomy program? This could be a cool project for an unpaid internship/thesis.
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That is a phenomenal idea… there is a community college right down the road and a major state university is less then a 40 minute drive away.
Absolutely get some K state guys in there who are home for the summer. Had a teammate go there for Ag and now is up at whistling straits I think, I can reach out see if he knows anyone there now…
That is a fantastic idea.
Long, hot weekend in the Midwest. Got a lot of work done and have officially opened up the now dubbed “Golden Bell” hole. Still lots of clean up left, but hopefully can give better visuals of the property.
Close up view from teeing area (roughly 85 yard shot)
A few of “Raes Creek” and the green area:
View from the green - still lots of work to do to get into playing shape:
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Any updates? I need my fix…
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Knocked out some not-so-sexy parts of this journey - mainly burning limbs/tree trunks and beginning to clear the field of debris. Did have the opportunity to take out 5 more trees opening up another green area and two new teeing areas. As of now, we have opened up seven teeing areas and two greens (with four distinct pin-able locations).
Here is a look at the aftermath of the initial burn (started Friday night. Picture taken 10:00AM today 6/25):
At times, it feels like we are moving backwards more then forwards (burned up a massive patch of healthy grass, all the leftover ash, more dropped trees, and all the mulch from stump grinding). Beginning to think we won’t be playing in decent conditions until spring next year.
Here is a panorama of the creek we opened up. There is now roughly 25 yards of open creek front. This is where the Golden Bell hole will go as well as multiple tee boxes.
Did you peep those logs nicely stacked in the bottom left hand corner of the panorama? Those are being hauled off next week to be milled into 10 foot long 6" X 2"s. They will be used to build a bridge crossing the creek. No, it will not be stone or nearly as grand as the Hogan Bridge, but it will (hopefully) look awesome and big enough to get the tractor over the creek.
What’s next?
- The next 10 days will be used for general clean up. There is still so much debris and downed branches/trees that need to be picked up and burned.
- We need to figure out what to do with the ashes from the fires - have thoughts of tilling it into the ground and starting from scratch with grass.
- Continued clean up of the vegetation on the newly established side of the creek. The green areas are open and can be cut with a lawnmower. However, we want #width, so we will continue taking out small bushes and knocking down vegetation. This is mostly so we can find poorly aimed golf shots and play the hole out. Landing on the green or losing your ball as the only options is no fun.
- Once all of the above is completed, we will be thinking of building bunkers on the newly opened side of the creek. There is a significant, sharp slope behind the Golden Bell green, so a true remake of the hole is a possibility - hold the magnolias.
- Establishing/Reestablishing turf will be in the making.
- Building the bridge.
- Bunker sand install and tee box build.
Would love to hear everyone’s thoughts. This is a work in progress and we are not stuck to anything. Any insight on making it better would be great - a la why I started this thread. Thanks for the interest!
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All I gotta ask is who’s organizing the 1st Refuge Shootout?
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Can you grow Azalea’s in your location?
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I’ve got no idea to the ideal living conditions of the Azalea. Looking through a quick Wiki, it appears that they grow in all sorts of conditions - from Texas to Minneapolis. We happen to be right in the middle of those locations.
Here are a few more pictures as the day has gone on.
The overgrown area right of the wagon wheel is the Road Hole bunker growing in. This will be the view of the Golden Bell green from one of the tee box areas. Outlined in yellow is what was taken out to open up green. Red is where we expect to have pin flags.
Here is the view from the green:
Needing some help on unique tee markers we could use.
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Where is our two-week update? Don’t make us come out there. HA!
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Man wish I had more to report. We are in the dog days of summer here in the Midwest. Over 95 degrees for the last week and expected to be the same thing the next 7 days. That being said, have been making some strides when we can.
The initial burn pile smoked for 16 days - through torrential downpours and all. Kept throwing debris on it and have basically gotten it down to ash which has been spread out across the main grass area of the property (heard it is great fertilizer - we shall see).
In the most recent picture posted above from the Golden Bell green looking back at the property, you can see a few downed trees on the right side of the picture. Those have been cleaned up and actually made a massive difference prompting a decision to do away with the idea of tee boxes.
Having cleared that area completely, we identified 3 or 4 additional teeing areas that looked great. At that point, we had found upwards of 11 teeing areas. It just made sense to go full woke, focus on growing reasonable turf everywhere, and just throw a ball down wherever you want. This may change once the turf grows in and if we want to have a tournament of sorts.
Another neat discovery after clearing the creek out of debris, overgrowth, and the trees is a natural rock wall - almost like a tiny version of a slate canyon (the property is a part of river bluffs, so no surprise).
The natural land movement of the Golden Bell hole screams of a Redan hole. Cannot decide if any bunkering is even worth it. Will send pics soon to get your guys opinion.
Getting the milled planks for the bridge back this weekend so that construction should be underway in the next week or so.
In process of sourcing bunker sand. More challenging then expected in that options are limited (without traveling 3+ hours).
As always, would love any input or ideas on how to make it better and more fun. Seeking a pin flag/flags for the Golden Bell hole (holes?). Purchased a Mammoth Dunes and Sandbox flags for the Road Hold green. Surprising how many parts go into a legit flag pole.
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Ash for “sand” in any bunkers? If you have much more to burn that is.
I played somewhere where they used coal “dust” and it was pretty cool and I would think pretty unique.