Friday, April 26, 2013

Tee construction and irrigation at Hampshire Greens

One of the final winter projects that was wrapped up in March at Hampshire Greens was the construction of two new tee boxes on holes #8 and #14.  Par 3 tees get beat up with divots throughout the season, especially the bentgrass ones at this course.  The new tees will provide increased teeing area to distribute divots, as well as adding an additional challenge to our golfers playing the back tees there.

Here is an update from Golf Course Superintendent Teddy Blauvelt, who has done a great job with MCG since 2007 at this property.
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Many people ask, “What does maintenance do in the winter when it’s cold.” My answer is “projects.” Projects are labeled so because they are outside the realm of everyday golf course maintenance work. They are not completed during the golfing season for two main reasons. The first is because the scope of work would severely interfere with the golfer and their round. The second, is well, there is plenty of traditional everyday work to fill each day for the maintenance staff.

March is a busy month which includes getting these winter projects wrapped up, but also later in the month to get ready for the golfing season with routine maintenance. Some winter projects include: Bunker renovations, tee constriction, irrigation installs and upgrades, drainage projects etc… Today we will focus on two projects being completed at Hampshire Greens this winter. Tee additions, to the par three 14th and 8th holes, and an irrigation addition to the right side of 13th hole.

The tee additions, why? Both holes have limited tee space in comparison to the length of tee shot. The addition of championship tee tops will lengthen the holes, relieve traffic stress, help with divot recovery, and create an aesthetically pleasing yet challenging golf shot.

The 14th will be about 155 yds and consistently hold the black, championship tee markers.





We utilized the hillside behind the current 14th tee to simply cut and fill, then shape the new tee top.

The new 8th will be about 205 yds and will be used in rotation with the current championship tee to hold the black markers. 

We needed to add a LOT of soil to build the tee. We used soil from 2 mounds on the seventh hole to build the tee. We did this to alleviate a cart traffic problem created from these mounds on the left side of the hole. We also needed to lower the current blue tee top on the 8th in order for the new tee top to have clear sight to the green. This will also increase area of the blue tee, a win win. Almost a, “3 birds 1 stone deal!” 


Along side the right side rough of the 13th fwy we installed a third irrigation line and sprinkler heads. Currently, the sub-par irrigation system has two rows of irrigation heads. One runs down the left side intermediate/fwy. The second runs down the right/middle of the fwy. This leads to very poor irrigation coverage to the right side of the fwy, especially in the tee shot landing area. By adding a third row of heads we will create a superior playing surface on the right side fwy, relieve labor hours from hand watering, and provide a more efficient way to water.


I hope this helps answer any questions about some of what maintenance does during the "off-season."

Teddy Blauvelt
Golf Course Superintendent
Hampshire Greens Golf Course

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

The new tee boxes at 8 and 14 look interesting. I'm assuming a revision to the championship yardage/slope/rating will follow?

Jon Lobenstine, Director of Agronomy said...

Nick - The next batch of score cards will have the updated yardages, but the difference in course yardage is small enough that it does not warrant a change of the slope rating. (passing along the response from General Manager Bobby Ashton). Thanks for commenting on the post!

Anonymous said...

Thanks Jon. Number 8 will be quite a challenge from the black tees now. Looking forward to lots of play this summer.

Jon Lobenstine, Director of Agronomy said...

Good deal, Nick! Hope to see you out there soon! The course is in fantastic shape!

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