Isla Del Sol Golf Course News: Project Update

A lot has transpired over the past few weeks with the project. We have experienced a successful opening of the renovated green surrounds on holes 2, 7, 9 and 16. The feedback on both the appearance of the new surrounds as well as the speed at which we were able to get the greens back open for play has been very positive. On Tuesday we made final preparations of the bunker floors with the plan that sand will be installed next week. If you remember, we installed sod in the bottom of the bunkers to create separation between our native beach sand and the clean bunker sand. We encouraged the sod to establish roots and gain stability. Although we will now kill off this sod, we will leave it in place and allow the thatch layer to provide a physical barrier between the native sand and the bunker sand. Once the sand is installed and compacted, the bunkers will immediately be open for play hopefully by June 28.

Morning shadows on #9

Bunker on #2 ready for sand

Much of our focus over the past few weeks has been on constructing the new tee complexes. We have renovated tees on holes 4, 5, 8, 9, 10, 12, 13, 14 and 16. The rough shaping was completed early last week and all tees leveled using a laser grade system. This equipment mounted to a tractor is designed to smooth tees to a perfect grade. The laser grade system cut the work that would have taken 30+ days down to 5 days! We have been working on final smoothing this week.

Laser grading new middle tee on #14

In earlier posts I mentioned that we had a reclaimed water shortage. Not any more! We have been receiving regular rainfall for the past two weeks. While this is helpful for the rest of the golf course it has caused delays with the project. We were supposed to install new grass on all of the tees last week but too much rain at the farms delayed cutting. Not to mention, we also have had to repair several washouts of the new tees as a result of the rain. Fortunately, we finally received enough sprigs for 5 holes today. Unfortunately, tomorrow's delivery was rained out at the farm once again. We are hoping for a late Thursday delivery so we can finish installation by the weekend.

And the question you all have been waiting for, "What's a sprig?" The answer, a sprig is a small grass shoot. While those from up north are used to using seed to establish new grass, there is no viable seed for warm season bermudagrass. Because of this, we have two options to establish a golf course, sod or sprigs. In the case of our tees, we chose sprigs. Sprigs are spread across the ground using a machine that pushes them into the soil and rolls them flat. With water and fertilizer the sprigs will grow together to form a solid grass stand. This is exactly how our greens were established in 2007. A couple of reasons we use sprigs instead of sod. 1- Cost. We are renovating tees on 9 holes during this project. If we chose sod, we would have only been able to do 2 holes for the same money. 2- A better end product with only a little extra time. If you think back to last year when the new first tee was built, you will remember that the new sod was uneven and seams are inevitable. Sprigs grow together all at one level without seams. Sprigs grow directly into the native soil without having a soil layer like sod. As far as time is concerned for establishing tees that can be played on, sprigs only add 1-2 weeks of establishment time. Our target date for opening the new tees is currently August 1st.