Page 25 - Landscape-Issue127

GOLF AND TURF FEATURE

cloth was chosen as a liner as the faces
would essentially be grassed down. This was
difficult to achieve as it was necessary to
shape the bunkers on each hole on site, so
that the club obtained the effect they were
looking for, but the players could also see the
bunkers from afar.
Closures during renovations are very
costly and the club needed to decide
whether they would close completely or go
to temporary greens where the kikuyu is cut
short in designated areas on the approaches
and overseeded with a winter grass. By
having temporary greens and the east
course that could still be played on, some
revenue could be generated and some relief
provided for players.

Construction, seeding and grow-in
Preparation for stripping the turf and thatch
on greens and surrounds was done with a
The 18th green on the west course overlooking the clubhouse, with newly renovated and reshaped
bunkers. Photo: J. Chisholm sod cutter and a few tractors and trailers. In
some instances, depths had to be changed
as the thatch varied on some greens and
some surrounds were higher than others. It
was a lengthy process of cutting, stripping
and hauling away but was necessary before
any construction work could begin.
Following this process, there were nine
weeks of construction, re-shaping, inserting
plastic around the greens’ edges, laying
new kikuyu on surrounds and drainage
installations in the bunkers for June and
July. The reason for this was that in early
August, the greens needed to be fumigated
to kill off the old turf in the soil. Once the
covers came off, the greens were floated,
fertilised with a pre-plant fertiliser and
seeded with the new 777 variety towards
the end of August.
The timing of all these steps was
crucial, as was that of seeding because
The 15th fairway bunker on the west course, leading to the newly shaped greenside bunker. outside temperatures were cool but soil
Photo: J. Chisholm temperatures were high, and at least three
months were needed to get them open
in a good condition, with full cover. Once
the greens were seeded and tracked in,
they were watered continuously for about
seven days every hour, from 6am to 5pm
in the evenings (short bursts of three to
five minutes) with alternating sprinklers.
This was the most important part of the
process to get the seeds to germinate;
this irrigation practice is done manually to
avoid sprinklers washing the seed away.
Fortunately, the club invested in generators
at the pump stations, as load shedding
would potentially have caused issues with
germination.
There were basically two and a half
months in which to perform the grow-in
before handover, and with construction at
an end, Agrano focused on grow-in and the
installation of USGA bunker sand. Along the
way, there were challenges in terms of:
• bunker movements and joining two
bunkers into one on various holes; and
• underground issues with certain drains
due to massive storms.
The second hole green on the west course, looking back towards the hazard and the fairway. Brits concludes: “It was fantastic to see
Photo: J. Chisholm how much could be done on a restricted

Landscape SA • Issue 127 2023 23