Its Friday and not much to report.  We made good progress on stripping sod of holes 1-6.  We will continue to strip sod and remove the old sod to be able to tie in the new shapes of bunkers.  We painted a rough line for 17 to show our new bunker shape.  This is not final and we will meet with Jeff Blume tomorrow for final approval.  The goal is to have 1-3 and 17 bunker lines to work off of by tomorrow.

Holes 9,10 and 18 will have drains installed and liner starting early next week.  These bunkers are going to look fantastic and give the Weiskopf a new look.  There will be many areas around greens that we will eliminate bunkers but keep somewhat of the shapes of the old bunkers.  We will mow these areas down to approach height which will bring a new shot into play.  You may have to putt them out, or bump a hybrid.  Or for the brave at heart, nip a wedge off close mown turf.  More pics to come next week as we make more progress.

Donny Latham

Another couple of weeks have passed and we have made great strides on our bunker renovation.  All of the sand has been removed from the existing bunkers.  The rough shaping has been completed on holes 9,10,18 and we are almost finished with 17.  The final bunker edges on 9,10 and 18 have also been completed.  The crew hand edges the lines that Jeff Blume marks to promote a clean looking edge.  The next steps is to ensure the drainage system down line works and then we will cut drain lines in the bunkers, fabric and line the drains with sand.  Then once all these have been completed, we will cap all these areas in sod and install the Arkansas White sand.  I am excited to see these bunkers come to life and I am sure there will be some folks who feels like we increased the square footage of the bunkers, due to their higher visibility, but our goal is to actually reduce the overall square footage. 

Attached photo is of 9 looking from the approach shot.  The old bunker was much larger but less total number of bunkers.  Once the sod is capped and wrapped and white sand is in place, this will be a fantastic looking hole.  Until next week! 

As always, feel free to contact me with any questions at dlatham@bentwaterclub.com

Donny Latham
Director of Agronomy