Old Greensmix Depths.....

As long as I have been employed at Edina Country Club there was always the question of, "what is wrong with those greens?" I could always give the answer of we think it is this or that. The "birdbath" areas that prevented water from draining off the putting surface was always pretty evident, especially during the spring of 2009.
Now that we are getting to see the old greens de-constructed and get some definitive visual evidence that was always suspected. This past Friday and Saturday Duininck Construction started to carefully remove the old greensmix (sand) from the 17th green. Other greens that have been de-constructed have shown some irregularities, but not to the following degree. Construction Superintendent Travis Quisberg notified me of three things that he found in the green on Friday night and I took the following pictures on Saturday morning.

1. The original greensmix in the right middle part of the green was 17" deep. (USGA construction specifies a depth of 12") This was an area that was usually very dry.


2. The original greensmix in the front middle of the green was 7" to 8" deep. This was an area that was usually very wet.



3. A substantial clod of dirt was found in the greensmix. (Any number of reasons during construction could have caused this).

We will keep investigating as we move along through the rest of the greens and see what else we find.

On a lighter note, we witnessed some of the baby wood ducks leaping from their nesting box in 4 pond on Monday morning.


Here is one of the babies making its first nose dive into the pond!!!


Mom with some of her babies