The Rebuild Green #17 at Rosedale Golf Club By Andrew Krek, Assistant Superintendent at Rosedale Golf Club. Photos courtesy of Rosedale Golf Club.
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he Rosedale Golf Club was formed in 1893 and moved to its current location on Mount Pleasant Road in 1909. The original design was completed by Tom Bendelow and in 1919, Donald Ross was hired to complete an overhaul of the course design. As with many clubs, changes are planned and carried out over time and in the fall of 2018 the Rosedale Golf Club took on the completion of multiple capital course improvement projects including the installation of new forward tee decks and adjustments to green surrounds, but nothing was bigger than the rebuild of green #17. Rebuilding green #17 had been discussed by the club for 15 years. The project was a part of the master plan in 2007/2008 but deferred to a later date. The 17th green contained slopes greater than 4.5% with a general back to front slope making it difficult to place hole locations when green speeds were increased. It was approximately 4100 square feet in size, surrounds were sharp with little room for recovery, and its elevated above the fairway requiring the golfer to blindly hit up about 25 yards. Many players who found themselves above the hole, would putt off the front of the green due to the severe back to front slope on a green with less than 2% reasonable pinnable area. In 2018, following Architect John Fought’s recommendation, the club decided it was time to address the playability of this green by adjusting the grades to accommodate hole locations with higher green speeds.
The plan was to remove the sod, grade the soil to address the slopes and re-install the sod. However, it was determined with testing by Brookside Labs under the guidance of Dave Smith of DCS & Associates, that the soil once disturbed and graded would not support healthy turf and therefore, this course of action was not recommended. The project then became a rebuild and the new plan was to install new soil so the green could flourish and reuse the existing sod. Fought created the schematic design, plan and bid documents for the work to be done and made multiple site visits during the construction phases to ensure the project was executed as designed: playable, enjoyable and consistent with a Donald Ross’ original design. Prior to breaking ground, one of the largest decisions we had to make was choosing which growth medium to install for the root-zone. Rosedale has two different greens profiles across its 19 greens; 15 native push-up greens and four modified USGA specification greens. Because the 17th green was a native push-up, the decision was made to recreate the root-zone to be comparable to the “other” push-up greens on the golf course. To do this DCS & Associates was tasked with creating a new material that would behave similarly to the other push-up greens. Following three blends and their testing of moisture retention and drainage characteristics, a blend was identified along with the depth to allow for maximum performance Now that the design and root-zone specifications were approved it was finally time to break ground. On October 1st, 2018 ground was broken – 13 years after the initial
design was first conceived! Before bulldozing began, the green sod surface was stripped for reuse. This was not due to cost, but because the plant was already accustomed to the specific growing environment and it was predominately bentgrass. The project was going to take about six weeks so the plant was protected from disease prior to stripping and then laid out on plastic in a fashion that would minimize growth, encourage drainage and most importantly allow for retreatment to protect the plant if it was necessary. The next step was to bring in TDI Construction and the heavy machinery and start bulldozing and creating the grades for the new green. The scope of the design was not just about adjusting the grade of the putting surface it also included softening the slope up and into the green, softening the rough surrounds of the green and introducing a roll-off from the green which is a classic Donald Ross feature. The earthwork was pushed to grades and Fought visited the site to make minor adjustments to ensure this build fit-in and complimented the rest of the course. Once the architect approved the site grades the green’s cavity was hollowed out for the new growth medium. Internal drainage was installed in the cavity base prior to backfilling and the final surface grades were in line with the grades of the cavity. Re-sodding the greens surface was a slow and detailed task. The green was designed to be slightly larger in size so it was necessary to utilize our nursery to finish the surface. The roll-off was sodded using the turfgrass from an adjacent site that was also under construction
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2019-09-09 10:46 AM