Driving range wall, added chipping area and fairway extension at #1.

The retaining wall at the driving range is being dug out this week. Above this wall is where carts coming to the range will have parking spots. Right now the foundation is being dug out so a form can be set and a footer poured. Once that is set we will start putting the blocks up and soon we will have a nice retaining wall that will afford more space for teeing ground at the range. While working on the wall, Mark decided to fill in the low area by the chipping greens which we will then turn into more chipping area that will be fairway height grass. Adding this area will again increase usable practice space at the range. There has been a lot of work done at the range already and it will be another nice addition to our practice area once completed.

Future parking spots.

Base dug out. We'll pour concrete and then set the blocks on top of the footer.

Beginning to fill in by chipping greens.

Area after some grading and smoothing. The small mound in the picture is the existing irrigation head, this should give you an idea of how much lower the grade is now.

Last week we also starting the process of mowing down the grass between #1 fairway and green. Initially, we dropped the height to what we mow short rough at. We will continue to drop the height until it is down to fairway height. There already happens to be a lot of bentgrass (which is what we grow on fairways) mixed into the area we are mowing down, so that should transition nicely to the fairway height of cut. The other grasses won't do as well, so we do plan on slit seeding bentgrass seed in the entire area and heavily topdressing to help germination. This will be a neat look on the hole and should be a welcome change for golfers because you'll no longer have to hit shots from this area out of the thick rough.

I'm not sure how easy it is to see in these pictures but, the grass running from the fairway up to the collar has been mowed down to short rough height. The width of the fairway will stay consistent until bottle necking around the green side bunker.

Enjoy this nice October weather and good luck to those playing for the championship belt this weekend!

Ian