The Pile Up Green?

The Pile Up Green or is it the Pileup green, or my favourite the Pushup green?

I was talking to a prospective client of mine in NJ, and did a double take, as he twice referred to his clubs old greens as pile ups. So, I had to interrupt and ask if I heard him correctly. He said I did, and that terminology was what the club referred to their original greens construction in their old archives and historical notes.

In 25 years in the business, I had never heard of the term applied to pre-automatic irrigation greens designed to hold rainwater. But, I love it because it just refers to the simplistic approach that was adhered to by all early era golf architects. By using the word "simplistic", I need to quantify that by also adding extremely ingenious as well, as evidenced by this green below at Shinnecock Hills GC:

The tilted tub is one of the most difficult "Redans" in the world, #7 @Shinnecock Hills GC NY

Mirimichi Goodness

My buddy Russ Bodie of Audubon Environmental describes some of the natural and green features at Mirimichi - Justin Timberlake's course near Memphis, TN. Recorded on August 18, 2010.

Business Ethics at Bandon Dunes

The Oregon Ethics in Business Awards honor those organizations and individuals who have demonstrated ethical business practice in its broadest interpretation: in the workplace, the marketplace, the environment, and the community. The recipients of these awards will have, by act and example, gone beyond the expected to achieve excellence in ethical business practices.

Back in 2009 the Bandon Dunes Golf Resort, located on the southern Oregon coast, received Oregon Ethics in Business Award. The resort provides golfers with three championship style 18-hole layouts ranked among the nation’s elite public courses, along with several exceptional restaurants and lodging accommodations. Bandon Dunes understands the importance of keeping guests satisfied and aims to provide services that are “genuine, sincere, helpful and friendly.” However, Bandon Dunes does not only consider paying customers to be their guests, but instead, extends the same respect to stakeholders including employees, purveyors, the local community, and the environment. This golf resort, which has been barely carved from the landscape leaving nature largely unaffected, supported by the gracious hospitality of employees who are truly proud to be a part of the organization, has continued to become an exceptionally profitable, overwhelmingly generous, highly ethical enterprise.

XGD Fairway Drainage at CDGA

I wanted to expound on this really cool picture that XGD supervisor took at the Sunshine Course in Lemont, IL at the Chicago District Golf Association, in it shows the systematic approach we take at XGD Systems to cutoff/eliminate high groundwater table issues at any turf facility...

Mark must have been right down at turf level to show the fine fairway sod we were able to pull up and restore at the CDGA. One portion of the CDGA has the 3 hole Sunshine Course we were helping with some greens/fairway drainage restorations and this aids in research conducted by CDGA Turf Researcher Dr. Derek Settle and Tim Siblicky, Nick Devries, among others here based at the Golf House in Lemont,IL.

And as I point you to the picture above to show how the XGD fairway drainage laterals curved and followed the fairway contours in a design to eliminate the wet areas in the bottoms of the swale. It was obvious even good positive surface drainage was not the answer on its own in this situation, the area needed a supplemental subsurface internal drainage system designed/spaced to specifically move groundwater through the wet soils and high groundwater in this specific area. As I have always said, drainage in not a top down traditional philosophy that you learn at turf school, rather it is a lifelong learning curve trying to gain a better understanding of soil groundwater movement. At XGD it is more about controlling the gravitational groundwater table, than getting surface water in to a catch basin and out of site immediately, because at XGD we use the soil and its pore space as water holding space to fill up the bathtub before reaching field capacity and entering our laterals.
We have the soil there as storage capacity.  WHY NOT USE IT.
            Just a different way to skin a cat, so to speak..

Cheers, Poor Old Dirt & Grass Farmer

Golf Development: Balancing Good Design and Client Demands

Here's an interesting little video about sustainability and golf development featuring interviews with John Goldwyn (Associate Vice President, WATG), Paul Stringer (Executive Vice President, Nicklaus Design), and Ray Wilson (Managing Director, Sourthern Golf).

Sustainability and the Environment from WATG on Vimeo.

Out and Back on Pinehurst No. 2

Out and Back is a website covering the "topics of golf and travel through a diverse array of lenses–from business and the media to politics, the arts and beyond". Recently site creator Tom Dunne traveled to North Carolina to see the restoration of Pinehurst No. 2 by Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw. This video details some of his impressions, as well as provides some insight from C&C shaper Kyle Franz.

There's some really great discussion about the video and project over at Geoff Shackelfords Blog, and we've posted other videos about this transition at Pinehurst here.


The Restoration of Pinehurst No. 2 from outandback on Vimeo.

The Changing Faces of Bunkers

Turfhugger is making an effort to bring you innovative solutions from the professionals using them. In his first contribution to Turfhugger Joe Jemsek discusses Bunker faces and some design options that can ease required maintenance inputs.

I often hear superintendents complain about the difficultly and expense of maintaining their bunker faces. Superintendents who maintain flat sand and grass faced bunkers need additional irrigation, especially on south facing slopes, while superintendents who have flashed sand and grass fingers require additional hours of hand work. What can golf course designers and superintendents to do?