About the only highlight this week was that the new drainage in the bunkers at 4 West green worked a treat in the downpour we had to finish the week off.  Not much else went right for the busy week we have just had particularly with the weather.  The rain earlier in the week was just a nuisance really but was enough to keep the ground wet and we have made a lot of mess in the bunker works at 4 West green and hopefully there will be enough warm weather to come for the turf to fully recover.

The list of things that went wrong started with our normal sand supplier not being able to get the quantity of sand delivered due to the ground conditions at their quarry, then our front end loader broke down which meant I had to hire a Bobcat to load the sand for us leading to more expense.  Then the rain started and made the works area very boggy.  The actual works went quite well after that until we found that the original drainage outlet in the front bunker was actually lower than the dam and was letting the water from the dam in to the bunker so no wonder it never drained.  And it just shows how bunker shapes and depths evolve over time because we found an 80mm irrigation main and power line less than 150mm under the surface of the bunker and running virtually through the middle of the bunker as shown in the photo below.  This then increased the amount of sand needed as the power cable needs to be 450mm below the surface which makes for happy golfers as the bunker is now not as deep as before.  It is possible that we will be able to disconnect the cable as it was mainly used prior to the new irrigation control system being installed and investigations in to this are continuing.



Gravel being added by hand in to the drainage trenches.
The long straight line to the left is the water/power line.

 You can also see in the photo above the white fabric which is a bunker liner that was used.  The main idea for this in our situation is to stop contamination of the new bunker sand from what is in the base of the bunker which is just rubble and clay. 

But thanks to the machine operators and my staff the bunkers were finished in the allotted two days and will be bought back in to play once the new surrounding turf has bedded down.



The new bunker sand being spread in the front bunker.



The photo above is from the back bunker after the first "dig" and shows where the actual "bunker sand" was -   about 100mm under the playing surface buried by all the soil type material that washed to the floor of the bunker following rain washouts.  As I have said before this is why it is so important for the bunker faces/walls to have the same sand as the floor of the bunker to stop this contamination from occurring.  That does mean a propensity for balls to plug in the face from time to time but it reduces labour input and prolongs the life of the bunker.  And most importantly it means that the bunker will drain which in our climate is critical.  The sand we used in these bunker works has been used in some our recent top ups but it is the first time we have used it in a total re-construction.  It has been widely used with success throughout south east Queensland over the past 18 months so time will tell for us.