Sand Valley Golf; Design and Construction Blog: The Mixing Bucket

Short Project History; The Good and Bad

This blog reveals a snippet of the daily challenge of building a special golf course. The only value in something like this for future investors and golf architecture aficionados is to tell the truth; warts and all.

Before arriving at Sand Valley the project was being constructed according to the "detailed plans" of another golf architect using a "golf course construction company" that had built a number of courses. They broke ground in June 2006. After 10-months the builder had proceeded to rape 14-holes and was fired.

I have been brought in to fix the problem, using locals to build the course. In the process all plans except the general routing scheme have been abandoned. The current course is being designed in the field, seizing every opportunity to improve the course as we go. That's the value of time. You can see the project from all angles, in all conditions, you have time to think about the problems and come up with the best solutions, and then refine them with the guys doing the building... in real-time. This is how many of the great courses were constructed. It only makes sense. More time, more input, more communication produces the best possible result.

That's why Sand Valley, though it had a rough start (using the "Typical Method") should have a fantastic finish.

Saturday, October 25, 2008

The Mixing Bucket

The mix for what the grass will grow on the tees and greens is a mix of sand and peat moss.

The Mix Recipe: Evenly split between sand screened from our quarry, and sand imported from a quarry 40 minutes away. Our sand and the imported sand is made up of 2mm particles but ours has a bit more fine material.

Mixing can be done in several ways. Through a power screen, by loaders, or tractor with a tiller. We've opted for another method, using a "mixing bucket".

The material is measured and placed in a big pile, like a mix of ingredients for a cake. Then the excavator stands atop it and begins the mixing process. The operator leaves a 30cm (1 foot) buffer of mix to prevent native unscreened material from contaminating the "cake mix".