Bridge #5 South

The repairs on the bridge on #5 South are almost complete, hopefully by Friday. Weathering from our mid-western winters had eroded most of the stones and mortar. We are adding a capstone that will prevent water seepage and freeze/thaw cycles from further cracking. In addition, we are adding new stone work on the floor that will improve aesthetics and smoothness when driving over the bridge.

#16 Green South

To make the approach shot to #16 green more playable, more member friendly and easier to maintain, we are changing the bentgrass front to bluegrass. This allows us to raise the height of cut and prevent a well played shot from rolling in to the water and prevents further complicating rules issues during competition. We can always return this area to bentgrass during Major Championships if desired.

North Course Master Plan

Next Tuesday, August 7 at 5:30 is the membership information meeting regarding the proposed changes to the North Course. If approved, the work would be completed in the summer and fall of 2013. A component of the plan is to improve the drainage on hole #15 by raising the landing zone and moving the pond to the east. The photo below gives you an idea of how the 15th hole will look from the tee.

New Roof

The club owns the property at 3894 West Maple, just left of #9 fairway on the North Course. It has housed Grounds Department employees and interns for many years. By offering temporary housing, we have a bigger pool of potential staff from which to recruit. This year, we are replacing the roof and exterior trim. Next year we will be replacing the windows and some of the appliances.

Member Improvements VI

The bentgrass sod was finished today. The staff laid about 12,500 square feet of sod on #11 fairway, thus adding a total of 1/3 acre of space to the member landing zone. The new bunker on the left is about 175 yards from the middle of the main tee pad.

All of the forward tees are finished. The fairway enlargements will take place slowly this fall as time, weather and staffing permits. The remainder will be completed in 2012.

Member Improvements V

Beautiful weather eh? It helps to have some sun and dry conditions to play golf ... and to lay sod. Today we finished the bunker on #5 green and the new forward tee on #5 and made great progress on #11 fairway.

The staff worked hard to get a full semi load of sod down. We'll finish the remainder of the sodding next week.

Sewer Line Work

The township is inspecting and repairing the sewer/drainage line that runs along the North side of the South Course. The work should be completed this week.

Member Improvements IV

The bunkers on #11 are close to the finish line. Today we added sand and partially sodded the perimeter.

Weather tomorrow will delay us until next week, but still anticipate finishing by next Friday.

Bunker #11 Fairway

Today we finished the shaping on the new bunker on #11 fairway. Bryce Swanson from Rees Jones' office was here to approve the final look and to paint the bunker line and the new fairway edge.

It looks great and the plan is to install irrigation this week and sod at the beginning of next week.

Member Improvements III

Despite the rain, we were able to start the bunker reconstruction on #5 green. We should be able to get the rough shaping done and leave the finish work for a drier day.

Big Day

Lots of activity today:

South greens aerified, topdressed and fertilized.
Short Game greens aerified.
North Course greens fertilized.
#3 green drainage installed.
Trees removed according the South Member Improvements Plan.
Fescue area #3 South finished seeding.

Member Improvements II

Fairway Widths

Along with adding some fescue areas to improve aesthetics, Rees Jones also added a little width in the "member landing zones". This will not affect championship play and the Green Committee felt it would enhance the member experience. The Committee has been very responsive to member commentary since the renovation in 2006 and agreed that the landing zones could be a little more generous.

We start the sodding process next month and will focus on holes 4, 6, 11 and 12.

The photos below are examples of the fairway enlargements. The red flags will be the new fairway lines.

Square Tees

The Green Committee has discussed the possibility of converting our "free form" tees to "square tees". Square tees were prominent when Oakland Hills was built and are a feature on many traditional golf courses.

In an attempt to see if this is feasible, yesterday we converted #18 tee on the North Course from free form to square. This will give us the road map we need to calculate the costs and timeline to get the work done. The tees can be converted back at any time.

Monday Projects

The importance of allocating time for the Golf Course Staff to do important maintenance cannot be understated. Sometimes it seems like us "greenskeepers" are pressing too hard to get the course closed one day per week to get some of this stuff done. Because we close the South Course to play after outings, here is a list of stuff we were able to do yesterday after the event finished:

• sprayed South fairways
• sprayed North Course greens
• aerified range target greens
• renovated 5 range bunkers
• trimmed and edged South bunkers
• topdressed South Course greens

Walk of Fame

Our 1st tee Walk of Fame has needed  a little attention the past few years and it seems like there was always another project that took priority. The ground ivy was old and "past its prime" and the perennials were ready for retirement .

This week we removed all of the ivy, perennials and old shrubs. Next week we will be adding new ornamental grasses, giving the area a more natural and stately appearance. The boulders with plaques will remain just as they are. Eventually we will need to replace the yew hedge ... but for now it survives another year.

Rain Shelters

The two remaining rain shelters - #14 tee North and #14 fairway South - have been razed. They were old and unsafe and with the new bathrooms on both courses in close proximity, they became unnecessary.

Pumphouse Roofing

Another capital project is the replacement and upgrading of both the North and South Course pumphouse roofs. The work was completed yesterday and will provide us with 20 years of "roof security".

Overflow Structure #12 North

The new overflow structure for #12 pond was installed today. This will allow us to control the water level inside the steel wall on holes 12 and 13. With the ability to lower this water level, the area in front of #14 and #16 tee will drain better in the winter and spring.

Patio #18 South

We are installing a new brick paver "seating area" behind #18 green South Course. We started on Monday of this week and should be all wrapped up by Wednesday.

New Bridge #12 North Course

Saturday, March 13th

The bridge to #12 green North was finished yesterday. Just some cleanup and sod work remaining.








Thursday, March 11th


Almost done.
We may get rained out today and Friday, but the heavy lifting is finished.



The Board of Directors approved replacement of the walkbridge leading to #12 green. It had deteriorated badly and the soil underneath was eroding. So in the interest of safety and aesthetics, it is being replaced.

We started work today and weather permitting, should finish by the end of this week.