Magazine - Work Finished at Riversdale G.C

By Michael Picken in Golf on 17th Sep 2007 16:40

Riversdale Golf Club embarked on a mission to rectify a long standing boundary problem plaguing one of the Clubs classic signature holes, that being the 13^th.

 The new Captain of the Club, Kelvin Cope, rightfully believed it was time to try and bring this beautiful Par 5 back into regular play by placing the onus on strategic shot selection leading to the green. A rough concept was drawn up and then some expertise was sort, that being Pacific Coast Design. This lead to some tweaking of the concept and formal drawings being finalized that were then presented to the members in the form of a display positioned in the members lounge.

The management team of RGC then formulated a budget and contractors were asked to tender.

Industry icon Barry Hudson, our regular shaper, was hired to implement the bulk earth works and final finish. Engineering contractors FRH were hired to build the new creek crossing and concrete path along with Shiva Landscaping who were given the job of creating the stone arches for the creek crossing. Lilydale Turf Supplies and Turf Renovation Australia were contracted to lift and lay the 1 Ha of Santa Anna turf on the fairway. All of this tallied up to an estimate of $230,000. to complete the project.

A time frame was then calculated taking into account worst case scenario’s relating to the weather, the growing season and upcoming events with early September 06 decided as the best time to start. We hoped to open the hole with tee up on the fairways around mid November.

 As we all know now, this season has been unbelievably dry so the weather has played little part in the outcome. With that stated, we have used a considerable amount of our reserve irrigation needs to establish the hole back into play.

The due date arrived and the turfing crew proceeded to strip the couch on to pallets, placing it out of the way and close to irrigations points.

A week later Barry Hudson’s team began to move the necessary fill to the agreed position, in order to create the considerable bunker complex designed to push regular play away from the troublesome fence line. This fill was accumulated with the advent of a cutaway at the 150m mark from the green to eliminate what was had been a near blind second shot in. After battling with the difficult clay soil types (bogging the scrapper) a suitable contour was achieved in the 4 weeks allocated.

In unison to Barry’s work was the installation of a new creek crossing replacing the previously piped drain that passed under the 13^th fairway at the green-end. The FRH crew carried out these works with great skill and achieved the result desired. Not only did this addition an improved visual appeal to the layout but it created a new strategy to the way the hole played, enhancing what we were trying to achieve with the boundary problem.

Then came the finishing touches that make golf course work so appealing, in the guise of the stone façade to camouflage the piped drain that allows the golfing public an easy pass-over of the new creek. Shiva landscaping took on this task with David Snell being the artist at work. The photos tell the tale.

 The Riversdale staff then pitched in to reestablish the twin row fairway irrigation and the turfing contractors followed in hot pursuit to relay the stored turf that had weathered reasonably well for the 6 weeks it had been stored.

 As is always the case extra turf was purchased due to some of the original turf cooking and to cover the extra fairway created to encourage play away from the problem boundary.

 In all a desirable outcome has been achieved with our neighbors satisfied we’re trying to push play away from their properties, our golfing community are now forced to think their way through the hole and our staff have had an opportunity to broaden their skill base.

This being achieved with the installation of the irrigation services, drainage and bunker construction.

 

 

Read more articles in Golf, by Michael Picken or from September 2007.