12th Green Drainage (LHS) & 13th Path Improvement

Today (Tuesday 18th November) we started work to improve the drainage problem on the LHS of the 12th green.  Surface water and puddling is becoming more evident despite this being a sand based constructed green.

Surface water on left hand side of 12th green.

Excessive surface thatch and shade problems around the green (poor sunlight & air flow) will contribute to the surface water we can see in above photo.

Whilst the thatch and shade problems also need addressing, you will notice from the short video below that much of the water comes from the path near the green and by the 13th tee.  Video footage is a bit shaky but hopefully you get the idea!

Over time, water running from the path has deteriorated the turf near the green.

This area is being dug out and will be re instated as grass by turfing back to the path edge.

 The other work planned for this project includes:-

• Surface channel drains being installed along path edge to divert most of water before reaching the green.
• Astro turf at top of the hill has been lifted and to be replaced with the black rubber mats using path material to fill the holes.
• The various bits of astro turf by the 13th tee are being lifted and the tee bank being graded to allow surface water run off.  The banking will then be re turfed to the path edge.  This will also give better definition and make this area more pleasing to the eye.
• Other surface channel drains and a catchment area will be installed to remove surface water from the 13th tee area.
• Install drainage line on outer edge of 12th green.

Astro turf been rolled up, ready to be taken away.

Hardcore material being removed.

Hardcore not to be wasted and used to do some much needed road repair, just a few yards away!

Drainage being installed using surface catchment channels at points along the path, feeding into main outlet pipe which will discharge into the burn.

 Now for turf preparation and laying by the 12th green.

Preparation prior to turfing with surface drainage installed.

Robin and James laying the turf on 28th November.

Turfing complete, drain channel installed and roped off during turf 'growing in'.

Turf preparation and laying by 13th tee.

Ready for turf!

Turf layed on 28th November.

Now for the path surface finishing.

Compacting plate used.

Rubber mats replaces the astro turf.

Path material evenly raked out.

Most water from surrounding area has been intercepted using drain channels on paths and has worked well following recent rainfall.  

The final phase of the planned work is to improve drainage on the edge of the green.  Below you can see turf being lifted and root zone removed, down to gravel layer.

Turf has been cut and lifted.

Root zone being dug out.

Root zone on top of gravel layer.

                                         

In the above photo of the root zone shows a heavy thatch layer at the top along with an orange colour which has been aneorobic and retaining excess water.  The thatch layer will significantly slow down water infiltration / percolation through the surface and root zone.

We tested the gravel layer and drain - short video clip below illustrates water percolation is good, so not necessary to remove.

A simple test and gives confidence that sub surface drainage works.

Fresh root zone being replaced and consolidated down.

Turf at front edge of green uneven, sometimes causing scalping so lifted
and smoothed out.

All turf re layed on Tuesday 16th December 2014.