On Saturday, while many in Blacksburg took in Virginia Tech's home football opener against Delaware at Lane Stadium, architect Lester George, of George Golf Design, made another visit to the construction site to view the progress of the project.
During these visits, George will make adjustments to work that has already been done. Slopes or swales may be adjusted, greens contours can be manipulated, tees can be re-aimed, among other things. One of the major areas that George looked at was the grassing plans for the green surrounds - or exactly where the different types of turf will be laid out.
On the right, George drives around the first green and uses paint to mark exactly where he wants the Zeon Zoysia surrounds to be placed. After the greens are marked, the crew can then prepare the turf for sod.
While the fairways and greens are being seeded, the tee tops, tee surrounds, green surrounds, bunker surrounds, and fairway in the new short game area are all going to be sodded. Tee tops, green and bunker surrounds will get a layer of Zeon Zoysia. Tee surrounds will be sodded with a fescue/bluegrass blend. The fairway in the short game area will also be sodded with Zoysia. One critical aspect of sodding is keeping the new turf watered so that it can establish itself. The tee complexes were built with the existing irrigation system in mind. Tees were constructed so that minimal adjustments had to be made to ensure proper coverage of the irrigation system. In some cases, some irrigation heads needed to be moved to accomodate new tee construction.
On the left, the forward tees on hole #1 have been laser leveled and top dressed and are now ready for sod installation. There are actually six tee box tiers on the first hole. Most of the tee complexes feature four distinct sets of tees, however, there are three holes that feature five: one, three and nine. An important aim of the renovation was to provide more teeing area to accomodate traffic and differing player abilities. There definitely will be ample tees in the future!
Sod will be delivered on trucks in stages as needed. The first arrival of grass will be Wednesday.
It remains CRITICAL during this phase to keep pedestrian traffic off the golf course. Please don't walk or ride bicycles on the property. For the safety of everyone and to protect our newly planted turf during and after construction, the property is CLOSED TO THE PUBLIC. Signs are posted on the perimeter reminding people that there is NO TRESPASSING during construction. Please use the walking trail around the perimeter. Once construction is complete, it will be necessary to remain closed to allow the new grass to establish itself. The course will re-open in the late spring/early summer. We appreciate your patience and cooperation as we make improvements.
Please, follow our progress on Facebook and Twitter. We are constantly adding construction photos to our Facebook page in the "2017 Renovation" album.
