GOLF COURSES sand, so they’ re all still there. The only thing is there are trees along them, so we’ re taking them out!”
The project is proceeding apace.“ We have about threequarters of the shaping done,” says Davis.“ It’ s still hard to find sands in west Texas, but we have found a supply for greens mix, so we’ re going to start rebuilding greens shortly. We should be ready to grass greens in late April or early May, and we are sodding everything else, so we should be done by late June, and hopefully the weather cooperates so we can reopen in September / October.”
Although Davis is being parsimonious with sand bunkers, they will still be significant part of the course, and the architect has a very definite view of how he wants them to look.“ I like to roll the sod over the edge of the bunker,” he says.“ In west Texas, for years they have mowed everything between bunker and green at collar height, similar to what they do in Australia. The toplines are pretty smooth so they can run a machine over the edge. It was really important to roll
the sod over and staple it down.”
Texas-based contractor Greenscape Methods is handling the build. Greenscape boss Don Mahaffey says:“ Any time a club entrusts us to work on its golf course, we understand what that means as most full renovations are a oncein-a-generation type of project. The project at San Angelo even feels a little more than that as this is the first major renovation since the club was founded in 1927. We’ ve been fortunate to work on John Bredemus designs at Memorial Park and Braeburn CC in Houston, but both of those courses have undergone significant renovations in the past. At San Angelo much of Bredemus’ work is still there, and Tripp has done a masterful job restoring that, especially the Bredemus grassy bunker type features, while also adding interest, especially on and around the greens.”
Davis is installing the ZLine liner system at San Angelo.“ I believe that ZLine is the most effective bunker liner system I have seen in my thirty years in the business,” he says.“ Being able to have water move across the top of the liner and run down to our drainage system is key to managing moisture in the sand. With ZLine, the beauty of it is that you’ re still putting in four inch perforated pipe in a trench filled with gravel, then we put the filter fabric above the trench, then put the liner on top and glue it, and it creates a very solid barrier. The liner has a grain in it, which helps to hold sand, which is important we’ re at 55-60 per cent slope in our bunker faces. At that angle, the ball isn’ t going to hold, so we only need an inch of sand up there.”
ZLine representative Casey Jones says that he has modified the system to suit Davis’ s bunkers at San Angelo.“ Our normal system includes an edging solution, but because Tripp likes to have sod overlap the bunker edge, we took the edging system out of the package for San Angelo,” he explains.“ He likes to flash the floor liner up the bunker face a few inches instead. We have been involved on numerous projects with Tripp and working with him is a joy – and we look forward to seeing the San Angelo work successfully concluded.”
GroundskeepingJournal. co. uk | May / June 2025 31