Golf Green Blues

Yesterday was going to be the day my putting green was going to come to life. And you’ll never guess what happened…

… it rained. Again. The bloody rain is driving me crazy! I thought this was meant to be the Sunshine Coast?

And today wasn’t looking much better but Bruce and his team decided to make the trip out anyway. It was a good decision because the rain held off just long enough for some action to take place.

There’s still a bit of work to do, but as you can see from the pics below, we’re now in the ball park.

Getting the hole locations set

The green surrounds are in

The back pin ready for some action

A realistic “fake green”

Bunker drainage and plastic

Look out! Here comes the sand

Geoff and Sabine doing some hard work

The first bunker shot – can you see the ball?

Cameron trying to get fancy pants with the photography.

Some interesting notes: You’ll notice the green has some stripes in it. This is to give it a realistic look. This is a new process that has only just been pioneered by Bruce and his grass manufacturer. It looks fantastic, especially when viewing the green from a distance. It has nothing to do with the grain of the grass, but rather, a special way they paint the grass.

The next step is to smooth out the base (the grass will be lifted and has only been laid out to ensure it didn’t go off sitting in the rain). From here they’ll spread a layer of glass over the top. It’s not your normal glass, looks more like sand and this helps give the green its speed. It also doesn’t compact like real sand, ensuring the green will stay soft and receptive to approaching golf balls. This is also a process pioneered by Bruce – it’s very interesting chatting to him about all of his trials and testing he has done over the years.

Weather permitting, Bruce will be back in a day or so to finish things off – but it’s looking good and some fun getting to hit some shots.

I am also getting two tees put in with synthetic grass (I really am too lazy to bother with normal grass). I got to test the special tee grass and it’s feels awesome. Way different from your normal synthetic grass mats – this stuff feels more like real grass and you can even place a tee in it! Will update you more on this soon.

It has started raining again but this is now nothing new.

Special thanks to Sabine for keeping an eye on the boys and making sure they got things finished.