Mink Meadows Turf Maintenance Department: All coming together and starting to look like spring

We are wrapping up a few loose ends on projects such as the cart path on 3 tees and the woods and path on 7 green. As previously discussed and shown with pictures we shrunk the cart path on the 3rd tees as you head towards the fairway. This path was lengthened when the blue tee was constructed but it washed out with any heavy rain event. After many repairs with several different types of materials we decided the easiest solution was to shrink the path past the water route. It survived the 5 inches we received a week or so ago so I assume we fixed this issue. We needed to tidy up the sod edge and add some material to the path to finish the project. Will tackled this yesterday morning and then moved on to cleaning up the franklin street sign bed.

Cormorant on the third fairway Easter Sunday

Kevin and I wrapped up the path and woods to the left of the 7th green. We had taken some of the big chunks of grass removed off the face of the left bunker last week and put them in the small patch of woods between the path and the street. We needed to add topsoil to get the grade correct and seed the area. We took some scrap sod and lined the edge of the path and added two dumptruck loads of material to the path to cover up the exposed roots of the oak tree and also to dress up the path. The woods sees a lot of traffic and was never a fun place to play out of. With grass there it may not be easier to play from but most people like to play off grass rather than dirt or woods bottom. It will certainly look better anyway, at least in my opinion.
As I write this it strikes me that even after 75 years we can still have little projects like this to improve the course. It is an area right next to a par three green and the road, how could it not be in perfect condition? First off this hole was originally a dogleg left par four. The green was on the right side of 8 adjacent to the gold tee and the back edge of it is the hump you drive over at the beginning of the 8th fairway. The road was put in in the 60's when MM was formed. Also much of Mink Meadows is left in a natural state so this area was very rough and tumble woods when I arrived much like a lot of the surrounds of the course and property. In an interest to speed up play and keep the place looking neat or to irradicate poison ivy, we start cleaning the leaves out of an area and the then some grasses start to colinize the area. After tiring of this spotty look we go in and add more seed. To the right of the first green we "landscaped" to take advantage of the water view. Just a steady progression and not really a planned manicuring of every inch of the property. Interesting to think about though.