In this picture, notice that the lowest spot in this area is the right side of the ninth green. That, coupled with it being the prefered walk on walk off area is why it has been perrennially weak. Also notice the large parking area bewteen this green and the next tee on the other side...it was even used for the storage of stone and soil!
A close up of the parking lot used for material storage:
Even when it isn't winter there is a drainage problem here:
This is the installation of a dry well, meaning there are no outgoing pipes...we expected to have to manually pump it, but we hit a sand vein about 8 feet down and water collection has yet to be a problem...sometime you just need to get the water off the surface and the rest is taken care of.
This would be the finished product. Note that the parking area has been landscaped with a natural bed and we eliminated car traffic out to the tenth tee. Although a big culture change, the elimination of car traffic through the five plus holes to get to this point has improved the security of the course and the whole golfing experience.
The other drainage work on the ninth hole happened on the left side.
We also used this opportunity to remove the maintenance path shown.
We installed another dry well here hoping to get lucky and hit the same sand vein as we hit on the right side of the green....no luck. We have to manually pump this out. We will add an exit pipe when we do the bunker restoration (and accompanying drainage) at the 9th and 7th greens.
Another before picture from a new angle, note the dead area due to poor drainage:
You can see the shaping and the catch basin installed.
We found some shallow irrigation wires that needed repair.
The finished product from another angle.
A look from the ninth green over to seven. The Raynor Knoll features are now much more evident without the cart path, trees, and poor turf.