If you're curious about all the changes and improvements currently underway at Clearbrook Golf Club, what follows may interest you.  Here's our PLAN for making Clearbrook WHERE YOU PLAY!

CLEARBROOK COURSE IMPROVEMENTS

2010 & BEYOND

Goal:     Five specific projects to make Clearbrook Golf Course playable & beautiful in a wider variety of conditions, far less susceptible to weather-related stress, and far more resistant to floods and flooding, while eliminating blind shots and improving turf quality.

IMMEDIATE ACTION STEPS:

Low areas gathering water are identified and being retrofitted for Drainage improvements;  Aerification ; and Reseeding

LONG-TERM ACTION STEPS:

Project ONE:   (COMPETED AND IN-PLAY Spring, '11)

RECONSTRUCTION OF #11 and #12 GREENS - These two greens have received double the budget of any other greens, yet cannot support turf.  The soils are anaerobic, sitting in still-forests with little circulation.

Starting on September 1^st, 2010, we cleared 50 trees near each green; bulldozed; re-contoured; enlarged (#11 by 60%, #12 by 15%); and added about 12 inches of new soil as a root-medium; seeded and completely re-grassed.  The new greens are to be playable by Memorial Day, with both holes in the meantime playing to a temporary flag.

Project TWO,

First Phase:

#17 POND OVERFLOW – The goal here is to forever more have a place for back- nine overflow water to go.  Our back-nine drainage system was redesigned in 1994 to funnel rainwater to the #17 pond.  It worked for years, but has not been large enough to accommodate the rains of recent years plus the number of new neighbors who, through the presence of their homes, displace thousands of gallons of water that used to soak in.

Our plan, in collaboration with both Clearbrook Green Condo and Maple Green Condo, is to construct an over-ground water path from the #17 pond north under 134^th Avenue to our creek.  An MDNRE permit is required …and already submitted.  Its cost is significant, as it requires engineered plans.

To write the permit, we hired the same engineering firm the county has used to survey and supervise our county drain project.  Certain efficiencies were obtained as a result.  The permit also covers the Second Phase of Project TWO.

Project TWO

Second Phase:  (COMPLETED, Summer '11)

#8 / #3 / #2 FAIRWAY CHANGES – Due to continued flooding of our low valley, we seek to abandon our old need for underground drains in favor of surface drainage (which is more efficient), obtained through new, elevated, re-contoured fairways.  The plan is to lower the landing area of #8 and some of the slope of #2, loosing some of its blindness, to elevate the low areas of both #2 and #3 fairways.  This will incorporate some underground tiles to capture more water seeping from the hillsides, but also better contours to allow surface run-off into new swales between fairways.

New grasses will be introduced, and eventually, new bridges and cart paths.  Timing of this phase should be this winter, with spring grassing.  The holes will support play in the spring, however may be shortened during grow-in.  The #2 landing area over the creek (to the north) will be addressed in Project THREE.

Project THREE:

CREEK DREDGING – The process of converting Goshorn Creek to a registered County Drain began in April 2009, and is nearly complete.  We realistically expect dredging to occur during 2011.  Dredging will lower the creek bottom, exposing the riprap stabilization we installed some 20 years ago, and again allowing any working fairway drains to drain.  It will also speed the release of storm water from the golf course property.

Soils from the bottom are clean sand, and will be used to elevate landing areas and other golf course uses.  We especially want to deposit spoils on #2 fairway north of the creek where so many shots land and are currently unplayable due to wet, spongy conditions.  We think this will happen.

Project FOUR:

ELEVATION OF #1 / #10 / #18 FAIRWAYS & VALLEY WETLAND RECLAMATION – As indicated in a news bulletin recently, we’ve come to realize that our valley may look and play better as a beautiful natural area than as a groomed area … featuring longer bridges, elevated fairway landing zones, dedicated marsh and natural features, greater natural species accessibility, and eligibility for Audubon or other environmental certification.   This would include the removal of our two water-containment weirs, a change of irrigation water source from surface water to ground water, and a commitment to environmental mindedness.  We can’t think of a more appropriate action course, for the good of Clearbrook and the community.

Pursuing this project will require financial grants, which are difficult to find at this time.  We’re accepting any guidance our members or friends can offer.

Project FIVE:

FAIRWAY TURF-VARIETY CONVERSION:  We’ve told you all for years that managing the countless turf varietals naturally present at Clearbrook pose a difficult, perhaps impossible challenge.  They all respond to different stimuli with different behaviors.  The result is brilliant with great weather (i.e.: before mid-July this year) … and just awful with bad (since then!).  Old turf is varied turf.  It has to change.  We can no longer accept the status quo.  The old fairway turf must go.

We are assessing the implications of this decision currently, and will know more before we re-grass any fairways through these projects.  But, our intent is real.  It will take some time, but we know there are turf varieties that are FAR more resistant to our conditions and will flourish here at dramatically lesser maintenance costs.