4 red tee completion

The red tee on #4 was laser leveled on Thursday, I laid part of the sod on Thursday evening and the staff completed it on Friday.  Level is a relative term when you place grass on dirt.  In some cases, tees are built like greens where there is a sand layer which allows for the surface to dry more quickly.  Also, the type of grass warrants additional drainage such as bentgrass which we see to the north of St. Louis and in the cooler areas of the east.  Some tees are installed with drainage which can be very expensive and some are not.  Our tees are built on top of soil so we must insure that they surface drain which means when the laser leveling takes place, the tee is shaped so the water will drain from side to side, front to back and or back to front.  There are design principles that are used to determine which direction you want the water to move based on how the land falls either up or down in front of the tee or the surrounding vicinity of the tee.  Usually you want the water to drain away from the walk on and off area of the teeing ground so that players are not walking through a wet area.

Schaefer Meyer/Laser Turf Leveling tilling the soil to assist the laser leveling operation move the dirt from side to side and back and forth.

Sorry, no picture of the laser operation on #4 but this is how it is done from the work on #13.
Mike McNeil

The yellow unit standing on the tri-pod sends out a signal to receiver on the tractor.  Mike inputs the degree slope that he wants and the direction that he wants to slope to go before he starts grading.  The unit then sends a signal to the tractor which then automatically raises the grading part of the box on the back of the tractor up or down depending if the area needs to be raised or lowered.  He goes around in circles until the receiver shows a neutral line across it which of course means it is level to the desired slope requested.  

The completed 4th tee.