Travels with Terry

Quieter Cart Paths

Mark Smith, CGCS, at The Quarry at La Quinta (Calif.), and his construction team came up with a cool idea for quieter-sounding cart paths. The expansion joints are at two different angles, instead of perpendicular with the edge, so the golf cart tires do not make the typical “rap-rap-rap” sounds when crossing over them. The concrete is not tinted, but it has the decorative appearance of being so. The concrete thickness is 5 inches placed over the top of a decomposed granite base native soil material, with 3,000 PSI fiber mesh separating the two layers. The expansion joints are approximately 20–32 inches apart on the narrow side (depending on the overall width of the cart path) and about 9 feet on the wider side. The cart paths are typically 8 feet wide adjacent to the fairways and roughs and 12 feet adjacent to the greens and tees. The overall cost was included in the initial construction of the short game practice area in 2003.

Bunker Edge Protection Ramp

The 4 feet, 6 inches by 3 feet recycled plywood, which is either ½-inch or 5⁄8-inch thick, is placed on top of the Toro Sand Pro’s front plow and properly angled so it will remain in place during transport. Then it is placed on top of the bunker sand and grass surrounds to protect the bunker edges from any damage from the bunker rake’s tires. The plywood was left over from many other projects and it was cut to the proper size in about five minutes. Mark Smith, CGCS, at The Quarry at La Quinta (Calif.), and his dedicated team devised this great idea.