EROSION CONTROL/Banking on success
The Village Links Golf Course in Glen Ellyn, Ill., received a makeover last summer that, along with a complete overhaul of its putting greens, included reducing erosion on the banks of many of its lakes. By replacing the banks’ previous armor of small rocks with plants, golf course managers hope to preserve the condition of the course’s redesigned greens.
The Village Links Golf Course is owned and operated by the Village of Glen Ellyn, which is a suburb of 27,000 residents located west of Chicago. The 240-acre course was constructed in 1967 and features 20 lakes and ponds that constitute a stormwater detention system for the village. Water from the village’s storm sewer system flows into the lakes, which are connected underground by 36-inch to 72-inch pipes. During significant storms, up to 60 acres of the course may be flooded, but the stormwater system typically drains the course in 36 hours.
The course had been having some problems with drainage on its putting greens, however, so managers decided to close the course for a year and a half to renovate the greens. During the renovation, managers also sought to replace the corroding pipes that connected the lakes and to improve erosion control along the banks of the lakes. “If we were going to be closed for a year and a half and incur that revenue loss and disruption, we knew that would be a prudent time to look at any other changes to the golf course,” says Matt Pekarek, general manager of the course.
The lake banks were subject to two kinds of erosion. Muskrats were fond of burrowing into the banks to build dens, which eventually would cause those areas to collapse into the water. Additionally small waves would slowly eat away the banks. “In the first 10 years of operation, we lost probably seven or eight feet on some shore lines,” Pekarek says.
Since the 1970s, the course had been installing crushed limestone along the banks to prevent the muskrats from burrowing and to provide a barrier to wave erosion. However, the rocks sometimes posed problems for golfers whose balls rolled close to the banks as well as for maintenance workers whose mowers could not cut close to the rocks. Additionally, maintenance workers periodically had to refresh the rock barriers because some rocks would slide into the soil or the lakes.
The course contracted with River Falls, Wis.-based Gill Miller to redesign the golf course and write the construction specifications for all the renovations. The designer recommended that the course replace most of its limestone with a Landlok turf reinforcement mat from Chattanooga, Tenn.-based SI Geosolutions. The non-biodegradable mat would provide an anchor for plants and prevent fine soils from migrating during fluctuations in water levels.
In November 2002 the course closed, and Plainfield, Ill.-based Wadsworth Golf Construction began major reconstruction activities in spring 2003. The contractor installed approximately 15,000 square yards of the mat on the banks of 16 lakes and covered them with soil. Not all lake banks were replaced because geography posed problems at some lakes, and designers preferred the appearance of the limestone on other banks.
By early September, course workers had completed seeding the banks with the same hybrid bluegrass blend used for the course’s roughs. On top of the seeds, workers installed a biodegradable mulch mat to retain moisture, help the seeds germinate quickly and keep the seeds from washing away. “If we were to have a major storm event, we would have lots of top soil moving around, and we wanted a strip of plant life to prevent that,” Pekarek says. “That could have been a major mess.”
The golf course renovation cost approximately $4.8 million, including about $117,000 for erosion control materials. Although grass has begun growing along the lake banks, it is not completely mature yet. “If this works, we won’t have rocks for the golfers to play around when they get close to a water hazard, and the maintenance is easier,” Pekarek says. “We don’t know if it’s going to work, but we felt it was worth the try.”
Later this year, as part of the course’s participation in the Audubon International Cooperative Wildlife Sanctuary Program, Village Links will add a variety of plants to the lake banks to provide food and habitat for wildlife. By June, however, Pekarek expects the course will be ready to host the qualifying tournament for the Western Open, a stop on the Professional Golf Association tour. “Grass is growing, but it’s not pretty at this point,” he says. “We’ve mowed the tees, greens and fairways multiple times, and it looks like a golf course again.”
