 |
| After a lot of research and more time and labor than I expected, I finally finished my Backyard putting green project. I think that I ended up completing the whole project just under $6 a square foot. Other quotes that I had received before starting this project were around $14 a square foot. I think that the final result turned out very nice. |
 |
| After nailing I spread about 12 bags of sand, then spread and then added more. |
 |
| I found that a softer bristle broom worked well, as well as a large plastic leaf rake. |
 |
| Before nailing down the outside down I had to cut the fringe. I used a power cutter for the job around by the cement curbing and I used the box blade for the cuts around the patio. After cutting to my satisfaction I nailed down the outside of the fringe around the whole green. |
 |
| I now could cut the cups out! This took a lot of sharp blades to do well. I used around 7 to 8 blades per hole. I cut an X shape in the hole then I laid my blade on the outside of the hole and cut around. |
 |
| The first thing saturday morning we rolled out the putting surface to where we wanted it to go. Earlier we had rolled a soccer ball over the ground surface to make sure that we were happy with the elevations and breaks. |
 |
| In order to get nice lines in the putting surface we placed a water hose around the green and used it as a guide for our greens shape. We then nailed against the hose, raised the putting surface and connected the dots with chalk. We then used the chalk lines to cut the surface from the back. |
 |
| After the green was cut, we got right to work on the fringe. The first thing we did was to unroll it and then broom and rake it to get the fibers to stand and bloom. Next we cut rough pieces and laid them around the green. We raised the green surface and placed the fringe under the putting surface and made nail holes through the fringe. Lastly, we connected the dots of the nail holes with a sharpe and then cut out the pieces. |
 |
| First thing Friday morning I went to Home Depot and rented a 20inch plate compactor. I compacted the topsoil 3 times. This was very tough the first 2 times until compaction tamped the ground down more tightly. |
 |
| At 10 am I had 4.5 cubit yards of road base II and 2.5 yards of arena sand delivered from Valley Rock of Loomis. |
 |
| I started loading up wheelbarrows of the roadbase and the delivering it to the back yard. Around noon my turf and fescue was delivered. Each roll weighed about 230 lbs. |
 |
| Once I felt that I had 2 inches of material I spread it out with a landscaping rake, then I wet it down and ran the compactor over the surface. Each time I compacted I did it twice, watering along the way. |
 |
| After the compaction was complete and the elevation was like I wanted it the 6 inch aluminum cups were placed. I used post hole diggers and went down about 8 inches then used gravel to get the cups to where they were 1/4 inch above the ground and level. Then I added post hole cement and wet it down. |
 |
| After compaction we drew a painted line of how we wanted the shape of the putting surface to be. |
 |
| I capped all of the sprinkler heads with a cap and buried them. I also covered the drainage with a drainage sock and filled in around it with gravel so water should drain thru. |
 |
| Today the flags and 6 inch Aluminum cups were delivered from Dan at Bentgrassputtinggreens.com, this is starting to feel more real now. |
