Here are the notes from Architect Kevin Ramsey of Golfplan on his site visit last week.

Desert Falls Country Club
Site Visit Notes- August 4,2011
CCA- David Hay
Tom Shepherd
National/Assurance (Contractor)-
Butch Soto
Golfplan- Kevin Ramsey

Reviewed all work in progress and scheduled for this Phase of work with specific hole by hole notes below.
Hole 4 - Reviewed area to be removed and painted bunker outline where appropriate. New bunker to be added at left front of green, as shown on Master Plan, to continue to discourage players going left. Reviewed location and shape with Contractor. New bunker and remaining reshaped bunker to be made as visible as possible by lowering mounds and/or ridges in between bunker areas that are being filled. If possible and time and budget allow the scope of work should extend into the old filled bunker that still looks like a filled bunker and does not blend into the fairway area. This would not be much cost as Butch has the equipment and operator there and the time would be minimal. The cost would be some additional sod. As this area is already a large area of work this hole may require some extra sod to tie everything in properly.
Hole 5 - Reviewed the first fairway bunkers left and right , closest to the tee will be filled in. The right hand side will just tie back into the surrounds. The left hand bunker should be filled and gently tie in near the fairway area and the remainder closest to the housing side can be more undulating.
Hole 9 - Reviewed revised bunker shapes and bunker area to be removed. Bunker to right of second landing area was further reduced and adjusted to be better visible to the golfer. Bunker in middle of golf hole to be turned into one pot bunker similar to what is going in on Hole 11. Surrounding mounds will be knocked down and used for fill of old bunker. Fairway cut to be adjusted to provide more fairway area.
Hole 10 - Reviewed small pot bunker at back left of green that filling has been completed. The fill and tie ins looked good and it was approved for sodding.
Hole 11 - Reviewed first fairway bunker which was filled and 60% sodded. Again tie ins and fill worked looked very good. We discussed during the next phase of work budgeting for some palm trees( 8-10 as large as possible) to go into this area tie into the existing planting and further discourage golfers from this target line.
Hole 15 - Reviewed right hand fairway bunker right of the path to be filled. This will be fairly straight forward and can be left as some gentle hollows to minimize fill.
Hole 17 - Reviewed the first small pot bunker in the fairway to be filled. This will tie back into the adjacent surrounds.
Hole 18 - The first fairway bunker on left to be filled and left as gently undulating and rolling. The first third of the next fairway bunker will also be filled. We painted a new outline at the beginning of the bunker and discussed mounding to be reduced or lowered to allow better visibility for the golfer from the tee.
After discussing the existing soil conditions and few drainage problems that have occurred in some areas it was decided that once the bunkers are cleaned out and new clean sand is brought in the bunker drainage should not be a problem. It is really only the past 3-4 years that these trouble spots have arisen and it is believed that they have finally just sealed off with too many fines particles from all the wind blown debris over the years. The bunker by the green on 4 will have a drain in the bunker attached to a solid drain pipe leading to a small sump below the bunker in the rough as this bunker had shown some problems in the past. The concern with putting in the drain pipe with the gravel is that over time the gravel could/would mix into the sand and become a new problem that would require removing sand to fix. Putting fabric over gravel and pipe is not an option as the pore space in the fabric will clog and impeded drainage further. We decided a drain solution will only be required where we have had trouble in the past and are concerned about it reoccurring.
Overall the work looked very good and appears to be moving quickly. The only area with a bit of unknown is hole 4 as the sod quantity is an estimate and more sod may be required to complete this area properly.
We have another visit budgeted in our agreement however based upon the work I saw and the schedule this visit may not be required. I will leave it up to Tom and Butch as they work through things if they need a visit to let me know and we can get it scheduled. Most of the work is fairly straight forward with Hole 4 requiring the most attention. Butch will send photos as work is progressing.