Hydroject video now public

Sorry for the inconvienence, I hit the incorrect category in loading the youtube video for yesterday's hydrojecting.  It is now available for viewing.

Greens Hydrojecting Completed

The hydrojecting of our greens was completed just a few minutes ago.  Check out the video below regarding this process.

Hydrojetting greens Thursday 6/27/13

We will be hydrojecting our greens through E&E Enterprises who we contract for this service early Thursday morning.  This work involves a highly pressurized stream of water that will penetrate to about 5" into the green profile.  We will plan the work so that early holes get finished as quickly as possible so we do not delay any 8 a.m. starts. Work is usually completed before 11:00 a.m.

The holes in the surface of the green are very small and will have very limited effect on ball roll.  Once the process is finished, the greens are rolled to smooth out the surface.  This program improves gas exchange to the root system, allows water to penetrate through the green profile, provide a place for new roots to generate and will help to reduce the amount of moisture being tied up in the greens.  A heavy flushing rain is okay from time to time but too much moisture can create long term root health issues.

We have scheduled another hydrojecting on Monday, July 22nd.  We will plan for a needle tinning/venting of our greens in August and September.  We attempt to schedule this work on Mondays but with a tournament this past Monday, we scheduled this work early on Thursday.  The greens can get stressed during Member/Guest prepping and the actual tournament so I like to provide to relief from this pressure with the hydrojecting process.

Below is a link which describes in more detail our process.

http://geccgcm.blogspot.com/2012/06/hydrojecting-greens-on-tuesday-june.html

How things change in a year!

At this time last year, we had already programmed over 9,000,000 gallons of water through our irrigation system.  This year so far, about 2,000,000 gallons.  By July 15th last season, we had used almost 15,000,000 gallons of city water.  This year we have used 0.  Our lake is currently full and I would expect that with cooler temperatures prevailing over the weekend and our ground having adequate moisture, we will be able to get into July without turning on the tap.  Every million gallons of water  costs our operation about
$ 3,500 so a significant savings so far this season.

Last season we had 14.30" of rain March-June, this season we have had 18.82" of rain with much cooler temperatures.  Our rainfall was early in the spring last year and this season it has been raining in May/June  which is good for saving money on water but bad on revenue generation for the club.  If it would rain about 1/2" a couple nights a week, we would be happy but it seems to not be cooperating the way we are wanting.

Video regarding Mr. Crocker's Hole in One!!

Thanks to our membership

Our three day Inv. Member/Guest closed last night with a great closing awards dinner.  The dinner was delayed due to the finish of the weather shortened Championship which was won on a playoff hole by Mike Quinn/Walt Obremski over  longtime member Bob Sido/Leo Dugo.  

It was great to see our membership come out to 18 to watch the last hole of the shoot out which was tied and then walk down to #9 to watch the playoff closest to the hole shots.  

We hope you and your guests enjoyed your 3 days with us at Glen Echo.  Our staff was energized and determined to provide you with a great experience.  I appreciate the kind words of thanks and encouragement which were passed along during the event.

There is still a great deal of fun to have at your club the rest of the season.  We will continue to work on improving conditions and strive to provide you with the  best product possible.

 

Invitational practice day

The staff has worked tirelessly over the last 11 months to get the course ready for 2013 Member/Guest.  We hope you enjoy your course,  food/drinks, the hospitality provided by all the staff here at Glen Echo.

Spot Weed Control

I've been doing some spot weed control on the course the last couple of weeks with more dry weather helping us out.  Instead of doing full broadcast applications, we have been doing spot treatments with both our regular spray machine and small backpack applications.  Wall to wall applications are not necessary, costly and not responsible to the environment we are entrusted to protect.  The spray should be clearing up over the next few days as the turf is mowed and the dying weeds disintegrate.

A little larger area of knotweed contamination along #18 left rough which was too large of an area to spray with the backpack.

You've probably noticed some brown areas where I've made applications in fairways, around greens and spot spraying on tees.  This has been for Kyllinga pictured above and yellow nutsedge.  #1 tee area is covered in Kyllinga and I plan to spray it with the machine after the Invitational is over this week. 

Install water/ice machine at pool

Chris, club maintenance man installed an water/ice dispenser at the swimming pool area but needed an place for it to go.  Staff dug up part of the bed and moved it into place.  Nice addition to pool area.

Ready to go but needed a better home.

Skip and Chris looking at final resting place of new water/ice dispenser in pool area.   Took it off its legs and set it on blocks placed into the flower bed area.

10 lake crossing completed

Skip, Russ and Tom did great work on the crossing to #10.  Not easy work since they had to climb inside a 38" pipe during part of the work removing the rusted bottom of the pipe, laying additional rock and pouring and smoothing the concrete.

Last section waiting for more concrete.

Skip and Tom smoothing it out.

Final product and back open again for safe crossing.

Compost trial on tees

Anyone who has played the last few days has seen a couple of tees with some black organic material laying on top.  We are doing a trial with some compost on the right half of the 2nd tee, the left 1/2 of the 8th tee and the front left section of the short range tee.  It worked it pretty well on the 2nd tee and driving range but will have to poke some holes in the 8th tee to get the rest of the material into the soil so the tee is playable.  We will be checking this product for overall turf health and improvement to the teeing surface.  I do not necessarily see this as a product that we will use on every tee but on areas to reduce potential applications of fungicide such as in #2 or overall soil health #8 which is very difficult to keep it soft enough without flooding it to get a peg into the ground. The range tee we are treating to see if we get quicker divot recovery.  There was some slight damage to the tee below from a little too much material but it should recover.  I will post in the next couple of days some updates pictures on the work.

We used our top dresser to spread about 900 #'s of compost in two rows on the right half of #2 tee.  We will manage the 1/2 near the cart path with regular fertilizer/fungicide treatments as needed and will manage the metro link side without any treatments except the compost.  It was then brushed into the canopy of the turf.

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY!

Happy Father's Day.  Many of you are out enjoying your day already on the golf course.  I'm going to enjoy it home today since rains came last night and washed out some of my Member/Guest prep I had planned this morning.  There will still be plenty of daylight the rest of the week to get ready for Thursday.

The picture on left is of my dad in the late summer of 1991 making a presentation to the South County Kiwanis Club which I was president.  
The year dad passed, he was the Governor/leader of the Missouri/Arkansas District of Kiwanis.  One of the proudest parts of his life was giving to others through his volunteer work with Kiwanis.

He was a teacher/coach and was entering his tenure year at St. Clair H.S. He was not granted tenure and his contract was not renewed.  He decided to begin his restaurant business in earnest.  For the next few years, those involved in dismissal became his customers and ultimately his friends.  When bad things happen, keep your head up and move on with your life.

He lost his first election attempt for Governor and called the new Governor and volunteered to help in any way he could with the year.  He actually became Liet. Gov for the area he lived.  He was able to see the bigger picture in life and did not allow setbacks to get in his way or in the way of the ultimate goal.

A few years later on the evening in which he won his election for Governor.  We were in his room with family and friends waiting on word of the election.  The message was delivered that he won and I remember the group embrace that my brothers and I were involved with dad.  He was so proud of his election because he knew through his efforts how he could affect people, especially kids lives for the better.  He only made it through 6 months of his term but accomplished more in 6 months than most ever accomplished in their full year of service.

Dad, I'm proud to be your son!!

10 bridge

More substantial removal of asphalt required than first thought.  Added gravel today to backfill around pipes in preparation of new road cover..  Plan to pour concrete pad over the 

repaired section tomorrow.   Should get the bridge opened by Tuesday of next week once the concrete cures.

Repairs to10 bridge

The staff spent the last two days working on repairs to 10 bridge spillway and cart path.  We decided to cut out the bottom of the galvanized pipe and pour concrete into the opened area in the pipe which would then carry the water between the two lakes.  The holes in the bottom of the pipe allowed the water to erode the gravel from around the 36" diameter pipes causing pieces of  the cart path to collapse.  The gravel will be back filled and asphalt patch will be cover the holes.  I would expect the path to be opened again by Thursday.

Rusted out galvanized pipe.

Concrete becoming the new bottom of the spillway.
 

Double the trouble, double the fun.

 

 

Invitational Practice Round, Inside 12 days now!

Preparations continue for 'The Invitational' Member Guest Tournament and of course our regular play.  Fine tuning will be taking place over the next week and a half.  Cleaning and sprucing up the facility is always ongoing but its pace is a little quicker leading up to this event.  All the pots have been filled with plants, beds are all but complete,  I've addressed the size of this year's plants in an earlier post but a little heat will begin to move everything in a better direction.  Weeding, mulch touch up and some fine tuning will take place.  Divot filling on tees, small patches of worn areas in fairways, stump grinding, tree trimming, cleaning all course accessory equipment are just a few of the things that staff will be accomplishing.  Topdressing of greens and brushing this week should give us great surfaces for putting next week.  Continued sprays and nutritional applications are being made to keep our turf healthy and able to respond to adverse conditions.  Hearing putting conditions were good this weekend for The Clarkson Championship which I believe had a tie that was broken in sudden death with Mr. Coe winning and Mr Lockhart taking 2nd.

The short range targets have taken root and the bermuda should begin to spread this week with some heat coming on. We will get the poles up this week for the targets.  We plan to have 3 signs placed on the left, back middle and right side to identify the distance of each target to assist you with your club selections.  The yardages should be from about 35 to 100 yards depending upon which area of the tee you are set up for that day.

Weed control in fairways and tees was applied on the back 9 on Friday and I hope to get the front 9 sprayed Monday.  Already see some good curling of knotweed and clover.  I sprayed a few hand sprayer containers of Nutsedge/Kylinga spray in fairways and tees today ahead of tournament spray. Still have about 3 holes to go.  We will be applying our wetting product to the bunkers which should assist us with keeping the bunkers a little firmer.  Extra moisture of course will have to be applied to the surrounds which will add to the moisture already in the bunkers.

Soil penetrants and wetting agents will be applied to our tees, green surrounds to assist in water retention and or moving through the profile more easily.

We will be applying a light amount of fertilizer to the rough.  Yes, I know it is lush and tough to play from but we can see some changes in its color over the last 7-10 days.  We do a light fertilization at the beginning of summer to help provide it with just a little more energy for the next couple of months of heat.

We will continue to keep you updated on our progress.

Jason shearing the Euonymus hedge behind 7 tee/8 green

Weather Stats for May

Interesting weather stats for May. I think they might surprise you, they did me!  We had 3 days considered fair, 13 days considered PC and 15 days cloudy.  Temperatures were near normal.  I think the airport rainfall total is higher than our weather station.  I shut the computer off today at work or I could have gotten you a total.  I'll tweet it tomorrow.

WEATHER         OBSERVED          NORMAL  DEPART  LAST YEAR`S
                 VALUE   DATE(S)  VALUE   FROM    VALUE
Temperature                                          NORMAL

AVG. MAXIMUM     76.4              76.3     0.1     83.7
AVG. MINIMUM     58.0              57.2     0.8     62.7
MEAN             67.2              66.8     0.4     73.2

Rainfall

TOTALS           7.13              4.72    2.41     1.70

Director of Golf Course Operations U.S. Open Matt Shaffer

Nice interview on GCSAA TV with Director of Golf Course Operations Matt Shaffer.

Link to the video below.  I had to remove the embed because it kept looping on when opening the blog.   Yikes, appreciate Matt but not that much!!

http://www.gcsaa.tv/view.php?id=2212

Maintenance practices at U.S. Open being held at Merion Golf Club

The national superintendent association(GCSAA) which I am a member of will be blogging from Merion Golf Club this week.  Here is the link to this site if you are interested in some insight into the work taking place at this week's U.S. Open.  http://www.gcm.typepad.com 
I'm sure there will be some interesting information to learn about what is taking place.

Also, a quick interview with Matt Shaffer, Director of Golf Course Operations

Turtles are on the move

Please be aware that our Momma Green Water Turtles and Snapping Turtles are on the move to lay their eggs.  This girl was next to the woods on 14 in a sandy spot laying her batch.  Most of the snapping Turtles travel cross country to the creek on #1-2 to lay their eggs in the creek bottom and then make the long walk back to the lake complexes.  If you see a turtle that needs to be moved, contact myself or a staff member to move them out of the line of play. 

 

New zoysia areas

1,2,6,17,18 all have zoysia sod laid last fall which has taken a long time to green up this spring.  Fertilized yesterday and placed a heavy sand topdressing over the area today.  This will help to smooth the area, fill the cracks and warm the soil to improve growth.  I expect to see a retry drastic change in these areas over the next two weeks.

Sod buried but will be brushed and will drop down into the lower layer, crown area of the turf.
 

Zoysia fwy/tee Fert apps

The tees and fairways were fed a little today with a granular fertilizer application.  You should see a little color response in the be t few days and then some growth response as the soil temperatures continue to increase with the air temperatures.  This will be our main app of the season for the fairways with a smaller application occurring toward the end of July.

Right #10 cart/walk bridge temporarily closed

The right bridge on hole 10 has been temporarily closed to cart and walking traffic due to some substantial loss of sub-grade around the old spillway pipe.  We are currently evaluating repairs  to this bridge. Please use the left entrance to 10 fairway off of the main road until further notice.  The area is barricaded and signs have been posted to remind you about this situation.   We appreciate your patience until final repairs are made.

Tom Lewis, Glen Echo Staff working PGA Senior Championship

Tom Lewis from our staff asked me a few months ago about possibly volunteering for the staff at Bellerive CC during the PGA Championship.  I gave him the contact information and he was set.  He worked 4 evening shifts as well as doing his duties here at Glen Echo.  He had a great experience, rubbing elbows with superintendents and volunteers from all over the country and world.  Everyone talked about the efficiency and use of resources during the week.  Tom was involved with bunker clean up and clean up around the greens.  From what I saw Sunday in person, the course was in outstanding shape.  They did not get finished with their work/fun until 1:30 Friday morning from the rain delay they experienced last Thursday.

Tom hand brushing faces.  Faces were kept very thin  with sand to insure that they would be hard packed and ball would roll to the bottom.

Tom and other employees, volunteers cleaning up around a green.

Viewing videos

I've been hearing from members who have said the videos that I have posted on the blog are not opening.  I would try an alternate browser which could help with the situation.  If you still have issues, contact me with the browsers you have tried and I will search for an answer to your issue.