Collar/Approach Renovation and Bunker Work

The staff has had busy week. We removed the false front bent grass approach on #10 and used the bent for collar repairs on holes 3, 4, 5, 6, 18 and the practice green. Over the last few years we have been converting these approaches to zoysia grass.  There are a number of reasons that this is being done:

• Less chemical applications since the approaches are now zoysia. This will reduce our overall chemical use which is good for the environment.
• Zoysia requires less water which will make the approaches more firm and allows the ball to release forward onto the green instead of hitting the more heavily watered bent grass approach and stopping.
• Our collars are mowed with a walk mower which takes more time to mow than the riding mower we can use on the approaches. We have converted them to a single pass mow which reduces labor which can used on other areas of the course. 

We still have larger approaches on 7, 13, and 15 that will be completed over the next couple of weeks. We reduced the size of 2 and 11 a few years ago but they are still larger than the single lap collars we have converted. We will attempt to remove these if time allows. If we run out of time, they will be worked on this fall.

Laying zoysia sod on 10 approach. This sod was taken off of 2 tee and used for this new approach. Saved operation a full pallet of sod which costs about $ 300 including delivery costs. It does take extra effort to do it this way with cutting the sod, lifting it and laying it but its great to use turf in another area.

Staff continue to lay more sod on 10.

This is a before with the old bent grass being stripped off by the sod cutter.Tom is cutting the bent grass sod into pieces so it could used again on damaged collars.

Staff in front of 3 green on the collar removing bermuda infested and thin turf.

New bent grass sod in its place. We saved nearly 400 linear feet of bent grass to use on our collars.

The guys are finishing up the left side of #6 green collar.

This morning the staff began working on our bunkers. Currently they have completed edging and redistributing sand in bunkers on holes 1-8 and the 2 large bunkers on 7. We will attempt to get the rest by early next week. The work has included adding additional sand to each bunker as needed from checking depths. As a player, you should expect that the sand will be a little fluffy in the bunkers that have been worked. It will take some time for us to get the existing sand to be mixed in with the new sand. We will be taking our packing machine out after heavy rains to help firm up the surfaces over the spring season.

No, not a Fox digging holes. These are check holes to see the depth of sand in the bunker to determine if we need to add any sand to the bunker or distribute deep areas of sand to more shallow areas.

Bermuda grass the was removed from normally the lower side of each bunker. Over time the bunkers shirk in size due to this fast growing plant.

Sand waiting to be added to the bunker on #1.

Newly added sand being shoveled and raked on #1.

Completed bunker on the left of #6

Spring Greens Aeration 'DryJect'

Our spring greens aeration was completed today using a process called DryJect. We contracted with DryJect Tennessee who brought two machines to Glen Echo to do the work. The following process was used for all 19 greens at Glen Echo. Our staff did an excellent job in getting this operation completed today!

• Greens were mowed to create a smooth surface since we will not be mowing for the next few days to allow the sand to settle into the canopy.
• 5 gallon buckets of sand were placed in the hopper as it crossed the green and were continuously added as it crossed back and forth across the green until the green was completely aerated.
• The machine uses a bead of water shot at 3,000 psi into the surface of the green. Simultaneously sand is injected into the water. The sand fills the space created in the green subsurface to a depth of 4-5".
• Once the sand dried on the green surface, the greens were brushed and holes were changed.
• Tomorrow, we will rolling the greens to help smooth out any imperfections.

We expect the greens to heal over the next 10-14 days. The holes are completely covered and should not create a great deal of disruption in ball roll out.

This process improves water infiltration/drying of wet areas, root growth, thatch control, gas exchange, smooths the surface of the greens with the excess sand that was brushed around the surface, and helps to protect the crown of the plant which is the area where the roots grown down and leaves grow up.

Trailer used to hold sand

Closer view of the process on each green.

Aerial view of the operation on 15 green. Sand at each side of the green. About 25 tons of sand was used today.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Sand on top of the machine. The clear tubes allow the kiln dried sand to be injected under the machine and into the green subsurface. The process taking approximately 30 minutes per green more or less.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XXLvEbNEi5c

Weather I'm Right or Whether I'm Wrong

Well, it appears the end might be in sight but I'm skeptical for this weekend. Course still has some snow cover and all greens are covered and frozen. I could not get a spike down past 1/2" in the surface on the greens. Predictions of 7/10" of rain and 60 degrees could give us the final push of snow going away as well as thawed greens.  We will alert you once the thaw has happened.

And by the way, Welcome Back Party in the clubhouse tonight so plenty of activity at the club even if it does not include knocking the little white ball around.

In the meantime, think ah yes

Weather Stats for February

Thought the weather of February was worse than it was but the first 

week of March has already made me forget about February. Just kind of

an average month of temperatures, a little below normal temperatures

and rain slightly above and snow slightly below. 18 degrees below

normal for the month of March so far. Heading up the scale to more normal 

in a few days, at least we hope. 

OBSERVED         ACTUAL            NORMAL  DEPART  LAST YRS 
                                   VALUE   FROM     VALUE
                                           NORMAL
.............................................................
TEMPERATURE (F)

AVG. MAXIMUM     43.4              45.0    -1.6     47.9
AVG. MINIMUM     26.1              27.6    -1.5     28.0
MEAN             34.8              36.3    -1.5     38.0


PRECIPITATION (INCHES)

TOTALS           3.56              2.24    1.32     5.25


SNOWFALL (INCHES)
RECORDS
 TOTAL           23.5   1914
 24 HR TOTAL     15.6   02/20/1912 TO 02/21/1912
TOTALS            2.4               4.3    -1.9      0.8
SINCE 7/1        21.8              15.0     6.8      5.5

RECORDS

...MONTHLY...

TIED 8TH MOST OCCURRENCES WITH AT LEAST A TENTH OF AN INCH OF
PRECIPITATION (8 DAYS).


...DAILY...

RECORD PRECIPITATION VALUE OF 1.18 INCHES SET ON 02/06. (PREVIOUS
1.11 IN 1951).