With concern for our members and guests health during this difficult time, the use of single cart riders has been recommended for non-household related players. With an increase in total carts being used, additional wear and tear is occurring on various areas of the course.
There are a few tips I would like to remind those using carts which will assist in reducing wear and tear to our zoysia turf which is coming out of dormancy and is not actively growing. I made a video 6 years ago which will explain the pattern cart operators should use to protect our playing surfaces.
Also a reminder that there is a green post positioned 20-30 yards from the green which directs all carts to go back to the cart path. This improves turf quality on our approaches and reduces traffic away from our green surrounds.
Carts should enter the fairway perpendicular to the fairway. This not only reduces wear and tear on our rough grass before the fairway but also reduces traffic on our zoysia fairways. It also improves the aesthetics and overall look of the course. This is a picture at the bottom of #3 but translates to all cart path to fairway access areas.
No, we aren't talking Britney Spears here ladies and gentlemen, we are talking about millions of holes in our golf greens at Glen Echo CC for a second time in 7 days!!
We completed our Dry-Ject contracted service on March 23rd and we spent parts of 4 days this week doing our Verti-drain Deep-tined Aeration. Our process includes the following:
Burying each green with about a ton of sand
Then using our Verti-drain deep-tined aerator with 1/2" tines going about 8" deep into our green profile
We then blow the sand into the holes
Brush the green with a drag brush behind a cart
And Roll the greens
This work assists our .125" tall bentgrass (30 pieces of copy paper tall) in a number of ways:
Deep channels assists water to move through the green profile.
It creates channels for new roots to form and grow.
Oxygen moves into the subsurface assisting root growth and soil microbiology
Reduces excessive thatch which can make a green spongy and be susceptible to foot traffic during wet conditions
The additional sand assists in protecting crowns which is the growth center of the plants where roots grow down and leaf shoots grow up. The sand also assists in filling blemishes, ball mark holes and improves ball roll out
Tom blowing sand in holes. We also use backpack blowers in tight areas.
Pretty much the finished product. We've brushed and rolled the greens a couple more times this week which assists in spreading the heavier pockets of sand around the green surface. We expect the greens to be completely healed over the next 10-14 days. Work took about 150 man hours to complete.
Tree Management Plan includes removing dead and or dying trees throughout the season. It also includes a few planted when needed. Staff installed 3 trees on the right side of #9 red tee toward the fence line on 9. These trees were grown in our nursery over the last few years and we then transplanted them. From left to right, Black Gum, European Hornbeam and Yellowwood to replace the Carrico tree which died over the winter.
Skip mowing fairways for the first time. Not a real tight mow and used an old set of reals since there is so much small debris on the fairways. We blew and hand picked up as much as we could. This got a little bit of the winter fluff off of them.
