Spread It, Vertical It, Trim It, Fill It and Please DON'T Step Through It

 What a rollercoaster its been over the last few weeks with our work here at Glen Echo. This week we're reaching the peak and heading down the biggest drop. All of our grounds responsibilities are coming together to start all at once but our staff along with some pretty good weather I must say are knocking it out of the park with a couple twisty loops in between.

SPREAD IT

The pandemic has created some shipping issues with parts in repairing some of our needed pieces of equipment. Our spreader is down and with the onset of warmer weather our zoysia is hungry and ready to move a bit so we borrowed a spreader from the best Super I know, my brother and spread a couple tons on our fairways over the past couple of days. Little more spreading to do as well with a little nitrogen to go into the roughs to push a little energy into them for the summer stress period. Oh what a challenge it will be playing from it over the next few weeks! Hit em straight.

https://youtu.be/pXnd4mWMpLg

VERTICAL IT

Did a little vertical mowing on our greens the last couple of days. Its normally completed a little earlier in the season but timing has not been where I wanted.  You say vertical, what do you mean? Well, allow me a moment to explain. Greens mowers have a piece of metal that stretches across the ground and stands the turf up and the blades then come through and cut it off. We are talking about a setting of about 1/8" maximum which is about 30 sheets of typing paper. Pretty thin. Below are pictures of a normal mowing reel and a vertical mowing reel.

Regular mower with a straight bar across the bottom that stands the blades up and anything above the top of the bar gets cut by the spinning blade.

The vertical mower cuts down into the surface of the green. 37 blades across 20" spaced at about 5/8" apart. Its purpose is to cut any bent grass in its line that have bent over and grown laterally which is its nature.

Our vertical mowing only goes about 3/8" deep helps to manage the bent grass in the manner that I anticipate. We went front to back on Tuesday and today we went the opposite direction and made what appears to be a checker board pattern across the greens to insure we could cut many of the longest blades. Tuesday we did a light sand topdressing behind the vertical mower than brushed and mowed. Today we only brushed behind the vertical cut and mowed. The disruption of the surface lasts a few days but I would anticipate by this weekend the greens should be at their normal roll out.

https://studio.youtube.com/video/eIUkyFNgzjw/edit

  The arrow on the left is pointing to the shorter lime green poa annua.We have reduced its competitiveness with a growth regulator called Paclobutrazol in an effort to encourage the bent grass to out grow it. The arrow on the right/middle is pointing to bent grass plants which if you look at the length of their overall leaves are 3 to 4 times longer than the poa and much wider blades as well. We don't vertical very often because it can reduce the competitive advantage bent grass has over poa but a cut like this can stimulate growth of the bent and force it to push out more leaves from the crown(growth center of the plant). Ultimately it improves ball roll out for future rounds of golf. Now you can go to a depth of an inch or more but that's usually done much earlier in the season to allow for proper healing. Scheduling had not allowed us to get this process completed in the last few weeks but the timing of the cool down over the next few days works perfectly for this cultural practice. 

 

TRIMMING IT

The staff have been hitting the property with trimmers attempting to get all trees, fence lines and other structures trimmed up over the last couple of weeks. They are weekly trimming and hover mowing our bunker banks which is usually a 6-7 hour job for 3-4 people. Once the heat of summer arrives, there is a bit less growth which saves some time. 

FILL IT

Our grounds detail work as we've mentioned in the past are our tennis courts and pool. Continued clean up including painting the asphalt  area and getting the shade structure painted and cleaned. Cleaning  stored away furniture and existing furniture that overwintered at the pool. Becky's been hard at work getting the urns filled and the giant hanging baskets placed at the pool. Touch up painting of the pergola and attaching the sunshade to its roof all in a days work for our staff. 

 We removed some hanging baskets from the Pro Shop front area and have added some new baskets to the Field Bar. Becky planted those last week with Caladium, Sun Patiens, Asprargus Fern and Coleus. Six in total. Should be a good look this season.

 

Please DON'T STEP ON IT

Speaking of Becky and the work she does comes the last but not least of our blog. We have a couple of ornamental plantings that are in some high traffic areas, especially around the pro shop. They were put in place over the years to give a great back drop to our closing hole and to give cart and walking traffic a defined area to walk and or drive around. Last weekend, I happened to be up around the pro shop and saw with my very own eyes people walking directly through the bed area. 

Our walk on and walk off area at the practice green was an embarrassment for me and we have made great strides in improving this area. We improved the soil structure and increased the irrigation to small directed heads for this walk off area. We also placed stakes and roping that can be moved to spread the wear and tear. Every foot print through the ornamental bed compacts the area and does not allow water to penetrate properly and damages plants. We appreciate you walking a few extra feet to protect the work our staff has spent many hours completing.

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks for your time and hopefully you get out and see  us over the next few days.

True Grounds Management, More Than The Golf Course

The main focus of our work is of course the jewel of a golf course we have that dates back to 1901. One of the challenges we face is total staffing to manage other aspects of the outdoor property. We of course have the largest team of employees with overall grounds experience. Many golf management teams across the country manage other aspects of the grounds besides golf. In our case, roadways, building management from time to time which is being reduced with the work that Eric and Chuck are now accomplishing in the clubhouse maintenance operation. We also are involved in tennis court preparation and pool clean up, start up and physical plant operation.

Our work on the pool started during some bad weather in March when we decided it was time to drain the deep end and get the debris that had blown in since last fall and reduce the amount of algae that builds up from this material. Eliminating the water reduces the amount of staining in the deep end and decreases the amount of time power washing must be done later in April and May. Our pool does not have a cover which normally eliminates this material from accumulating. We then forgot about the pool for a few weeks until heavy rainfall began to fill the deep end multiple times. Then the time came to get serious which has included major power washing on a couple of occasions, crack repair in the plaster bottom and tile repair on the floor. Deck power washing and load after load of oak chip mulch hauled to the upper wall bed by the staff. Water planned for the pool on May 14th.

I've attached a video from today which shows some of the work we've accomplished so far.

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

The staff from previous posts is also involved in tennis court preparations. Luckily, we use our topdressing for parts of this operation but 130  80 pound bags of material have to be loaded into our topdressor one at a time and spread in one afternoon a couple of weeks ago.

Russ and Jason have worked the last two days nailing down the lines. Court 1 is finished and about 1/2 of court 2. Unless it rains all day tomorrow, it should be completed by the end of the day Thursday. We also have to put up the windscreens in the next couple of weeks. Clark Taylor, our new tennis professional said he will assist the guys in installing the screens which is most helpful. Skip has been working on patching the asphalt rest area next to the courts. We have a green paint waiting to be applied on the asphalt once the repairs have been completed.

Each tape has a nail hole approximately every 3". The single and double court boundary is 78' long so about 250 nails in each long tape. Think I figured about 2000 nails in each court which is basically done from your hands and knees. A back killing job by Russ and Jason.

2 Tee Renovation, Tennis Courts and Cart Traffic

Well, we seem to get a step or two ahead with our work and then 2 step backwards with the rainy conditions we've experiences over the last few weeks.

Before starting on some big news on the 2 tee renovation, I would like to discuss the wet conditions we have been experiencing and how it relates to cart traffic. During normal weather conditions, Glen Echo's hill's have a number of springs that emit various amounts of moisture out of our rather tightly bound soils from late winter through the spring season. With a wet winter and now spring, Glen Echo's springs have really sprung this season. When we dry  enough to allow carts off the paths, we still have a number of areas that are somewhat damp. We have tried to rope off or place signage out but there are only so many signs that can be placed on a course. One thing to keep in mind, the lowest area of any hole is has the potential to be the wettest. Please allow me to give an example. #2 toward the metro track fence line has a tendency to be very wet. Within 20' or so of the fence your golf cart can end up over its axle in mud and water.

When we place a sign or signs on the course for an area to avoid, our expectation is that you give a wide berth of at least 20-30' feet to the left or right of the sign and 20-30' deep. Going directly behind a sign is not enough latitude to protect our turf. I've attached below a picturse which gives the example of what should not be done with a cart. Not trying to make an example out of someone but it is an example for future reference of how to avoid a wet area and not create tire tracks.

Tennis courts work is ongoing as the season is getting close. We are repairing the asphalt area adjacent the courts which will include filling some larger cracks with asphalt and then filling smaller cracks with liquid filler. We then intend to paint it a court green pigment. We also must add another 140 bags of clay to the courts in the next few days and then line the courts.

Skip cutting a couple of larger cracks out so we can replace with new asphalt.

Randy, Randy, Rallo and I cleaned the asphalt area and scraped the worn paint during the rain day we experienced last week.

So the big news of the day, 2 Tee surfaces and surrounding area were sodded today. We have a couple of small sections of sod on the back of the blue tee and forward off of the front tee toward the fairway that still must be completed. We will finish the remaining sodding over the next few days as weather allows. My expectation would be to hopefully open the tees on Memorial Day weekend if all things go well with temperature and not too much moisture.

White tee after tarps were pulled off Friday and was graded again by the bunker rake.

Blue tee was a bit damper but turned out ok.

Mike McNeil from Schaefer-Meyer Laser-leving the white tee Saturday morning.

                                   
                                                                   Laser leveling 2 tee
                                        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DCa7Dl1YyT4
                                  

Begging laying the zoysia on 2 tee. Stake and rope to help with alignment. Old tee basically pointed down right edge of the fairyway.

Finishing the white tee surface.

White tee complete

Guys working on the right bank toward the tracks with Fescue

Pinning the sod to insure it stays in place. We intend to mow the top but initially will not mow between the bank and the track area. We will evaluate this as time goes by. It is pretty significantly sloped and we do not have a riding unit that can mow this hillside.

Edging and finishing up on the tee surface.

Before laying the sod between the 2 tees.

Big roll sod being used in the off tee surface areas to help reduce washouts and save time in applications.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ComW8JuLNzI

                                        2 Tees Completed.
                                        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zhWRsMKUsPc

Mulch paths to long range and short range were smoothed and touched up over the last few days as well.

Large oak at the start of the fairway on the right of the cart path on #17 had its limbs removed today as we prepare to drop the main trunk hopefully Tuesday. This tree was severly compromised in the last storn and has signficant hollowing in at the start of the crown area which is where the limbws come out of the trunk.

Tennis Courts Ready For Play Thursday, May 5th

Promised the ladies I would work hard at getting courts open early this year. Should have court one lines down by 9 am Wednesday and will have court 2 finished by the end of the day. Courts will be ready for play on Thursday.

Two videos below. The first demonstrates rather quickly how we roll the tennis courts. Rolling helps to firm the surface and smooth out imperfections. This is completed on a regular basis during the season and especially during the early season.

https://youtu.be/zDt20ufIHeI



Laying out the courts is pretty important because of course they need to be square and have the proper dimensions. Video below shows how we use line cables to find the corners of the court.  The cables also help to set the single court lines, center court line, service lines, you get it, it helps to set the line. We then stretch string so we have as straight a line to lay the line tape(tape is made from vinyl) in place. The line must be nailed to the clay surface so it stays in place.

https://youtu.be/S9d_MaJawHA

Tennis Courts Ready for Play

Court 1 was opened last week and I finished Court 2 over the weekend. All the windscreens have been put up. We do have some additional maintenance next to Court 1 where the asphalt apron joins the clay courts. The edge has been crumbling and needs repairing to reduce potential injury. We cut an edge with a saw and removed a concrete block that was sunk beneath the edge. We intend to pour a concrete patch between the new cut line and the court to reduce the potential for a twisted ankle or turned knee. Should take a few hours to do on Wednesday and will be in good shape by the next day.

The old asphalt courts were removed a couple months ago and I had coordinated with a contractor as UMSL to assist us with getting some free fill dirt to fill in the area. Unfortunately, they pretty much used all the dirt and had none available for us to use. I'm currently attempting to locate a potential source for some free dirt. Member Mark Matteson from Clayco is trying to locate some dirt from their various projects around the area. We will need approximately 400 yards of dirt to fill this area so buying topsoil is out of the questions right now. In an effort to improve the look of the area and reduce the potential for tennis players and golfers walking through a muddy mess, we have seeded and strawed this area to get some turf cover started. This is only temporary until we can land some free clean fill, and I emphasize free!

Video below is Skip cutting the edge. We also will be repairing the cart path along 17 as well which we cut with the saw in preparing to remove.

https://youtu.be/n7zUOSaCWXs

After making the cut, Skip and the staff removing the concrete blocks. The area will be filled with about 6./10 of a yard of concrete. 4" wide x 120 feet long and an average depth of 5"

Old asphalt tennis courts removed

This past week we removed all the asphalt and dumped it in the back of the range.  As I mentioned earlier, we plan on covering it up with the wasted bunker material to provide a nice berm at the back of the range. We are in the process of locating some fill dirt to cover the area and we will then need to seed and straw it. We have a considerable pile of gravel in the area yet that needs to be moved as well but it must get a little drier. We will use this material in the maintenance parking lot and for the road leading to the back of the range. At this time there are many more capitol needs than replacing the courts and the removal will improve the overall look of the grounds.

We will still have the 2 clay courts that are maintained regularly for our tennis enthusiasts.

Started using the backhoe to remove the material but progress was fairly slow.

Rented a skid steer that  you see in the background that helped speed up the removal considerably.

Used the skid to pull up the material and used our loader to load the dead material.  Skid also helped with that issue as well.

Getting further along.  Took us a little over 3 days to removal the courts.

Near completion on Thursday.

Almost to the end.

Gravel layer that will be hauled out when dry enough to get equipment in there.

Removal of asphalt tennis courts

The clay courts will remain in place but the staff is in the process of removing the asphalt tennis court fencing, poles, and asphalt/gravel layer over the next few days.  The asphalt court has been in disrepair and there are no plan to renovate the courts at this time.  We  understand tennis is important to a number of our members and we will still provide 2 very nice clay court surfaces for learning and enjoying this sport.

We intend to use the asphalt as a fill layer at the top end of the range.  We will then take the sand spoils from the bunker project that were placed in piles and will use it to cap the asphalt.  It will have a more finished appearance and will assist the range staff in locating balls hit into this area and will allow us to mow it as necessary.  There is a high concentration of bermuda that was already covering the old mounds and will grow again.

We intend to get some fill dirt to cover the old court area and will then seed/straw it to cover the scar from the old courts.  I don't necessarily want to fill the area with trees but we will be evaluating in case a tree would be needed.

Staff pulling fence posts from asphalt courts.

The area on the back of the range where we will place the old asphalt.

Sand and dirty material that will be placed over the asphalt.

Surprise, Surprise, Surprise!

Well, I thought I heard the phone from my bed as I was preparing to get up not too early Sunday morning.  As I got up and realized it was my phone ringing again, I saw the recall number and it was Skip and I thought, Houston we have a problem because I rarely get calls in the winter from work. I called him back and he said I've got water pouring out of the middle of the tennis courts across 18 and 1 fairways.  I'm thinking to myself why would water be coming across that area?  The pumps are shutoff, no irrigation water is in the system. Well, Skip has been here over 30 years and I asked what do you think it is? Well, he went back into his memory and recalled that it could be a water line that was used to keep water on the clay courts in the days before the courts were running automatically. Luckily, the club was closed so he shutoff the water to the clubhouse and I said we will look at it on Monday.

We thought the leak might be only a foot or two deep so they started hand digging this morning. I was working in the office and was planning on coming up to look what they had discovered once they dug it up but before I could get up there, Skip called and said we will need something to dig deeper.  Our backhoe is too large so I went out and rented a smaller track-hoe that would fit into the gate of the tennis court area and would create a smaller footprint as we drove across the courts.  We used plywood to help reduce the track marks as the machine drove to the middle of the court. Skip dug down a few feet and we started to hand dig again. We always try to finish by hand so that the pipe is not damaged further by the bucket.  Russ found an additional cavity deeper into the court and a possible pipe but we needed to dig another 1 1/2' of material out of the hole.  We had to dig nearly 5' into the court when we finally exposed the leak. It was a 45 degree joint that had failed.  It was a 4" line that we believe fed the golf course back in the day. It had to be installed after 1928 when the existing clubhouse was built. There is no shutoff for the line that we are aware of.  I'm assuming there is a shutoff somewhere for that line but it must have been covered by now. We also found the 1 1/2" line about 2' under the surface of the courts that actually fed the tennis courts while we were digging.

We purchased a cap and One-Lok mechanism which helps to hold the cap in place.  Repair made and water is back on.  We will fill the hole back in tomorrow and will have to scrape up the mud from the clay so additional sections of clay are not contaminated.  The gravel subsurface and clay area will have to be patched once the area settles over the next couple of months. It is very difficult to walk on the courts right now because of the freeze/thaw cycles.  The courts hold moisture and become very sloppy during the day. I would expect the court to be in good shape once we put them back into play in May.

You never know what you might find on an nearly 114 year old property.

After the area was dug out. The brown material is the dirt that washed out onto the clay surface from the blowout.

Russ beginning to hand dig down into the small cavern created by the blowout.

More digging.

The actual pipe and the joint that failed.

After cutting out the joint. significant crack around most of the joint.

Repair made by Skip and Tom, water on and not leaking at this time.

Tennis Court 1 completed

Tennis court 1 is now open for play.  Plan to have court 2 open by mid-week.

Tennis Ct Canopy replacement

Sorry for the delay but we did just put up the new canvas awning cover at the tennis couts the other day.

 

Tennis court work started

We have finally gotten some cooperation with the weather of the last week or so which has allowed us enough time to get caught up on some course work and now has allowed us a day to begin the tennis court clean up work.  The staff spent the biggest part of the day after their first round of course jobs doing the following with the courts:

• Pulling weeds that had germinated around the court.
• Blowing tree debris away from the fence lines and mulching them with a rough mower.
• Pushing dead clay to the side of the courts.
• Using backpack blowers to remove the remaining clay off of the courts and picking it up with shovels and hauling it away. 

I began to lay some clay this afternoon with our topdressor but the mushroom cloud caused by the clay dust might have chased some of you away from Tapas night and we did not want that to happen.  The last two years I used a 5' wide walking drop spreader and dispensed 200 bags of clay which was painstakingly long process.  We thought we would use our topdressor this season and it appears to working well but does create a great deal of dust so we have to do this early in the morning.  Once the clay is laid, we have to water it in and begin rolling it.  We will apply some calcium chloride to help make the surface firm and will then begin to lay out the lines on the courts.  This might be the worst job because you have to nail in a few thousand aluminum nails into the tapes to hold them down. 

I probably need at least 3-4 dry days over the next 7 days or so to get the work completed.  If I can get all the clay laid by the weekend, I believe we can get the courts open by mid to late next week. 

Jeff, Demarcus, Tom M. and Ryan blowing the dead clay from the court.

Jason picking up the dead clay that was pushed and blown to the side of the court for removal.

Tennis Storage Shed Repairs

The storage shed at the tennis courts has been in need of some repair.  The floor was caving in and there were no shelves inside to store supplies.  Assistant Skip and Russ worked the last couple of days to make repairs and they look great.



Floor reinforced to help hold up the roller and other supplies.




New 3/4" plywood floor capped off.  Russ and Skip putting up brackets for the new shelving.




Shelf work.



Shed cleaned out and everything put back in place.  Ready for the tennis season!

Tennis courts nearing completion

I can see the light at the end of the tunnel.   The tennis courts are nearing completion.  We laid 560 pounds shy of 8 tons of clay to resurface the courts.  Another 400 pounds of calcium chloride to harden the surface and many passes back and forth on the roller to the point where we are ready to lay the lines.  The other work required you to just drop your head and do the work, now the most difficult part of the task laying straight lines for our tennis players.  I think I might have a nightmare or two tonight before we begin to set the lines tomorrow. 

From where we were on the 6th of May during the process of removing the dead clay.

To where we are today after the courts have been reconditioned.  Vince and Drew still have some rolling and grooming to do on the courts once the lines are laid but I feel pretty good about how the courts look and feel at this point.  Of course this is coming from a non-tennis guys so I'll hold judgement for a few days until the guys have had a chance to check them out.

A teaser picture with the first line laid out and waiting to be nailed in place in the morning.