Frigid Grass, Pipeline, Sap Lotta Sap and Tree Management

Like a shutdown corner on the football field, mother nature is doing her thing for the next week or two here at Glen Echo.  Below freezing temperatures and a few days of precipitation has moved us indoors to complete our course supplies refurbishing and other important duties before we get back out on the course. 

Green Root Shearing

Once temperatures have moderated and all the snow and ice is gone from the course, the course will not reopen until the freeze has come completely out of the greens. I've attached a 1 minute video from the USGA regarding root shear and its effect on golf greens.

Shearing occurs when walking on thawed green surfaces and the root zone is frozen. Foot traffic on softening bentgrass greens causes the surface layer to shift with our weight and can tear roots at the junction of the thawed and frozen part of the green. The shearing off or tearing of roots that were 4-6" long to barely an inch or less causes the plant to use a tremendous amount of energy to regenerate the roots back to their mature length. Now remember that there are an average of 

Keep in mind, all roots are continueing to grow and evolve during the spring season and into early summer. They are gaining root mass and extend top growth based on the supply of energy we provide. Once they've used all their energy for growth, there is usually excess energy that has no where to go so it is placed in storage to be used by the plant when production of energy does not keep up with demand. This generally occurs when soil temperatures reach around +85 and air temperature near +90 degrees during late June through early September.. 

Turf and Below Zero Temperatures

So will below zero weather have a negative effect on our turf? I'm glad you asked that question. Generally speaking our turf should be able to withstand these temperatures. Snow cover does provide some insulation but we only have about 1" or so covering our fairways and grens. 

 The turf most effected by below zero nights could be the bermuda grasss which we have invading almost all of our surfaces. It won't kill it completely but could potentially cause it to grow out from below ground. Normally bermuda begins to green up in its runners or stolons above ground. The freeze could force it to grow from rhizomes under ground because the runners on the surface on the ground could die back to below the surface. In most cases it will kill the plant completely but could delay its growth by weeks or more. 

Our golf greens, cool season turf have a higher cold tolerance to severe cold. We did discontinue mowing to allow our greens to get a little fluffy. I was contemplating a mow in January but saw the long term outlook and decided to hold on until February. I'm glad I waited. Mowing in winter, especially if it is milder can signal the plants to grow which could lead to some cold temperature injury. Poa annua can be negatively effected by cold but I've never seen much winter kill in my 31 years in the business here in St. Louis.  

Our zoysia grass tees, fairways have cold tolerance to about -5 to -10 degrees under normal circumstances. Without snow cover, north facing, shaded, and heavy traffiked areas could be subject to winter damage when temperatures fall into these ranges. This damage could result in slow green up and or death and in need for replacement.

Are there cultural practices which could reduce winter injury? Thank you for asking again and yes there are Best Practices that can assist in winter turf survival of zoysia grass. At Glen Echo, we do the following to improve our turf's chance for emerging unscathed in the spring.

• Aeration and or slicing fairways/tees in the summer
• Traffic control of carts and moving teeing grounds to reduce wear and tear. This is why we ask you to not drive directly from the teeing area to fairways because of wear and tear.
• Light, the more light the better which means the removal of limbs and or trees as necessary to improve and increase light. A minimum of 5-6 hours is the best. This would also include root pruning of trees using our tractor driven root pruner
• Ensure nitrogen fertilizer applications do not extend the growth of zoysia to far into the late summer/early fall which does not allow the zoysia to move into dormancy at the proper timing. Also provide adequate potassium to the zoysia through a late summer/fall which assists in winter hardiness
• Reduce drought stress going into dormancy
• Raise height of cut before season ends
• Reduce traffic during non-growth dormancy months

Tree Management Plan

Our tree management plan is ongoing during the year. We did some significant pruning in the late summer/early fall to clean off suckers on trees and to remove lower and or dead branches that will allow more sunlight to get to our turf canopy. Our contractor is out this week removing a few trees that are on our green committee approved list that are too large for our staff to handle without being topped out. The committe has also given the green light to remove most Sweetgum trees from the property because of the immense clean up that are caused by these trees. The time and energy that will be saved from cleaning up gumballs as they drop can be moved to managing and improving other turf areas. We also have a few damaged and or weakened trees that will get our attention over the next month or so as well that we can drop on our own. Stump grinding will be completed and soil, sod and or seeding will take place depending upon where they are located. 

We have one tree left in our tree nursery which will be moved this winter. We will add another 3-4 back into the nursery before spring to allow them to grow and mature for future use.

Large Pin Oak being topped today near 4-5 cart path and main road. Tree has significant wounding in lower 1/3 of main trunk and top has continued to die back. 

Maple Syrup

We began the process of tapping our maple trees for their sap this past week. We had good flow the first day but the cold weather moved in and has shutdown the flow of sap. Looking at the forecast it appears the severe cold will break next week sometime and we will get temperatues above 32 which will allow for addtional flow. Attached is a video of a tree being tapped. We have about 15 trees tapped which should give us a great supply as long as temperatures moderate slowly over the next few weeks.

     Sometimes you get a bit greedy. 4 buckets of excellent

 flowing trees at the bottom of #3.

                                            

6 to 8 Drainage Project

The pipe between 6 to 8 cart path has been installed and the rock and dirt backfill is in place.

We still have a great deal of work to complete as the weather cooperates over the next month.

• Additional soil to add as we pack it along and over the pipe
• Grading and shaping of the soil
• 4" drainage to be installed in front of 7 tee
• Sodding all areas disturbed

Our hope is to complete this as quickly as weather allows so we can get the 8th hole open for play.

December/January Weather Stats

Daytime highs in Decembr were nearly 5 degrees warmer with night temps slightly warmer. Inversely, nighttime temps in January were over 5 degrees higher than normal with daytime being slightly over. Overall, averages were about 3 degrees above for the two months. 

December
TEMPERATURE (F) Observed Value   Normal   Depart Normal  Last Year
AVG. MAXIMUM    47.4               42.5       4.9           49.5
AVG. MINIMUM    28.8               26.9       1.9           30.0
MEAN            38.1               34.7       3.4           39.7

PRECIPITATION (INCHES)
TOTALS          1.60               2.84      -1.24          1.86
January
TEMPERATURE (F) Observed Value   Normal   Depart Normal  Last Year


AVG. MAXIMUM    40.9               39.9         1.0         42.5
AVG. MINIMUM    29.0               23.7         5.3         28.8
MEAN            34.9               31.8         3.1         35.7
PRECIPITATION (INCHES)

TOTALS          3.82               2.40         1.42         6.49

Winter 2020 Spring Course Preparations

Yes, the W word is coming soon as is next spring's golf season. The calendar continues to turn as are making our preparations for winter and next season.

We've been doing a number of things to prepare our warm season turf for winter dormancy.  We apply Sulfate of Potash to our tees and fairways(Zoysia Turf) to assist it with winter hardiness. We also begin raising our height of cut and reduce our mowing schedules to once a week. As the temperatures continue to cool over the next couple of weeks, will eliminate fairway mowing for the season.

Greens aeration is scheduled for October 21st unless we get rained out. Our rain date will then move to the 28th. This will be a solid deep tine aeration that we normally do every fall to a depth of about 8" or so and fill the holes with sand.

We will be spraying our close rough with a couple of light applications of Nitrogen to build up strength in our cool season rough before dormancy in late November/December to allow the plants to strengthen and come out healthy next spring.

Of course our leaf grinding and removal will be taking place over the next month to 6 weeks as necessary. We attempt to grind up as many leaves as possible back into our turf but once the supply exceeds our ability of the grass to handle an overload of leaves, we will vacuum/sweep 20 loads or more and haul them back into our dump area on the back of the range.

Its great weather over the next couple weeks as we continue to work on the course. Greens are rolling out well and course is in great shape. Come out and see us before winter catch up to us?

Between Now and April 1st We Must All Do Our Part

This has been one winter that has forced many of us to leave for warmer climates or dream of warmer climate if you haven't been able to leave the city. We've not been able to open the course on warmer days because of frozen conditions within our greens. We finally opened today for the first time in many weeks. We could have some additional course closed weather days before we begin to mow a great deal but they should be for much shorter intervals than what was experienced over the last month or so.There are a few things that our golfing members could assist us during the next few weeks until the turf begins to firm up and grow and we are fully staffed in April

Middle of 6 White tee concentrated divot wear. Please use the edges when possible.

• Greens will be very soft and repairing ball marks would be helpful.
• Divots on tees and fairways could be large due to the soft, wet conditions. Place your divots back in place, even if it breaks apart. Also, step down your depression which will reduce the exposure of roots to cold and or windy conditions. Your competitors would appreciate it as well in case a ball would roll into your smaller stepped down divot. Of course this is helpful during the growing season as well.
• Tee markers will be placed back on the tees in a few weeks but in the mean time use areas of the tee that appear more full of grass, especially the sides. Please don't place your ball in the middle of a heavily divot spot to make one more divot. Place your tee in an area of less damage.
• Carts will probably remain on the paths for the near future and I would encourage that you leave all wheels on the path instead of pulling partially off the path. I know if you are in a group with 2 carts, you have to go around a parked cart. If you do pass, it is always best to go on the side of the path away from the fairway so you do not potentially damage rough in the close rough/fairway area. Certain areas of the course are wetter than other areas, especially bottoms of fairways. It might be wise to wait for the group to move instead of burying your cart in a wet spot at the bottom of #12 cart path.
• Driving ranges are on mats through at least mid-April or later. Please refrain from hitting off the grass tee. If you must hit off grass, please go to another range until we can get our grass growing and open. I don't like to hit off mats as well but its what we have to do since our grass is not actively growing until late April. The less damage we do to our grass now, the quicker we can open in the spring.

Olympic Flame troubleshooting

There is a great deal of work for our staff to complete before we reach the month of April as well. Not a complete listing but some of the main work.

• Finish all the equipment repairs for tees, driving ranges etc.
• Clean up of all equipment and checking carts for the season
• Continued tree removal and tree trimming.
• Rake and clean up gum balls and other debris
• Blowing remaining leaves that have dropped and finishing fence leaf removal.
• Monitoring seed head production on greens and spraying.
• Dry-ject(aerate) greens March 18-19 45 tons of sand.
• Aerate rough and root prune trees
• Finish applying weed grass post and pre-emergent to fairways. tees. Walk spread pre-emergent around greens and apply by fertilizer hauler pre-emergent into rough areas.
• Repair greens surrounds with sod and other areas of course with sod and seed.
• Clean up tree stump grindings/sod
• Repair driving range netting by installing new telephone pole.
• Changing holes, moving tees a couple times a week as needed.
• Repairs to outside areas around the clubhouse including walkway lights, patio lighting, pool clean up and lawn areas.
• Asphalt repairs as needed.
• Growing all of the plants for this season and Becky will be busy cleaning up beds and planting spring pots around the clubhouse.
• Clean up in and around field bar]
• Rebuilding 2 tee
• Rebuilding the greens nursery
• Grass part of dam on #9.
• Divot filling

Repairing and painting driving range bag stands. These were all home made by the staff a couple of years ago.

As you can see, we all have responsibilities that are important for the overall well being of our grand old golf course. We of course first rely upon you to come out and visit us, first and foremost but while you are here, some player etiquette in regards to the course is always appreciated.

Same Story Different Week With Course Being Closed and Winter Dormant Zoysia Spray

Well, sorry to be the bearer of bad news but conditions remain  frozen and or thawing here at Glen Echo. Just beginning to thaw today and I only give it a 1/10 of 1% chance of playing on Valentine's Day so I guess some would say there's a chance. Looks like snow and some colder temperatures over the next few days so golf looks like a no go for a bit longer.

We were out spraying some fairways, tees and approaches with our dormant herbicide spray. The turf must be dormant because we are spraying a non-selective product that injures and or kills green weeds and or grass. We are trying to kill any poa annua that has germinated on these surfaces and it also will kill any knot weed that has germinated. It appears the knot weed is still sleeping from the cold weather. If allowed to grow in the fairways during the spring, poa annua seeds profusely adding the more plants and can get rather clumpy before the fairway units beginning mowing. It also can invade more shaded areas and slow the health and progress of the zoysia Poa becomes active pretty quickly during warmer, sunny weather in the winter to early spring. A few days in a row over 45-50 and it becomes active. The plants will absorb the spray from the warmer weather as it becomes more active. Even if the temperatures turn cold, the chemistry is designed to stick on the leave of the plant and when it becomes active a few days later it will begin to kill the plant. The spray will show up over the next 2-3 weeks by yellowing the plants and will turn orange, brown and then die. Poa annua has a long growing period and reproduces millions of seeds. It loves moisture and shaded areas for the most part but will live in full sun is well so it is very adaptive.

We put a second product in the tank that helps to prevent crab grass and goose grass which germinate into the spring and summer. The product we utilize binds itself to the soil which allows it to be sprayed now and is on the soil surface when needed during April,  throughout the summer. Microbial activity begins to break down the product by the end of the summer but the zoysia is rather tight and keeps the soil surface shaded. Thinner areas of zoysia can develop some weed infestations because the soil is exposed to light and more moisture which can germinate weeds. We try to place enough product on the surfaces that will prevent weeds from germinating through August into September.

We were able to spray holes 1-7 today and the tees associated with those holes.

Below is a video with discussion regarding this spray application.

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

Course Closed Through Saturday, February 2nd

The golf course will remain closed through Saturday, February 2nd. We will evaluate Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning to see if conditions allow for opening on Sunday. The Driving Range will be open to come out and hit some balls during the weekend. I've been in contact with others clubs in town and some are closed and a few others are open but are on temporary greens.

 I've posted 3 videos below which show our situation on various greens throughout the grounds as of 1 PM Friday.

Practice Green
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_wALqJIslxQ&t=9s

7 Green
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_WxC5nX7tUc

11 Green
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CKX3abCg2B0

A Big Blast From the North and the Impending Thaw, How That Effects Golf Green Health

We've had above normal temperatures for the most part during the first 28 days of January with nights being well above normal and day temperatures a couple degrees above. This next blast of cold air the last four days of this month will bring our temperatures closer to average.

I'm sure everyone is anticipating the impending cold that will be followed by a warm up in the forecast below. I believe we have a 1 in 4 chance getting the course open this weekend.

Before we get too excited for a potential course opening this weekend, allow me a moment to discuss the yearly freeze/thaw issue that takes place with our greens.

We are getting to the time of year, probably a month or less before our first mowing of the winter/spring season. With cold temperatures like we will be experiencing over the next few days and no snow cover, the freeze is going to move pretty deep into our sand layer of our greens. The greens need to thaw at least 2-3" and the top of the green surface must be free of significant moisture.

Consequences of Greens Not Being Thawed Deep Enough

As the greens begin to thaw just an inch or two, the thawed part of the green can shift from golfers walking causing the area where the thaw and freeze meet to break or shear the roots off. Our roots this time of year are about 4" deep on average.  

Reducing the length of the roots forces the plant to regenerate new roots in the spring forcing it to catch up with non-damaged plants. Roots not damaged are growing deeper and branching more which  contributes to a healthier plant throughout the spring  and into the summer. The damaged plants see a total surface area of the roots reduced from this damage. The damaged plants must play catch up the rest of the spring and into the summer. If summer conditions arrive early like they did last year, there is less growth potential available for recovering plants and no storage of excess energy. 

The more total area of rooting the plant has, the more energy and moisture they can absorb throughout the spring and into the summer. Usually excess energy is produced and the plants can store some of this excess energy within the plant. The plants store this energy for use during the summer when growth slows and photosynthesis does not produce enough energy to maintain a healthy plant. The longer the plant has energy, the better it can ward off the severe stresses of our 

St. Louis summers. 

Consequences of Water Near the Surface

If the greens have not thawed deep enough to allow the moisture to move through the profile, the greens become spongy and very soft. During late winter play, if we allow play on greens that are very soft and spongy, foot traffic imprints into the surface of the green and may take a couple of weeks for it to come out. This condition can also contribute to large ball marks and damage from just walking on the green. There is also some potential for equipment potentially scalping the surface if this thaw occurs closer to the end of February. We always try to roll our greens in early spring in an effort to reduce the potential for scalping from puffiness and or foot imprinting.

The staff will be monitoring our surfaces and will alert the pro shop when play will be allowed on the golf course including the practice green. For those of you who like odds, I would place our chances of opening at 25%.

The staff has spent the last few days splitting wood, cleaning up tee markers, refurbishing some tables for Golf Pro Mike, cart maintenance, and checking out the internal workings of the ball washers. I've attached a few pictures of their work below.

Sanded and stained but not quite finished.

Shiny and new!

3 Tables in all were refurbished.

Sanding of old material from tee markers

Beginning the coating process.

The walk on area from the pro shop to the practice green was renovated
this past fall. We prepared a little taller stake to attach our nylon rope which will
 allow us to rotate the entrance and exit area from the practice green. Proper
 water, soil structure, aeration, rotating the wear pattern and removing the large sweet
gum should  help improve this area tremendously.

Guts pulled out of the ball washers and being cleaned. Washers were professionally
repainted 4 years ago and look like new  to this day.

Cleaning up the chairs next to the practice green.

Bunker Repair and End of Season Greens Spray

Our bunkers have gone through their 6th season and are in need of some repair. Most of the entrances and exits have some wear and tear issues from both equipment and efforts to keep them clear of debris. We spent most of the day on Friday reparing the left front bunker of #5.

The first thing we had to do was remove the sod along the edge to locate the actual edges of the bunker. We had to remove the excess sand that has been either blown out or drug out by our bunker rake.

We took the sod off and scraped the sand down to the soil layer and dug down along the sand until we found the original bunker edge that was done in 2012.

Once this was completed, we then laid new fescue sod and then moved the sand up against the new sod to assist in stabilizing the bunker edge over the next few months. In some cases, we will need to remove sod from the green splash side of a bunker as well. We will attempt to complete a bunker a week until sod cannot be cut from our supplier and will then begin again in late winter/spring hopefully completing most of the problem areas before spring has fully arrived. We will of course be checking sand depths and adding sand as needed as well to insure we have proper depths for our members and guests to play.

Some of you might have noticed the greens were pretty bright in color over the weekend. No, not a lot of growth taking place. We sprayed a fungicide called Civitas 
which has some late season benefits as well as early season benefits for 2019. Click on the link if you want to read more about it.

Right front edge of the #5 first bunker on the left

Arrows designate the edge of the bunker. We stripped off the sod from the tip up the arrow back up the slope. Sand hand been pushed up over the actual bunker edge so we dug down into the sand bank to find the original edge of the bunker Kyle Goalby had originally shaped.

Sand/soil mix being removed from the dge

Repaired edge with new sod. 

Sprayed the greens late last week with a fungicide which delays fall/winter dormancy and should assist in spring green up. Yes think spring!

Maple Tree Tapping

Below is a link to our sister blog The Mainhouse discussing Maple tree tapping and maple syrup.

Mainhouse Blog Post

Winter Work

Most supers are questioned what do you do in the winter. Well, staff is in the middle of vacations, sick days(germs from kids and pass it around the group), education which I showed you in December with more to come, and repairing our supplies that are on the golf course. Tee markers, trash cans, benches(personally think we should get rid of half of them), driving range bag stands and etc. Some of the time is spent just recovering from 6-7 day a week solid grind from the end of March through parts of November. Everyone up with 4:00-4:30 a.m wake up calls 6 days a week for all staff/management.

Painted trash cans

Jason and Russ sanding tee markers

Already sanded and waiting on the sander

What a Great Summer's Day We Face Today!

What a great summer's day we face today! Oh yes, its not summer but 62 with heavy dew and fog and a high of 70, it will feel like summer being its December 12. The staff have been busy this week aerating rough as you might see some plugs here and there and red flags marking heads. Continuing to change holes weekly and mowed greens on Wednesday. Rolled them on Friday and have been chasing leaves as needed. We are getting close to the end on those pesky critters.

No major construction projects planned this winter. Normal Tree Management Plan work including pruning and cleaning up trees all over property, inspecting others and a few removals that take place every season. We do have a couple of areas where planting will be taking place as well as the nursery. We also need to begin to tree health improvement work doing some deep drilling of compost around some of our Pin Oaks in strategic locations and applying some humic acid to improve their overall health.

The new irrigation system is reaching 9 years old this spring. With new heads comes the raising of the new heads. As you might notice when and if you are down the middle of the fairway, the heads are sunk down by an 1" or more. As the turf continues to grow, this gap will become even wider making it unsafe for golfers, difficult for equipment to go over and last but not least the sprinkler head throw pattern will be disrupted by the difference in elevation. What has to happen? Each head has to be raised to level grade. There are some mechanical ways of doing this our there but the one's I have researched appear to be very difficult to use with a very tight soil like we have here at Glen Echo.

That means every head must be dug up by shovel down to the swing arm approximately 15"-20" or so into the ground, head raised and repacked. Down the center row of fairways alone we have 150 heads. This will be a long process. Wish us luck.

Have a great day, might see you on the course for a few minutes this morning but I've got to get home and clean the leaves up in my yard. Hurt my back at home about 10 days ago and have not been able to do much of anything. Feeling a little better so I will see what I can do outside. Have a great day.

Improvements to the Veranda(upper patio)

The Veranda(upstairs patio) has been pretty much void of color/greenery over the years.  From time to time we would place some pots up there but the space is very large in scale and the pots were too small to fill the space.

We've been in a carpentry mode so I contacted Becky a month or two ago about the potential of us building some planters that could make an impact in this area.  We evaluated it and thought it could provide great improvement to this under utilized area of the club.

The boxes will sit on the large brick/concrete railing around the outside of the veranda.  The planters will begin on the right as you walk out onto the patio.  The first will be 60" long. A second at the corner will be approximately 60" in total length, Three 69" boxes staggered above the willow room and Board Room and a 140" long spectacular double planter will be above what was the Family Room. The boxes will be 13" tall and 17" wide.  Substantial enough to grow nice sized plants and deep enough to prevent the soil from drying out too quickly during the heat of the summer.  We intend to place a automatic water system on each planter to assist Becky in managing these large planters.

The Veranda is a large space that is underutilized at the club.  We believe the boxes and the color of the plant material will not only enhance this area but will also give the clubhouse a great look from the course and or the Marvin Pearson Lane as members and guests drive toward the clubhouse.

Becky plants our urns and other pots on a 3 season schedule.  I think for this season, we will probably plant these for the summer season and will evaluate for additional seasonal plants after we've had a chance to determine what will work best.

Finished planter before staining.  They are 3" taller sitting on the table then what they will be on the railing.  We offset them 3" so the sides will overlap the rail providing some safety for the box as it sits on the wall of the patio.

Tom staining the box.  We used treated cedar to reduce the wood decaying prematurely.

No this is not a coffin, its the inside view of the planter.  60" long.  We lined to planter to protect from decay and also placed 3 drain holes in the bottom with hose attached to catch the water and drain it away from the brick/concrete so it does not stain it.  This planter will be above the ground patio.  We have 3-69" planters for the club lawn side as well as one two section planter which will be 70" a piece for a total of 140".  They should be spectacular. 

Skip and Jason working on the corner planter that will go above the ground patio.

Tree Management Plan

Our contractor is out today topping 3 large trees along #9 club lawn that are severely compromised and have been on our removal list.  The contractor is removing the larger limbs which will make it safer for our staff to then drop the tree.  2 have large wounds/hollows and the 3rd has a large dead leader. Removing this leader places the tree in serious balance issues. It is listing toward the lake with all of its weight which creates a hazardous condition for everyone.  It is also in the way of a drainage project MSD will be performing in the future.

L-R Sweetgum hollow, Sycamore hollow and Sycamore with damage leader and in the way of future construction.

Sycamore near the trash dumpsters.

The tall Sycamore near the lake being removed.

End of a long, cold day for our contractor.  We will be dropping the 3 tree trunks and clean up the remnants over the next few days..

Driving Range Tee Amenity Improvements

The Long Range Tee should be drastically improved this year with the leveling and installation of the zoysia sod. Golf Pro Barrett had asked if there were funds available, he would like to see some new bag stands purchased for this season. Cost of these stands can range from $ 100 to well over $ 300 for the top of the line wooden.

We were first thinking we would purchase 10 but after assessing the cost, the staff decided that we could make our own as a part of our winter work projects and could make enough for both tees. We have less than $ 25.00 in materials and a little over 2 hours labor in the project including staining the stands. We inserted a cup holder on the top of the stand as well as some slots to allow clubs to be laid against the stand.

We plan to make 25 and the range tee donations will pay for the cost of the materials. On a daily basis, we will use ten on the long range and about six to eight on the short range tee. The extra stands will give us a full supply for larger events.

The metal stands will still be used at the all weather mats and to supplement the wooden stands if needed. The stands will be brought in each winter to store away and refurbish as necessary for each season. Our prototype is below.  We also intend to replace the dividers that are currently used on the tees. They will be built from slightly larger materials.

The guys cutting the materials in preparation for full production of the stands.

Completed stand, looks great!

Ah, looks even better with that bag/color scheme and a cup holder.  

Very Cold Outside, Time for Indoor Prep Work

Extremely cold outside today but still plenty of work to be done on the inside in prep for this season. We make every effort to extend the life of our course amenity materials such as tee markers, ball washers  and other items that are out on the course every year.

The guys are beginning this season's prep work by sanding off the varnish from our tee markers. Once this is completed we are putting a coat of wood stain on them before we dip them in a Marine Spar Varnish to protect them from the elements outside.  The extra Spar Varnish protection gave us 2 years before refurbishing plus gave them a nice, shiny look throughout both seasons.

Russ and Tom sanding off the tee markers yesterday.  With three and sometimes four sets of tees, we have well over 100 markers to clean up.  Jason staining and Lady providing the tough leadership in the background.  Thank goodness I have her.  She works cheap, hamburger at lunch and a couple cookies during the day.

Additional work inside includes painting distance markers(barber polls) on the driving range, dividers for hitting stalls for the grass tees, bag stands for range and benches that are located on each hole. We will probably need to paint the metal tee signs as well which are beginning to lose their paint.  Our plastic ball washers are fading and are looking pretty shabby.  We are going to have them painted professionally giving us many more years of life without having to replace them.

We will also be replacing the Vinylguard (shrink wrap) on our flag sticks/bunker rakes.  The flag poles and bunker rakes are fiberglass.  Over the years, the fiberglass breaks down from the UV rays from the sun and can render these course amenities useless.  The shrink wrap material is heated, shrinks to the surface and creates a renewed smooth surface allowing us to use them well past their normal life time.  The material only costs about  $4 per stick to replace.  A new flag stick is over $18. We also in time must cut off the top flag holder and the ferrule which goes down into the hole on the green.  You can do this once, maybe twice before the poles must be replaced.  Our  flag sticks are 8' and cutting off the top and bottom can remove 4-6" off of a stick which can cause depth perception issues when hitting at the green/flag.  Normally, we replace the bottom ferrules and threaded tops at the same  time which keeps the same consistent height throughout the course and at each green.

Preparing Sprayer for Dormant Zoysia Pre-emergent/Poa Control

Since I had to come in this morning to open the course, I decided to check spray rig before the next round of below zero temperatures settles in.  Within the next couple of weeks, we will be making our yearly Dormant Zoysia Pre-emergent/Poa control application to our fairways, tees and green surrounds that are covered in zoysia/bermuda.

This application includes a pre-emergent product Ronstar Flowable and non-selective herbicide Glysophate product for post-emergent on our fairways to control crabgrass/goosegrass/poa/other weeds and will kill already germinated poa annua that has popped up in the warm season grass since last fall.  We still need to do some off season work on the sprayer but the main thrust for checking it out was to insure that it is pumping properly before this very important winter spray application.  We try to spray on a sunny day when temperatures are above freezing and the ground can handle the sprayer driving on it.

Poa annua will become active in above freezing temperatures over a few days and will pull the material into its system and the herbicide will kill it over a few weeks.   It is only safe to spray this non-selective material during dormant periods in the dead of winter or it could hurt the warm season grass or delay it breaking dormancy.  The pre-emergent is sprayed onto the turf surface and prevents the shoots of the undesirable weeds from growing which kills the plant.  It is different chemistry than  other pre-emergents that inhibits roots from growing, including your turf grass roots.  If you ever hear someone saying that a pre-emergent is root pruning, that does not occur with the product we use.  It is not as price competitive as other products but when we are spraying over 30 acres like we do our tight zoysia areas, why would we not want the best product for the health of this large area of turf!  

The Glysophate spray will prevent little clumps of poa annua from interfering with play during the early part of the golf season.  It will also help to reduce the seed population of the poa annua which is a prolific seeding plant and will reduce competition in some of the less than ideal growing spots that we have on the course for the warm season grass.  Mainly shaded and or high compaction or traffic areas.  As the warm season grass is weakened, the poa annua or other weeds have a tendency to move in and attempt to reduce the warm season grasses ability to grow properly through competition for sun and water.

Still a few weeks away but the season will be upon us before we know it!

Winter Inside Work

Sometimes we are forced inside with the severe cold or heavy snow days.  These type of conditions allow us to complete some of the work that needs to be done before the spring golf season.

Every couple of years we have to spray paint the tee signs, use hand held pneumatic grinder to expose the lettering and paint.

The signs are all spray painted black.  Hanging to dry in the shop area.

Once dry, we take a air grinder and remove the paint from the letters.

The finished product with a little extra flash.

Even though it is small, our staff break room and restroom needs a coat of paint every couple of years.  A great deal of dust, grime, and splashed dirty water from the sink needs to be cleaned off the walls and beautified with a new paint..

New glossy painted walls of the break room and restroom.  Just large enough for a table of 8 to fit into for lunch.  Air conditioned to get the staff out of the heat at lunch time .

Course conditions and repairs to Lean To Storage area

The airport reported about 4.5" from the weekends storms which is about what we had here at Glen Echo. There was some snow and ice on the ground from the weekend before which added to the total  Nice warm temperatures the next couple of days but 99.9% chance that we will remain closed because of the snow, frozen and melting conditions.

The view from the main road looking toward #7 and the Field Bar.

The staff have been working on the Lean to Building doing some clean up and removing some old carts that are no longer in use.  The engines were blown and we made the choice to not put them back in service. Parts are being removed for future use on similar carts that are still operational and the rest of the unit will be sold as scrape.

The front cover of this cart will be used on another cart.  The remaining front end will removed in case we need in the future.  

The doorway to the pallet-ed fertilizer area does not allow our backhoe with forks or delivery equipment from our vendors to enter into the building.  The building was constructed before I arrived in 2008.  The door entrance will be raised to the ceiling allowing taller lifting equipment to maneuver within the fertilizer storage area.    

The entrance to the fertilizer storage area.  The header board frame will be removed giving us a couple of extra feet of head room for loading equipment to enter and exit.

Fertlizer storage area after guys cleaned things up yesterday and arranged.  We could have up to 6-8 pallets of additional material in the building during spring and early summer.

Header and frame removed.

Continue Course Accessory Clean up

Staff spent yesterday cleaning up the course during the warm weather, picking up branches, gum balls etc.  Back inside today.  Touching up benches with stain for the upcoming season.  Much easier to maintain instead of being painted and having to scrape the paint and painting again and having multiple layers of paint.

Tee markers are getting their final dipping of Marine Varnish.  Looking really sharp.  Should be able to withstand the elements much better this season and will not need to be touched up in mid-season.

Tom and Russ cleaning up benches in the greenhouse.

Jason waiting for excess varnish to drip in the bucket.  Little soldiers in a line behind Jason drying.