2 Tee Renovation and a Great Deal of Other Work to Discuss

March 22nd and 23rd we did the rough in of the new tees on #2. Due to the movement of a great deal of soil and wet conditions every 3-4 days, we are at a pause in work on this project.
I would hope if we can get dry in the next week or so we will get the surrounding area of the tee finished graded and prepared for sod. The teeing ground will be tilled and laser leveled by Schaefer-Meyer we hope within the next couple of weeks and then sodded so that the tee will be open for play by mid-May.

View from the front of the tee complex. Tees are now set up as 2 separate tee boxes.

From behind the tee complex. Sorry for the poor pictures, just looks like a pile of dirt from this level. Had my drone in the air the other day to take pics and crashed into a tree. Once I finish the repair, I will give you an overhead view.

Being the largest group of maintenance folks on staff at Glen Echo, our crew has been assisting in other areas. We spent about 20 man hours power washing the pool wall both inside and out. Also power washed all the walk ways in the front of the building and a part of Pearson Plaza. The staff power washed some of Limestone window sills that we did not get completed last season. The staff  with some able bodied assistance have also been busy inside the pool area removing some over grown shrubbery and pruning others. We we were in the process of mulching the upper wall bed when our loader broke down earlier in the week. Once it is back up, we will finish the mulching of this area. 

We will also be power washing the swimming area of the pool and installing new drain lids and plastering in new frames for the pool system. We will be managing most of the mechanical start up of the pool this season. I attained my pool operator certification for the pool over the winter.

The staff have also been involved in stringing the patio lights and moving equipment to the patio since warm weather is on its way.

Randy power washing the walk way in the front of the clubhouse

This week the staff have been extremely busy with sod work. Over 450 yards of old sod was removed and replaced with both fescue and zoysia. HATS OFF TO THE CREW THIS WEEK!! Our loader was broke down and we had to load the sod into carts and then unload it from the carts.  Normally we place the sod right in the area of work so double work for the guys this week because of the repairs taking place to our loader.

We first completed the tree removal stump repair and root removal on the old tree near 11 green. This was replaced with fescue.

Area to the right of 11 green. A large amount of roots had to be busted out by hand using axes and shovels.

                                                       The finished area off the front right of 11 green.

We then moved to #5 left bunker area. This area has a number of contributing factors to its look. Small area with a great deal of foot and equipment traffic. Last year we tried to resolve some of it with walk mowing the area. Significant shade and drought is the biggest reason for its decline. A large Pin Oak is growing right in the middle of this area and robs it of sunlight and much needed moisture. We stripped the old sod away, trenched in some new irrigation heads that will hit just in this area. We aerated it and put in a couple of yards of leaf compost. The area was then dragged with a metal drag to break of the dirt turds and move some of the compost into the holes. Sod was then added. Should see some improvement we hope with new sod and the other work we completed. We still have some additional areas to sod around the tree and bunker and will complete this hopefully next week.

Tree on the left is a beautiful specimen set back in the proper area on the hole. Tree on the right is being over shaded and basically is growing on one side. Leaves, acorns, and other material fall into the bunker regularly. The shade and moisture depletion is significant.

This is the trench that is about 15' deep and shows the network of tree roots from this tree.

Small 2-3" long turf roots have no chance in a competition for resources with these trees.

Aeration completed so that we can then add compost to improve the soil.

Compost added to the area.

After the area was dragged with a metal drag. Cores busted and some compost moved into holes.

Staff finishing up the sod work. You can still see the weakened turf around the tree. It will be replaced in a few days.

Complete

The staff worked on the 13th approach today and also did a smaller amount of work on the 18th approach. We removed the bent grass sod, repaired part of the collar on 13 and part of the collar on 16. They removed the rest of the material and then laid zoysia in its place. We also had some bermuda contamination and very weak turf in front of 18 approach which was pulled up and replaced.

 

                Bent grass sod being reused on collar on 13.

Finishing the removal. All of this work is being done by hand.

Zoysia sod being laid on 13 approach 

The finished area.

Jason Cutting the old material off of 18 approach.

The look from the left side bunker.

Same area but from below the area.

Finshed area looks great. Still some weakness in front which we will work on improving with aeration, compost and traffic control from our mowing units.

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

Tee Update

Sod arrived this morning after this weekends rainfall. Should have both 5 tee and 14 completed by Wednesday. More to come tomorrow.

Tilling 5/14 Tee

Mike McNeil from Schaefer-Meyer came out and tilled the 2 tees today on 5 and 14 that are being renovated. He hopes to laser level tomorrow. Need some dry weather before sod can be harvested. Maybe late next week. We will call tomorrow to see what the possibilities will be for sod.

Tee Renovation

Sod was stripped off of the two tees today. Our leveling contractor will be working on the tee in the next week or two as weather allows. Day to level, we then order sod in. About 2 days to cover both tees and time for grow in.
5 tee

14 tee

14 tee

Repairs to 7 Tee Completed

The staff completed the renovation to the front of the white tee on 7 today. It was backfilled with soil, 3 drain lines were dug across it to reduce water pressure in the bank to hopefully stop the hillside from sloughing off again. Sod was laid on it today. 

To our young walkers, please stay off this area or you might end up injured from wet and soft conditions. Should be good to go in 2-3 weeks.

Skip using a mini-excavator to trench across the bank.



Laying the sod. Decided to use Bermuda grass due to its ability to deeper rooting and survive the summer heat.

3 Tee Renovation

Renovation begins on #3 Tee today with the removal of 3 trees. Our intentions are to replace the cool season Heinz 57 turf with Zoysia that requires a great deal less maintenance and moisture. It's does need more sun which is the reason for the removal of 3 Elm trees and a Solver Maple.

We then have to strip the sod off the surface, dig out the tree roots that have disrupted the surface, contract tilling and lazer leveling of the surface and laying the sod. Our hope is to have the Tee ready for play in 45 days or less.

 

New Teeing Ground, Combination Blue/White

Over the last few years, there have been questions raised regarding the possibility of having a combination Blue/White Tee since some our events are played at a short blue/long white distance to accommodate all ages and playing abilities. This winter, the golf committee led by Head Pro Matt T made the decision to implement the new tee that will play a distance between the white and blue yardage. The MAGA was contacted and rated the new teeing ground as well for us.

Instead of adding another complete set of tees, it was decided to have a checkered blue/white tee set up for each hole. On 9 holes, the combination tee will be with the blue marker and on other 9 holes it will be with the white marker. A new scorecard has been produced and is currently being printed and will arrive soon. A picture below as well as a quick video explaining what is taking place has been provided to explain in greater detail what is taking place.

Please keep in mind there could be occasions based on weather conditions or wear and tear on the teeing ground where tees could be moved from a damaged area and might not be exactly in the area intended. We will move them back when conditions warrant.

As you can see from the score card above, 9 of the combo tees are played from the blue tee area, and 9 combos from the white tee area. 

Blue/White Combo tee. Each hole will have one marker that has both blue and white checker on the one marker designating it for the blue/white combo tee. It will be paired with either a white or blue marker located on the other side of the tee.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xudX3k4QaRo

Course Update and The Lady Open Pictures and Video

Between club championships, group events, outings, and some nice play days, a great deal has been happening on your grounds over the last couple of weeks.

Our last application of our Bermuda Eradication products took place on Wednesday on holes 1-12. Higher winds and play in the mid-morning time frame prevented me from spraying all 18 holes. They will be completed early next week. Along with our last application of spray, we will be raising the height on the fairway turf in the next couple of weeks as we prepare it for winter. I will be watching temperature forecasts and growth rate of the turf to determine when this will occur. The latest would be sometime around the first week of October.

The herbicide called Pylex we used on the rough is doing great work on some of the areas but will need to be applied again next week. We then intend to drill seed Turf-type Fescue into these areas to improve our cool season competition and give us better turf cover. We also need to make another application on our collars, approaches, and green/bunker surrounds. These late season applications will hopefully set up the Bermuda for some winter kill.

We have 5 cool season tees, 2,3,5,10 blue, 11 white and 14 left tee. We had a disaster in crabgrass management on a couple 5,11 and average at best on 2,3 and 10. We used our walking drill seeder and drilled rye grass into all the tees except 2/3 which have a mixture of bent grass and poa annua. The rye-grass should give us improved cover and has damaged the crabgrass. We will definitely be on top of getting these tees sprayed next season to eliminate this issue.

The 8th main tee has shown some improvement over the last few weeks. I deep-tine aerated it 4 times over the last month and we put about 300# of compost on it to improve it over all health. The aeration should help reduce its moisture level over the winter and improve its overall health. We might also close it down some this winter and move play up to the red tee just to reduce traffic. We do this on a number of our smaller tees to help reduce wear and tear when the turf is not growing.

Becky is in the process of replacing the verandah planters with Mums for this fall. It think the planters looked great this summer and added some contrast to this area and the clubhouse in total. We plan on putting some tulips in them for the spring to give some great color to the balcony as life begins to awaken from a long winter's nap.

We will also be evaluating the long range tee for wear and determining a closing date for it sometime in October. I continue to encourage those of you who like to practice to use the long line method of divot removal from the tee than completely clearing a 1 or 2' square area of turf. That spot will not grow back until at least next June if completely removed. We intend to finish placing the netting on the poles and shortening the poles to a  little under 30' before the end of October. Trying to close the range during the season and doing the work with all the other work was not realistic for our crew to manage.

Randy rolling the greens. What are the greens stimping is the question posed. Probably too fast for most of us.

As you may have noticed this past week, the best greens of the season should take place over the next 30 days as long as the rains don't get too heavy.We are looking at completing our deep aeration on the greens the week of October 19th or 26th depending upon weather conditions. This should give you at least 4 weeks of unencumbered joy on this lightning fast greens.(Yes my tongue is firmly planted in my cheek) Cooler temperatures, lower humidity, longer nights all contribute to great ball roll out and many challenges on our greens. We hope many of you take advantage of the next month. The battle of the leaves is usual at a smaller level until the end of October or early November anyway.

https://youtu.be/HIJsFu7QLio



We appreciate your support and look forward to seeing you out on the course. Lady had a great time at her pool party as did all the dogs that I could see. I'm sure there were some tired pups that night. She only had to growl down one youngster who was just showing her some love but was a little to rambunctious for her taste. After a tough day, the enthusiasm that our pets show to us can give us pause and comfort from the difficulties we sometimes experience during our work time.

https://youtu.be/eSHgYzRBQ08

Update on Greens and a Couple of Other Notes

Anyone who played over the last few days probably noticed open holes on greens. Some of the holes opened up because wet sand had closed the hole during core dragging and did not allow the dry sand to penetrate. The rain from last week then opened up the hole. Also, in our haste to get all greens cored before the rains hit last week, we were a little light on our sand application and the time we took to blow sand in the holes. Today we added additional sand to the Pg, 1-4 and got almost every hole topped off. The staff will hopefully get the rest completed tomorrow or by Wednesday at the latest. A few of the greens were in good shape with a majority of the holes filled.

The cool season tees on 2,3,5,10,14,17 were core aerated and material hauled away. We brushed the tees and blew the remaining material off the tee. Sand will be used on the tees to help with drainage, root development, and compaction.  A little fertilizer will be applied over the next couple of days as well.

After the cold temperatures from over the weekend, the staff placed the water cooler and ice machine at the pro shop for your use.

Tree root pruner in action

Just started to use our tree root pruner today.  Purchased from Commercial Turf in Chillicothe.  This unit will be invaluable in our tree management efforts to improve the overall conditions of our turf grass in our main play areas near greens, tees, fairways and rough.   This unit will help to conserve water of our tree lined rough and fairways, will improve fertilizer availability for grass and will enhance the rough allowing it to be more consistent  throughout the property and overall a much more healthy plant.  It will also enhance other other turf surfaces such as fairways, tees and greens.

Check out video below.

#3 Red tee sodding

The right side of the 3rd red tee was a hodge podge of cool season grass and weeds.  It was stripped off yesterday and new zoysia sod was laid today.  Should match up much better with the rest of the tee.

Jeff and Randy sodding the right side of 3 red tee.