Weather Stats: Hot and Dry July/September, with a reprieve of cooler temps in August

The weather stats for the last few months have been all over the board here at Glen  Echo.
Hot and dry July, average rainfall in August with cooler temperatures but there were 2 events in August that made up most of that total. If I remember correctly, large accumulations at the airport with very little here at Glen Echo just a few miles away. hot and desert like September with warmer than normal temperature in October but finally some rain breaking into the 2nd week of October.

Temperature     Observed            Normal Depart  Last

                            Value                                from      Year

                                                                      Norm

July        Hi         94.3                        89.1      5.2        90.0       

               Lo        74.2                        71.0       3.2        73.1

Aug                     85.2                        87.9      -2.7       88.9

                            66.2                        69.4      -3.2       72.5

Sept                     84.2                        80.2      4.0        85.0

                            62.2                        60.6      1.6        65.8

Oct                      71.1                        68.5      2.6        75.3

                            52.0                        49.0      3.0        55.8

Rainfall

July                     1.38”                     4.11”     -2.73”     8.37”

Aug                     3.30”                     2.99”     0.31”      5.77”

Sept                     0.27”                     3.13”    -2.86”     4.95”

Oct                      3.71”                     3.33”     .38”        3.15”

RECORDS

8TH WARMEST JULY ON RECORD (84.3 DEGREES).

TIED 9TH MOST DAYS WITH A MAXIMUM TEMPERATURE GREATER THAN OR EQUAL TO 100 DEGREES

(7 DAYS)

TIED 8TH MOST DAYS WITH A MINIMUM TEMPERATURE GREATER THAN OR EQUAL TO 80 DEGREES

(5 DAYS).

TIED 5TH MOST CONSECUTIVE DAYS WITH A MINIMUM TEMPERATURE GREATER THAN OR EQUAL TO 80 DEGREES (4 DAYS FROM 7/19 TO 7/22).

7TH DIEST SEPTEMBER ON RECORD (0.27 INCHES),

TIED 5TH LEAST NUMBER OF DAYS WITH AT LEAST ONE TENTH OF AN INCH OF

RAINFALL (1 DAY).

2ND MOST OCCURENCES OF A MINIMUM TEMPERATURE GREATER TAAN OR EQUAL

TO 70 DEGREES ( 4 DAYS)

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.

Video from USGA regarding Tree Management in fine turf areas on the course

Very good video regarding Tree Management Programs around fine turf areas of the course from the USGA.

Interesting story on golf courses and water usage

The following story was on the golf channel a few months ago regarding golf courses and water usage on the west coast.  This story is playing out all over the country as sustainability of clubs and its management of resources are continuing to be evaluated.

How things change in a year!

At this time last year, we had already programmed over 9,000,000 gallons of water through our irrigation system.  This year so far, about 2,000,000 gallons.  By July 15th last season, we had used almost 15,000,000 gallons of city water.  This year we have used 0.  Our lake is currently full and I would expect that with cooler temperatures prevailing over the weekend and our ground having adequate moisture, we will be able to get into July without turning on the tap.  Every million gallons of water  costs our operation about
$ 3,500 so a significant savings so far this season.

Last season we had 14.30" of rain March-June, this season we have had 18.82" of rain with much cooler temperatures.  Our rainfall was early in the spring last year and this season it has been raining in May/June  which is good for saving money on water but bad on revenue generation for the club.  If it would rain about 1/2" a couple nights a week, we would be happy but it seems to not be cooperating the way we are wanting.

Irrigation Shut down

The staff spent Monday blowing out the system in preparation for winter.  This normally takes place by the first week of December but was delayed because of the mild weather and the new sod that had been laid in late fall for the bunker project.  Adequate amounts of rain over the last couple of weeks and the potential for some colder weather signaled it was time to shutdown the system.  We rent a large air compressor that hooks into the irrigation system and forces a volume(900 cubic feet per minute) of air through the system while the staff turns on the sprinkler heads and allows the water to evacuate from the system until air blows out of the head.  The staff are able to turn on 10-12 heads throughout the property at a time for this process.

900 cfm compressor hooked into the main line at the pumphouse.

Heads on #13 purging water from the irrigation lines.

Mottled Fairway Look, Localized Dry Spots, Fairy Ring and lack of rain

Our fairways have taken on a mottled look in various areas based on lack of rainfall and other factors over the past two months.  One of the biggest factors is a condition called Localized Dry Spots or LDS.  I've discussed LDS in the past.  Click on the link for an explanation of LDS.  Basically, its an area of soil or sand that repels water or does not accept water as readily as other spots in a nearby surrounding area.  The pictures below show the difficulty in managing this problem.  We've sprayed a soil penetrant on our fairways to improve the soils ability to absorb moisture

Other factors include fairy ring which leads to LDS, sodium or bicarbonate build up from our city irrigation water, and irrigation coverage.  Also, in an effort to keep our soaring water bill costs reduced as well as being environmentally responsible, water has not been applied in judicious amounts.  As temperatures begin to moderate and more normal rainfall occurs, I believe you will see improvements in the overall look of the fairways.  In the meantime, enjoy the long ball roll!

The probe was only able to pull out a two" deep  plug from the LDS spot on #10 fairway.  Only about 1" of the plug had a fair amount of moisture.

Just 6" away, the area to the right of the spot above,  the probe was able to penetrate 6" with moisture throughout the plug.

Completion of new spillway drainage at #9

The staff completed the repairs to the underground spillway from #9 lake to the small lake on #10.  120' of double walled 12" pipe was put in place, an irrigation line had to be moved and the area was back filled.  The area is full of bermuda grass so our plan is to fertilize it, water it and watch the bermuda fill in.  I'm sure we will need to do some backfilling of soil when it begins to settle when the rain begins to fall again.

Skip, Harry, Tom and Jason placing the pipe in the trench on Tuesday.  The line was backfilled and graded smooth.

The area after grading.

#9 lake spillway pipe replacement

Last season, a number of sinkholes developed in the lawn area just below the spillway on #9 down to the main road bridge.  We used our backhoe to dig up the area and found that the 15" drain pipe was leaking a rather large amount of water underneath the pipe.  The hole still remained in the lawn and I told the staff to dig up the line to see the complete issue.  Skip dug up the line and found multiple failures up and down the line.  The complete bottom of the pipe had rusted and was separated from the rest of the pipe. Around 160' in total length.  The water that uses this line should be going to the small lake in front of #10 red tee box and ultimately flow into our irrigation lake.  Some of the water was making it into the lake but a lot of water was soaking into the ground creating additional sinkholes and possibly compromising the footings in and around the bridge on the main road.  We are currently digging up this line and will be replacing it over the next few days with dual walled hdpe pipe which will last past our life times.  


We had to cross over 2 small lines and luckily an 8" main went under the pipe.  Also, a number of wire bundles had to be exposed to prevent them from being damaged.  More pictures to follow.

Failed pipe that was leaking over flow water from #9 lake.

Additional issues throughout the full length of the pipe.  A 2" new irrigation line was pulled through the pipe during the installation in 2007.  Also, complete bottom of the pipe was rotten. 

What is that clear liquid falling from the sky?

Well, we received a much needed long and steady rain today to the chagrin of our Ladies Senior Club Championship participants who were forced to stop after only 9 holes.  We had received over 1.5" when I left the office this afternoon which was more than double the rainfall we had previously received since July 12th.  The course will react very positively with this flushing and deep soaking rain.  Some of the salts and bicarbonates that build up in the soil  due to heavy city water usage over the last two months will be flushed through the root zone and the water should pull some additional oxygen back in as well.

Warm season tee aeration

The staff worked on coring our warm season tees yesterday and should finish the remaining tees today.  This is helpful for a number of reasons:

• Moisture will penetrate the tee more quickly during rain events allowing the tee to become more   playable in a shorter time and allow mowing to be completed.
• Moisture can move into the root zone more quickly allow for a healthier plant and less water applied.
• Small reservoirs are created by the aeration holes during rain events which help to move water off of the surface but then slowly moves into the root zone.  
• Thatch removal occurs as well.
• We will topdress in a few days which will help to fill the holes with sand which will improve overall drainage and firmness of the tee and smooths the surfaces.  This will also assist a player in placing the tee into the ground due to the softer condition created by not only the aeration hole but the sand application.   

We will be doing a deep solid tine aeration in the next few weeks as well which will help us with deeper drainage, especially in the winter reducing crown damage from lack of water being able to move away from the crown of the plants.  It will also make for better playing conditions for our winter golfers.

Tom Lewis using our Verti-drain to pull the cores.  The silver drag on the back helps pull a majority of the cores to the edge.

Pile of cores at the end of the tee ready for pick up.

Skip and Russ picking up the pile of cores for disposal.

Jeff dragging the remaining cores on the tee to break them and help work the remaining soil into the canopy.

Demarcus, Tom and Nick blowing the remnants of the cores off of the tee in preparation to be dry mowed today.

Invitational Preparations and Greens

The Invitational marks the half way point in the golf season.  Not only are preparations being made for our premier event but also to take the facility through the second half of our golf season.  Some extra painting and sprucing takes place along with trying to make our conditions the best possible at the same time taking into consideration that we still have half a season of golf remaining.

Continuous rain over the last month has not given us a great deal of low humidity and dry conditions to get extended ball roll on our greens.  Rolling and topdressing does help improve the overall speed but soft greens with grass full of water does not provide for the fastest conditions.  We've been able to topdress the last two Mondays which will help with the smoothness.  The wind and heat over the weekend began to dry to green surfaces between and Saturday and Sunday.  As I was handwatering our greens in the afternoon, I could feel a marked difference in firmness from Saturday to Sunday.  Handwatering allows us to put water where it needs to be applied instead of watering the whole green when it is not needed.

We will begin rolling again on Tuesday which will assist in bringing the speed up to where we expect through the tournament.  Hot temperatures over the next couple of days will begin to slow the growth of the greens as well.  End of the weekend temperatures appear to be very hot as well with heat stretching into next week.  Attempting to strike a balance between our Invitational and the rest of the season is a delicate at best.  In general if we can keep a major rain event away, I think we will have great conditions this week and will be able to successfully manage the rest of the season.  

We will be making a bump up in our overall height of cut after the Invitational until the weather breaks in August to give our turf just enough added length to allow it to conserve energy through this most difficult period. Alternating between rolling and mowing during the week will also give our turf a break.    

Plumbing repairs

Well, same song and dance, a different day.  The water supply pipe for the field bar, pro shop and maintenance building is delivered through an old pipe and begins its long journey to us from Lucas & Hunt road.  That is why at times you see a Missouri/American water truck out near the field bar, they are reading the meter for that water supply.  Yesterday morning one of our staff members noticed a concentration of water above #1 tee and along the cart path leading to the tee.  We did some searching and found the water line that leads from the pro shop to our building had sprouted another leak.  Skip began the chore of hand digging a hole about 4' deep and found the pipe but had to bring in the big machine to dig a bigger hole so we could repair it.  I think we have had at least 6 repairs at various locations on the pipe since I've been here and Skip has lost count in the 28 years he has been here of all the repairs he has made.  Oh well, just something else to take us away from Invitational preparations.  Water off for about 3 hours yesterday. All repaired and hole filled back in today.  Back to those preparations and or regular work.

Skip brought out the backhoe for the big dig and Tom doing the small hand digging around the pipe.

The old leaky pipe strikes again.  Pipe cut and read for repair.

Traffic control during the course drying out

We are getting dry enough for carts to drive on fairways for our members but there are still some areas that are wet and weeping water. We are using signs and some rope. We are also using stakes in smaller areas. I.E. The swale on #7. Thanks for your cooperation.
Sent from my LG phone

Storms, tall grass and wet conditions

Well, storms in our area last Friday were devastating to many who were in their path.  Luckily, everyone survived.  What I watched on TV yesterday evening from the deep south was unbelievably sad.  Catastrophic destruction and many deaths and injuries.  It makes what I am about to discuss somewhat trivial but life goes on and we have a golf course to manage.

We've received 4.13" of rain since 4/19.(6.39" total in April)  Double our normal total for the month.  Not a large amount in comparison to some areas south of the metropolitan area where they have received 12-15 inches.  We were able to mow most everything on Thursday of last week.  Yesterday, before .75" fell in the afternoon, we began mowing some rough areas, well over 1/2 of the tees and the cool season green surrounds.  Rain pulled us off the mowers in the afternoon.  We will not be able to get out again until Friday.  I will be surprised if the fairways are able to be mowed before the next rain comes in Saturday night.  We might be able to try some on Saturday but we have water weeping out of many of the hillsides which limits are ability to mow.  The lack of sunshine has slowed the growth of our turf somewhat but the next few days will bring on a huge growth spurt in combination with the moisture that is readily available.

Our goal is not to create damage this time of year by being too aggressive and  trying to mow during these wet and soft conditions.  Damage turf now could lead to severely stressed turf conditions during the summer.  Our solid roller program on our greens is working well with no scalping along some of our edges that we would normally see during these soft conditions.  Growth regulators have slowed growth of our greens and allowed us to skip days mowing when our conditions have been too wet and soft to mow.  Of course, we've had very limited play which makes no mowing decisions a little easier as well. 

I appreciate your understanding during this period of wet turf conditions.

.

The big dig on #15

The staff had to use the backhoe today to remove a water meter that measures the water that fill the irrigation  lake on #15.  The meter was buried about 3' deep and was at the bottom of 2' wide drainage pipe which helped to form a pit so the meter can be checked.  Glen Echo member Dave Adam has been working with MSD for a few months in an attempt to get a reduction in our sewage bill which is based on our water consumption.  The clubhouse and lake fill uses the same compound meter to measure the use of water.  MSD has given us a % reduction in our bill over the years.  With the installation of the new irrigation system, we believe that our water usage for the golf course has potentially increased.  MSD must do a survey for a full year to verify that we deserve a reduction in our bill.  The meter must be calibrated and verified by a pump company, so goes the big dig on #15. 

The pile of dirt will be there for a few days until the company can do the work to verify the accuracy of the meter.  Once that takes place, we have to install the meter and then backfill the hole. 

The picture below shows the staff in the hole removing the 1" sized nuts and bolts so the meter can be disconnected from the pipe and removed for calibration.

Assistant Mike and Jason down in the hole doing the dirty work.  Russ got his feet in the muck later in the project.  Most of the bolts had to be snapped off to remove.

Here is the picture of the 4" cold water turbine meter after it was pulled out of the hole.

2nd water line repair completed

The staff had a cold, nasty and tough job to do this week. We noticed a large ice field over near the cart gate on the 18 rough side of the tennis courts a few weeks ago. Initially, we thought it was water draining off of the tennis courts but in the end, figured out it was the old water line which feeds the pro shop/maintenance building that was leaking. The staff worked on the 1" line next to the pro shop last week which we found as well. The pipe leading from the shutoff toward the pro shop is a 3" line. Somewhere between the tennis courts and the pro shop the line reduces down to a 1" line.



Initially, the guys dug by hand in an area about 3-4' from the hole below. In probing through the soil profile, they found a pipe that they thought could be the problem but it appears to have been an old irrigation metal line. Turning the water back on gave them a better idea where the water was coming from and the digging began a couple of feet away from the original hole. Water came back on and they found the actual section that was leaking. They then brought the backhoe in to do the heavy digging which exposed the hole below.



Assistant Mike in the hole cleaning off the deteriorated outer band of the pipe to find the actual section that was leaking.

Skip as Russ checking out the situation.

Another view down into the hole.

The completed repair below. The leak was coming from where the pipe was threaded together.
I've wondered why the water comes from so far away to feed the maintenance building and pro shop. I had forgotten that the original clubhouse was located where the tennis courts are today. This is the original water line that fed our club potable water back in the beginning. One of these days, this old line is probably going to have to be abandoned. It would make more sense to bring our water in from the clubhouse main which is a great deal closer than the existing feed area that we have right now but that will be for another time.

Water leak

The pro shop and golf maintenance department share a city water line that comes from Lucas & Hunt Road via the Halfway house. A long way to bring water but that is the way the system is set up. Each winter, the old line will spring a leak or two. Skip and Russ got the honors in repairing the first leak just below the pro shop this past week. The repair required us to cut through part of the asphalt/concrete to get to the pipe. The repair required a couple of threaded couplers and a piece of pvc pipe.

The failures in the line seem to occur from the shutoff next to the 17 green side of the tennis courts to the two buildings. You might remember the repair behind 18 green late last winter. There will probably be a time in the future when the line will need to be replaced.

Hole with completed repair.

A second leak has sprung up between the tennis courts and the first line of trees along #18 which they started to dig up late last week. We plan to complete the second repair in the next day or two.

#3 Blue/white tee

The 3rd main tee has not looked well since early in July. It is a cool season tee made up of bentgrass, poa, rye, and blue grass. During the heat spell in June, we increased water on a majority of the course. This tee became dry during that period and then we over compensated our watering program and the tee then became too wet. We were also using a growth regulator on our cool season tee boxes since May to reduce the competitive advantage of the poa on the cool season tees and control the overall growth rates. This included tees on holes 2, 5, 10, and 11. Overall the regulator program was working pretty well but with the combination of the wet condition, diseased turf and the restriction of the poa plants, we began to lose turf.

We've got our watering problem managed, our preventative spray program is where it needs to be and we've taken the growth regulator out of the rotation at this time. Last week we slit seeded two directions with rye grass in the weakened turf areas. We have also been rotating tee locations at times to the alternate tee to reduce playing traffic. We also sprayed some micro-nutrient package on the tee to improve its overall health. Some heat is coming on in the next few days but I expect the tee to continue to improve and be in good shape in the next couple of weeks.
A majority of the weakness in the tee is on the left 1/2 of the tee and the front and back sections of the tee. The right side of the tee is for the most part in normal condition. The view below is from the front of the tee to the back of the tee.

The Money Pit as some members refer!

The life blood of any golf course is water. Our irrigation lake between holes 13-15 when full, can only provide about 2 days of watering the complete golf course if it does not rain. There is water in the lake but we only have the ability to pump our lake down approximately 3' before our pump system shuts off. We are in great need to expand both the size of our lake but also the depth of the lake as well to improve our water holding capability and reduce the amount of city water we depend upon.

To recharge our lake, we must use city water. As you probably already know from filling swimming pools or from teenagers taking endless showers, water is not cheap. It is important for us to monitor our lake situation as closely as possible and turn off the outlet to the city water when ever possible. Our water bill budget is about 8-10% of our operating budget.(60k)



Many golf courses are able to use well water to recharge their lakes but we are in the unfortunate position to be in an area which has some incredibly terrible water quality which cannot be used for irrigation. There are 2-4" outlets located on the fairway side of #15 once you cross the spillway and in the right side of 9 green lake. On occasions, we have to utilize both sources to get enough water to provide for our needs. At times, some pretty serious drops in the lake will occur and it might take a couple of days to increase the water level. We understand this might not be the prettiest sight but we are being conservative in our use of this precious resource. There are times when the water will run 24 hours a day for a number of days in a row. We have been very lucky this season, the first time I think I opened the spicket was around June 26th.

The view below is from the dam on 13 fairway looking up to 15 tee box. 15 is on your left side of the picture.