Staff spent the day beating on the fairways with a number of tools. Allow me a few moments to explain:
First we used our core pulling aerator to pull 1/2” plugs from fairways 1-5, 7-8, 10-13, and 15. Normally we would get a plug averaging 2-3”. With the drier soil, we were barely able to pull a little over an inch.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W8syQtsNWGA
Second, we used our leaf vacuum which has vertical blades that cut down into the soil and create a vertical mowing pattern into our zoysia fairways assisting in removing thatch. This process also broke up the plugs, removed some of the excess blades and soil.
Third we used a couple of drag mats to break up the remaining cores and disperse the excess material accumulated.
Dragging fairways with metal drag mats
We then took our blower and blew the excess material into the rough.
We aerated, vertical mowed fwys 1-8. We had to stop on 8 with an equipment breakdown. We continued aerating and dragging through hole 15. We have mowed fwys 1-7 and will mow the remaining fairways when they dry in the morning. Not sure when our vertical mowing will continue with the breakdown but will pick up where we left off.
We also applied some organic fertilizer to the fairways through #8 and then watered it in. Science has shown with the use of organic fertilizer and removing excess thatch through verticutting reduces the amount of fairy ring and large patch in zoysia fairways. We also plan to use our slicing blades with our pull behind aerator over the next month or two to improve water and gas penetration.
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.
Its been a while since I've made a blog post. If you follow me on other forms of social media you've seen a regular plate full of details regarding the work our hard working staff are accomplishing on a daily basis.
Weather
First and foremost, lets talk about the weather, especially the colder than normal temperatures we have experienced in late April and May. The average temperatures in April were a couple degrees above last season. Now, May 2021 is a different story. We are currently 8 degrees behind average in both daylight highs and night lows. Last May we were actually a degree above normal. More importantly, our soil temperatures have dropped since the first of May to 63 degrees.
Soil temperatures at this level are excellent for our rough grass(cool season) and greens. Our bent grass likes temperatures to be slightly warmer, especially at night but they are in full production of energy which contributes to root growth and adds to storage within the plants.
It is most difficult for our dominant short grass zoysia, especially our tees and areas of fairways with heavier cart traffic and additional shade. We've cleaned up our zoysia mowing only weekly at this time due to the lack of growth. Some of our weaker areas we will keep the mowers away completely. It appears we might begin to see some increases in heat over the weekend and into next week. We can't force the plants to grow. The systems within the plant currently are slowed because there is not enough energy to produce growth.
It is very important during this time that membership operating carts reduce traffic in fairways as much as possible. Using a 90 degree angle from the cart path to your ball in the fairway reduces traffic in the fairway. Once the ball is struck, move the cart back to the rough and cart path when possible and proceed to where you ball is located. We are still seeing a tremendous amount of traffic going from the teeing ground area directly through the rough off of the tee and into the fairways and then driving another 50 to 100 yards down the fairway. Your assistance is greatly appreciated to reduce this type of activity.
Soil and Sod
Stumps from a few trees removed were ground a few weeks ago, remnants cleaned out and this past week they will filled with soil. Yesterday and today, our staff edged the existing filled areas and laid sod to cover the spots. Six in total were cleaned up. Our contractor will be out in the next couple of weeks to grind the remaining stumps that we have on property so we can get them cleaned and covered for the summer.
Sycamore and Sweegum that were in the club lawn to the right of 9 cart path were covered with sod. Also, 9 tee, a pine tree in the club lawn and in the triangle between 5/7/main drive.
Some additional soil work was completed along some seriously compacted cart path edges behind 11, green, at 13 green and at the curve just short of 15 green by the 16th tee. We used a heavy duty tiller going as deep as 6-8". We added some black gold compost from St.Louis composting and covered with fescue sod. These areas will be kept very moist over the next week or two so it is important that we do not step into the 20" width of sod that are next to the path. Access to the green areas are still available at the top end of these renovated areas.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=No8JNhqkE78
From the 11th cart path going up the hill to 12 tee. We have this section roped off and are asking cart to proceed to the top of the hill at the circle turn for the 12th tee to enter the 11th green complex. This area has been very problematic because of the severe slope and the large Pin Oak that keeps this area depleted from moisture and into heavy shade. Hopefully this extra work will finally keep this area in better shape.
This area leads up to 13 green. We tilled from just above the left tee up to the top of the hill in the bottom picture. You can access the green from below or above the section. Some can step across the sod without issue but please be reminded this area will be kept wet for a week or two to help it root properly. We will also keep the tees up on the upper tee of 14 for a week or more so more the reason to pull up to the top of the sodded area.
No pictures of 15 but this area will be roped off and will be obvious for our golfers. Carts can stop short of this area and or proceed to the circle for 15 green/16 tee.
Drop Zones
We have one established drop zone at the club which is the red teeing area of hole 9. As play has increased, so has the wear and tear to this teeing ground. It is also a fairly small tee with an extension that was added a few years ago that frankly speaking needs to be renovated. Teeing grounds are not the best locations for these drop zones so a couple of changes will be occurring over the next couple of months.
On hole 9, we have rough graded in a new drop area beside the 9th red tee. We will be covering this with zoysia over the next week. Later this summer,(after July 4th, we intend to close the red tee and blue tee on #9. We will strip the sod from the tees, enlarge the red tee forward, to the right and a little off the back. We also will strip the blue tee and will extend its teeing ground to the right. We anticipate these tees will be ready for play by August 1st with the heat of the summer pushing a quick grow-in. In the meantime, we will utilize the new drop zone for the red tee/drop zone and the white tee will have the blue tee added.
New drop area to the right of 9 red tee. We still have some work to complete on the slopes and some leveling but its roughed in. We anticipate the red tee to split the different between the existing tee and the new drop zone.
The golf committee and green committee has been in discussion regarding a potential drop area to be established for the 15th hole. We will be placing a drop zone about 35' from the cart path about 10' from the Egan's Lake. It will be mowed at a reduced height of cut and a circle designating the area will be put in place.
Driving Ranges
There are signs at each driving range that mention the range will be closed early on Thursdays. This must occur so that all balls can be removed by the pro shop staff and readied for our staff to mow before the first golfers whom arrive on Friday morning at 7 am. This program is usually implemented in late April and runs into June and or until the grass begins to slow its growth. Its important that the grass be cut twice a week so staff can see the balls and remove them so they are not chopped up by the mowers.
On event day Mondays, our staff usually picks the ranges clean and mows after the groups begin play. The pro shop staff assists us with as much removal before dark on Sunday evenings. We do not close the ranges early on Sundays so our membership are not inconvenienced by our necessary operations. We appreciate your understanding during this time.
I hope you get a chance to get out and see your golf course over the next couple of weeks. Ball roll out has been pretty good I hear and hopefully the rain starts falling at night and leaves our weekends free to play golf.
Well, it appears we are coming out of winter in pretty good condition generally speaking. All of our turf has not awakened but I am seeing a tinge of green in some of our zoysia areas. We still have to see if some high traffiked areas are damaged from foot and or carts. More on traffic later.
DRAIN/COVER
The drain and cover part our blog would not have occurred without some dry weather at the first of the month. This allowed us to make great progress on the drainage project from 6 cart path all the way down to 8 cart path. We finished installing of our small drain lines and covered as much as we could in sod. Over 1,800 yards of zoysia and fescue were laid in various areas. The front of 6 green approach and 8 fairway were covered in zoysia. The left rough on 8 and a few strips along the drain line in front of 7 tee were covered. The remaining areas still need some additional soil and a little bit of settling time.
Laying zoysia sod in front of 6 approach. 30 yard rolls.
After adding some additional soil to the left of 6 green Skip is smoothing it out. Still need to add more dirt to the area and more grading once the rain has stopped.
Some finish soil to help smooth out 8 fairway drainage site.
Skip grading on 8 fairway.
We used the forks on the box to break up the soil surface. We then graded with the box blade finished graded with our bunker rake. Our sod producer who was one of the owners of the company complimented us on our finish grade work. Sorry, for some reason didnt take a finish grade picture.
Big roll sodding 8 fairway.
Almost complete, had to bring in more zoysia the next day with the fescue.
Looking from the green side of 8 across the zoysia.
Big roll fescue going in on the left rough.
From 8 cart path looking across toward 7. Just waiting on some drier and warmer weather weather to get this area opened. It will need to firm considerably before we open it for play.
Signage and ropes asking you to avoid these wet areas at the bottom of 3 green.
Looking across 8 near the intersection of 7 tee cart path. With exposed soil above the newly sodded area, we decided to put some hay bales across to catch the soil from washing down on the new sod until we can get it covered with grass. Bottom right foreground are a few stips of fescue we had left over from 8 rough that we laid on solid ground that was not disturbed except from construction traffic ..
RESTRICT/EDUCATE
With the warm weather comes an increase in cart traffic. With increased cart traffic comes the need to restict cart traffic to slow the potential damage to emerging turf which is slow to awaken from its winter slumber. I made some soical media posts regarding cart traffic and the damage that can be caused from excessive wear. I thought it would be important to include it as a part of the blog post for those of you who do not follow our social media accounts.
We have various areas of the course which have springs coming out of them until the summer. There is of course just regular water weeping for short periods of time after heavy periods of rain from slopes into lower lying areas like illustrated below on 3. We have cart signs and ropes in areas on #3, #12 and #13 at this time. There could be other areas that develop over time that we will monitor and might have to place additional restrictions.
3 Fairway directing carts around wet areas next to hill side.
We have a number of holes that have permanenent stakes and decorative rope to force traffic to stay on the path until arriving past the starting points of the fairway. In most cases, carts should be driven on the path and then turn 90 degree into the fairway. Going directly from the teeing ground straight through the rough into the fairway creates signicant wear and tear at the beginning of the rough and fairway.
Many are using these areas like they are interstate on ramps.
We understand if you hit a shot that is short of the fairway. Its okay to take your cart to the ball and then move to the fairway. Golfers in carts are kind of like cattle and or dogs, They walk or drive the same trail, walk along the fence the same place without thinking of the damage that is occuring. Excess wear and tear costs money and time in renovation and makes the course not look its best.
This is a pirme area of concern off of 3 cart path. The path comes straight down the hill and turns to go alongside of the fairway. The area at the bottom of the hill has a tendency to be a little wetter than other areas as well. You should not drive straight through to the fairway.
No means NO CARTS proceed through this area. Carts should remain on the path and then turn left somewhere past the drain area to go across to your ball laying in the fairway. If its over in the left tree line, you can still cross the fairway at a 90 degree angle from the cart path.
Area at the start of eight fairway is roped off to reduce wear and tear. We have also roped off areas on four, five and seven. As you might not be aware, this takes time away from
the mowing team as they are mowing the rough. You have to get off your mower, take the stakes down, mow through and then get back off the mower and put them back in place. At times, a manager will be doing other things and will stop in and help remove the stakes but it takes time. I like the natural look of a course and don't like to have to put up stakes and signs but this is something we are forced to do if we want these areas to look good.
Please assist us this season in reducing cart traffic issues by following a 90 degree rule as often as possible.
POUND SAND
No, were are not saying get lost. We are pounding sand into our greens to improve the overall growth of our greens both above and below surface. Our contractor arrived on Tuesday and used three machines to do this work. Cloudy and wet conditions slowed our process but we were able to complete all nineteen greens by the end of the day.
Dry sand is injected into the surface of the greens with a bead of water with a force of 2-3000 psi. The work is completed on 3"x3" centers. It takes about 10-15 gallons of sand for each pass on the green. Our staff had to move about 40 tons of sand in 5 gallon buckets at a time to fill the sand hoppers on the units. We normally brush and roll the greens but we had to wait until Wednesday to complete this operation. There area a number of benefits in doing this process;
Opens the surface of the greens to improve infiltration of moisture into drier areas and allows wetter areas to dry more quickly
Allows sand to be injected into the green mixing with the thatch and assisting in its control
Provides new pathways for roots to grow and branch/spread
The sand expands out wider than a normal 1/2" aeration hole as it reaches the 4-5" range of depth
There is not a lot of excess sand on the surface which is a positive of the process. The remaining sand is brushed into the canapy which improves protection of the crowns of plants and also helps to smooth the greens surface.
Below is an illustration from the Dryject website on how it works. Further down the page is a quick video of the process. We also intend to deep tine our greens to about 8" if the rain ever stops. We might be forced to do this over a number of days and do it when we are open. We will do everything we can to not inhibit play I wll keep you informed as time goes by when this process will begin. This double aearation process is necessary to help improve the drainage in our greens.
Hundreds of courses in our business host a tour or major event each year but for thousands of others, there is a local event that is the major focus for its staff.
This past week, our club and staff were given the opportunity to host our major event at the club, The Invitational 2020. The work that was completed over the many months prior to the tournament plus the weather we were given over the last couple of weeks provided for great surfaces for our members and guests to play. Congratulation to Mr. Len Toenjes and his guest Mr. Russ Hanson who won the shootout and the overall title for the event.
We still have some great golf weather ahead over the next month or more. Most of our efforts emphasize putting our turf to rest for winter in the best condition possible so it awakens ready to grow next spring. Below are some the areas of focus we will have over the next month or two.
Raising Height of Cut
As our zoysia begins to go dormant, we raise our height of cut slightly to assist with wear and tear and energy storage. We have reset our fairway unit and tee mower to 3/4" which is just .150" taller than their normal height. Once the growth slows over the next couple of weeks, we will stop mowing completely for the season to allow them to get a little fuzzy for winter. I anticipate our amount of play and cart traffic will be up so the turf will get beat down a little. Drier conditions, cooler and temperatures and less sunlight help in reducing overall growth so we should still have excellent playing conditions.
We have also applied Potassium to our zoysia surfaces over the last couple of weeks to improve its ability to survive the winter onslaught of cold and frozen precipitation.
Our green turf height usually gets raised slightly during the month of November and we usually quit mowing greens after Thanksgiving depending upon the temperatures and if there is a need to continue mowing.
Aeration, When Are You Going to Aerate Greens
We will be performing the same process we did in the spring with our greens, Verti-drain deep tine aeration. Since all of our Mondays are full through the month of October, we will begin our aeration after the tournament being held on October 26th. We will do some greens each day to get the process completed. I've always been of the opinion, to do our greens past closing day to give our membership and guests the best possible putting surfaces during the best time of the year to play in regards to ball roll out and turf health.
We also will be pulling cores on our rough the next couple of weeks and will also be involved in some seeding in weaker areas of the rough. We did some initial seeding and aerating in our green surround areas a couple of weeks before the Invitational.
We will also be fertilizing our cool season rough over the next couple of weeks. We begin last week but had an equipment malfunction and are waiting on parts so if the rough smells a bit earthy, you will understand the reason. A part of our fertilizer in organic in its origin.
Drainage Project from # 6 through #8
We anticipate to begin the storm water drain project after the first week of November. The project will begin on hole 6 from the beginning of the drain along 6 property line to the first large surface drain in the left forward area of 6 approach. We expect the first section will take us about 7 working days or so. During the work on this section, the 6th hole will be closed to all play.
We would like to get the section that crosses 8 fairway completed next depending upon weather. This is the longest section of the project. We have some soil/dirt work to that fairway to help move water to the surface drain we exposed in the left side of the fairway. Our hope is to have some dry weather so we can move soil and get the section compacted properly and sodded.
Below are pictures of 2 trees that will be removed during October as we prepare the area for construction of the storm water drain replacement. The ash on the left is directly over the drain pipe and the Willow oak on the right is 2' off the center of the pipe. The trench at the top will be 12' or so wide. There is a 3rd tree that is the Ash to the left front of 6 green that will not be removed but it will be severely compromised by our trench. I expect this tree to not survive the construction due to the severe damage to its root system and surface construction traffic.
Leaves, Many Leaves
It's that time of year where first leaf drop is beginning with Cottonwoods, Ash, Walnuts and other trees which are under stress and or weakened. Our main leaf drop will occur sometime in November depending upon freezing temperatures. A great deal of backpacking, vacuuming, and large blowers plus grinding up leaves back into the soil with our mowers are all a part of the process.
Well, we've survived the meteorological summer(June-August) with a little less than 3 weeks before fall. Overall had a pretty good summer. I would have liked the greens to be a bit firmer but humid(wet) and hot conditions do not make it easy to produce that type of playing surfaces. No doubt they will get firmer and roll out will be great here in September/October.
Weather highlights for July/August
4th wettest July on record 9.07"
22 Days over 90 in July, normal is 12.
16th wettest summer(June-August) of all-time 16.49"
26th warmest summer on record.
So what have we been doing on the course the last month or so.
Sliced, knife aerated the fairways
12 hubs, 16 blades on each hub for a total of 192 blades. Aerator is 6' wide. Blades go in about 2" deep and leave a cut about 3" long in the fairway. Normally in previous years the slits would turn a little brown due to less rainfall/drying on the edges but with our fairways being fairly moist when we did this work, they stayed green.
Deep solid tined the approaches and tees
There are 6 tine holders with 3, 1/2" tines and 2, 3/4" tines for a total of 30 holes every 3" as the aerator rolls along. We set the aerator to go about 4-5" in depth. This will assist in root growth and moisture penetration into the tees.
Sprayed 2 applications of fairway, intermediate and zoysia green surround bermuda eradication chemical products. Fairways are not crispy, just slightly off color from the spray. The club spent $ 250,000 to put the zoysia down in 1995. We are trying to keep the bermuda grass out of the fairways.
Other work completed included but not limited to the areas below.
Needle tined greens at end of July
Trimming fence lines trees, vines etc.
Topdressing and brushing greens and tees with sand to improve ball roll out and smoothness
This was some of the major work accomplished over the last month or so. Of course there are many hours spent mowing, spraying and daily routine work that takes place as well.
The month of October we had scheduled a tee renovation project for #4/#12 tee complex. The Glen Echo Historical Foundation had raised money for this project through member donations and the Gala.
There is a 3' drain pipe that takes the storm water from Glen Echo Park subdivision and sections of the course from #6 to the lake in front of 10 tee. One of our rough mowers ended up rest on top of one of the pipes near the edge of 8 fairway when a cave in occurred. The galvanized pipes running underground are completely compromised, rusted out in the bottom which is creating sink holes in various sections of the pipe. We have completed minor repairs over time but its finally time to repair this situation properly.
The project will be broken up into 4 sections. Three sections average about 100-130 feet and begin and end at large drain chambers where the pipes are encased in concrete. The longest run is from a drain we exposed in the left side of 8 fairway to the cart path in front of 7 tee. We intend to place some additional drainage in 8 fairway and to the right of 8 fairway which stays wet for a long period of time in the spring. We also intend to reshape the bottom of 8 to help direct water into the large basin.
I'm evaluating a potential timeline and will discuss it in the future. We have not had a Green Committee meeting since this situation occurred so more details will be forthcoming. We intend to wait until at least mid November since we will have a great deal of work on the course to complete over the next couple of months and of course we want to give our members ample opportunity to play the course during the middle of fall.
Happy Father's Day. My Dad has been gone for 28 years now. A great deal of life has occurred since he went to be with our Lord. Follow the best I can with the lessons he taught me daily on how to live a full life. Sharing your time and treasure to lift up people was one trait he shared regularly. The last day of his life he spent a day in a small town trying to build a new Kiwanis Club that would share in the giving he believed in so much. Its an honor to be your son!
A busy couple of months on the golf course as we barge head first into summer. Allow me a few moments to summarize our work.
Our new zoysia tee and surround areas are trying to establish themselves and mature. Some a little better than others but we moved into some warm weather conditions that will help push it along. Teeing ground turf will be a little slower to respond because of its concentrated wear from teeing it up but we will continue to encourage its maturity. Will begin some sand topdressing to help smooth out the surfaces and help them fill in.
We sprayed the weed contamination on the surround on 5 and 6 where the turf is established. We also sprayed some bermuda encroachment in these areas as well. Speaking of bermuda eradication, we will begin our fairway applications in the next few days as weather allows. Please see the video below for further explanation.
6 Green surround continues to improve. Weed control applied and we've opened the right side bunkers for play.
Fairways and tees were aerated last. We still have a few tees left including the ranges, the approaches and close green surround zoysia areas. We will do this work as weather and time allows over the next week or two.
We also Vented the greens using a very thin 5/16 needle tine. We also double topdressed the greens over a 5 day period last week.
Why vent the greens? You just aerated them at the end of March twice. Venting is a process that is used because it reduces surface disturbance but improves performance of our root growing area in the plants.
It improves gas exchange. Oxygen in and carbon dioxide out which can build up over time in the root zone.
Allows water to penetrate in hard to wet areas and can dry wet areas more quickly with air entering the subsurface.
The surface closes rather quickly but the small channels into the green surface going down 4-5" allow for roots to improve and thrive. Research has shown that these small pathways can be effective up to 3 weeks.
The lack of basic infrastructure in our greens(no drainage systems) places puts us at a disadvantage when it comes to dealing with adverse conditions including high heat and heavy moisture. This regular program allows our greens to combat some of the problems we face.
As you will see in the video below, there are 48 venting tines on the machine. Our greens average about 5,000 sq ft. Thats about 145,000 vents into each green assisting approximately 142,000,000 million bent grass and poa plants to survive. Approximately 1,500 plants per sq foot.
We have not been walking mowing our greens but plan on getting that started this week. We have 3 new staff members for the summer who we will begin to train along with our experienced group to incorporate this into our program for the summer to improve green conditioning.
Thanks for your time and I will try to get back to posting some additional work on the blog in the upcoming weeks ahead.
No, we aren't talking Britney Spears here ladies and gentlemen, we are talking about millions of holes in our golf greens at Glen Echo CC for a second time in 7 days!!
We completed our Dry-Ject contracted service on March 23rd and we spent parts of 4 days this week doing our Verti-drain Deep-tined Aeration. Our process includes the following:
Burying each green with about a ton of sand
Then using our Verti-drain deep-tined aerator with 1/2" tines going about 8" deep into our green profile
We then blow the sand into the holes
Brush the green with a drag brush behind a cart
And Roll the greens
This work assists our .125" tall bentgrass (30 pieces of copy paper tall) in a number of ways:
Deep channels assists water to move through the green profile.
It creates channels for new roots to form and grow.
Oxygen moves into the subsurface assisting root growth and soil microbiology
Reduces excessive thatch which can make a green spongy and be susceptible to foot traffic during wet conditions
The additional sand assists in protecting crowns which is the growth center of the plants where roots grow down and leaf shoots grow up. The sand also assists in filling blemishes, ball mark holes and improves ball roll out
Tom blowing sand in holes. We also use backpack blowers in tight areas.
Pretty much the finished product. We've brushed and rolled the greens a couple more times this week which assists in spreading the heavier pockets of sand around the green surface. We expect the greens to be completely healed over the next 10-14 days. Work took about 150 man hours to complete.
Tree Management Plan includes removing dead and or dying trees throughout the season. It also includes a few planted when needed. Staff installed 3 trees on the right side of #9 red tee toward the fence line on 9. These trees were grown in our nursery over the last few years and we then transplanted them. From left to right, Black Gum, European Hornbeam and Yellowwood to replace the Carrico tree which died over the winter.
Skip mowing fairways for the first time. Not a real tight mow and used an old set of reals since there is so much small debris on the fairways. We blew and hand picked up as much as we could. This got a little bit of the winter fluff off of them.
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?
Mother Nature has been in charge all season with wet conditions. With only a couple of dry days every so often combined with a heavy play schedule, we were finally able to get dry enough conditions to aerate our fairways today. A few pictures with a couple drone videos.
Our process included the following steps:
Mowed Fairways to help reduce dew and the total amount of turf that would need to be mowed off after the process is completed
Aerated the fairways pulling a solid core with a 1/2" tine about 3" deep
Used our flail mower to help break up the cores after they dried for a few minutes. This mower has tags slightly larger than a dog tag that is attached to a rapidly spinning roller and literally flails apart the soil, thatch and grass plugs
Used 2 metal drag mats to break up the remaining pieces of soil that built up
Used our tractor blower and pull behind blower to remove grass turfts and excess soil
Mowed the fairways again to clip off the turf pulled up and help break the soil that was still left on the fairway
Sprayed the fairways with a soil penetrant and urea fertilizer to assist with the healing process and improve overall turf vigor
Aeration improve turf root structure, water penetration and drying of wetter areas, thatch reduction, gas exchange, and microbial activity which will improve over turf quality.
Jason pulling cores on 18, our last hole. Dodged a big bullet with the thunderstorm that hit around the I-64 area. Brought us in for about 45 minutes because of lightning.
Little drone view of Jason's work.
Tom using the flail mower with the before and after going over the area. Does a decent job.
Skip and Rollo dragging fairways to break up remaining cores and soil in preparation for the blowers to remove the remaining material into the rough.
Russ in a dust storm and he mows over the distrurbed turf on #1.
Sprayed fairways 1-5 and 7 with Urea and watered it in to improve turf vigor and color.
Will complete the other fairways as time allows over the next day or so. We included a soil penetrant in with the spray to assist water penetration over the next month as we begin to move into drier weather and the need for irrigation cycles.
The following statements were made by Dr. Lee Miller, University of Missouri Extension turf grass Pathologist. They were opening remarks to his last four messages over the past two months. He supplies biweekly reports regarding turf grass issues that are being seen throughout our region. He talks about what he is seeing and then discusses potential cultural practices that have proven effective to improve turf conditions. Of course, when most of the issues are environmental and or weather related, one has to wait and be patient before real and effective improvement is seen. 4/5/19
March madness may be over, but the consistent wet and cool weather pattern seems to be sticking around in MO. Temperatures are slated to rise slightly over the next few days, and infection of zoysia grass by the large patch pathogen will presumably be occurring. The over abundance of rainfall may not only flood the Missouri River, but also result in a flood of large patch in the region.
"This wet weather pattern is shaping a severe season for this disease, and this weekend's warm-up will likely get large patch pressure cooking. With the amount of rain the region has experienced, I expect fall fungicide applications may not be entirely sufficient for control and spring applications may be necessary.”
4/23/19
The wet winter and spring is causing some head or belly aches for some zoysia managers in STL and mid MO. The wettest winter since 1984-85 and subsequent cool and rainy spring pattern has resulted in slow, and perhaps no, green-up thus far. Widespread winter kill of well maintained ‘Meyer’ zoysia would be a first since I arrived in 2010.
"Several reports in the last week have expressed extreme concern over the lack of zoysia green-up, and the potential for large amounts of winter kill on some golf courses and home lawns. As mentioned previously, the 2019 winter was the wettest since 1984-85, and the 5th wettest on record.”
5/14/19
Spring is running about 50-70 base 50 growing degree days slower than last year, but most plants and spring turf grass diseases are in full bloom. This week’s warm up will hopefully spark warm-season grasses out of their slumber, and let worried turf grass managers and homeowners know if the wet winter won the battle.
6/4/19
A ton going on in the past week, and unfortunately a lot of it falling from the sky. Preliminary reports are that May probably will be the wettest on record in Missouri and those in Kansas City broke the record for sure with an astounding 12.82” in the month. Winter kill reports on warm-season grasses are also widespread across the state. In the good news category, cool-season grasses are faring well in this mild weather.
Even though it seems that rain has never let up, we have been able to make progress on the golf course. The wet conditions have still made it difficult to mow regularly but when we have been given a little open window, we have been able to improve overall conditions throughout the course over the last couple of weeks.
We just fertilized our warm season tees about 10 days ago. We hope to get our fairways fertilized soon but conditions have been so wet and or storms being predicted that we did not want to lose the benefits of the fertilizer so we have delayed this application. We use about 5-6,000 pounds so its important to make sure most of it stays on our property at Glen Echo.
We are starting to see some growth in the fairways even without the fairway fertilizer. We mowed last Friday and Monday and there were some clippings beginning to accumulate from the mowers so we are getting growth.
The slowest that I've had greens to heal after aeration over the last 10 years at Glen Echo. When we completed the aeration in March, our average temperature model was about two weeks behind last year. As we moved closer to May 1st things began to tighten up. We had a number of night time lows below freezing which stunted the healing process in March and April. We also provide significant growth regulation in the early spring to our greens to reduce the impact of seed heads in the stand of poa annua we have throughout our putting surfaces.
Our control this season was exceptional for the most part but it did significantly effect the healing process. Once we were a month into seeing the holes were not closing, we allowed our regulators to run out. From around May 1st on the greens have not been regulated but have been very slow to grow. This is mostly due to wet soil conditions and reduction of overall sunlight. We've been able to mow one day and roll the next because of the slow growth. As we have begun to warm, we have been increasing to almost daily mowing to improve ball roll. We have also started rolling on days that we mow to increase roll out.
We've had pretty good success in combating large zoysia patch on fairways with just a spring application of fungicide but this season was not very good. Probably the worst I've seen in the 29 years I've been in the business. It does thin the turf but once we apply a curative application, the disease usually begins to go into check and the grass begins to fill in. We will probably do a fall application on the most severely impacted fairways this season to discourage a repeat performance in the spring of 2020. There are still some areas of activity but they are smaller in scope and should begin to fade as temperatures increase and the rain hopefully subsides.
We've also treated fairy rings that have popped up as well. Most are in check but some appear to have loss of turf. We will replace these over the next couple of weeks.
Over the last 10 years, we have worked diligently on attempting to corral the berrmuda grass in our fairways and intermediate through mostly chemical treatments but also with sodding. We have some areas that need repair and we will work on those over the next couple of weeks.
We will be spraying our healthiest fairways where the bermuda is beginning to pop up in small spots to allow the zoysia grass to spread and improve. We will also begin to aerate fairways and tees as conditions begin to dry. We will probably not do a large scale aeration operation but will be foreced to do individual fairways at a time during the month of June. Our goal is eliminate the disruption of the fairways before the end of June to allow our zoysia to heal and be in great shape from July 4th through the end of October. We have spent tens of thousands of dollars on chemicals, sod and man-hours improving these surfaces and will continue this work. We do not want to take steps backwards.
We have been pretty lucky here at Glen Echo this season on the amount of total turf loss we've experienced in our zoysia. Some clubs have had to replace complete fairways. We have a few isolated areas. Our thin areas will begin to improve as we dry, warm up and apply nutrients.
The staff have worked very hard at keeping damage to a minimum while operating equipment which has caused some difficult conditions for you and the game you love to play. Last week, we were able to string trim around all trees through Hole 15. We've been able to do a little less push mowing of certain areas. I still warn you if you are in the lowest area of a hole, it is probably the wettest spot and could lead to damage or a cart being stuck so be careful out there.
We've been for the most part hand raking bunkers this spring to allow the sand that we added in late winter to firm. Two tee looks great but was very slow to set roots but we finally opened it last weekend. We added about a foot of dirt to the surface which had to firm causing additional delays in our sod being laid. Much different than the fifth tee last season which was basically leveled on the existing surface. A few limbs and or small trees will be removed to increase sunlight which will be necessary for the zoysia to flourish on this new teeing ground.
One of the things that my experience has taught me is to remain patient. I've come to understand that most of the difficulties we face as turf managers comes from within and being impatient and trying to force mother nature and do too much. Mother nature always wins these battles so I remain patient and attempt to not freak out like the guy below. Hope to see you on the golf course soon!
