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Celebrate Glen Echo
Monday, November 6, 2017
Friday, November 3, 2017
Grass Range Tees
The grass range tees have closed for the year. The artificial mats are now open for your use. With the hard freezes over the weekend, the turf has stopped growing until next spring. No growth means no way to repair from damage. Please be considerate and STAY OFF THE GRASS!!! Please
Monday, October 30, 2017
Deep Tine Aeration, Why do we do it?
Made a video explaining why we deep tine aerate our greens. Little visual with an actual 8" plug from a green explaining the green system.
Update on Skip
Went by the hospital to see Skip Saturday morning and he was already home. He's got a couple week recovery time but things are going well for him right now.
Friday, October 27, 2017
Assistant Skip
Just wanted to mention Long time Assistant Skip had a significant surgery yesterday to repair a bleeding vein in his brain. He came out well from surgery the doctor reports. Nurse mentioned he was a hoot when he came to. Expected to get home Monday. I'm sure he would appreciate a card as he recovers. Send to club in his name and we will deliver them to him.
Thursday, October 26, 2017
Time to Catch Up
I apologize for little activity on the blog lately. Time to catch up. Course has held up well this fall. A little bit of rain has been helpful for the seed that was drilled in during late September and early October.
Frost is predicted over the next couple of days. What does that mean? Course will remain closed until frost has lifted from playing areas. We of course are most concerned about greens so this means the practice green and practice facilities are closed until frost has lifted off of those surfaces. What can frost do? Watch the following video from the USGA, they explain it perfectly. The frost delays are normally shorter in length this time of year since the ground temperatures are still elevated. As temperatures cool, the delays increase in length. Factors that affect delays include cloud cover and wind speed as the sun comes up. Remember, the last thing we want is to delay golfers from getting out on the course but our goal is not do damage to the turf that could create issues going into winter or coming out of winter into spring.
Fall aeration is planned on Monday 10/30 with probably 12-14 greens getting completed we hope. We will get the others completed over the next couple of days trying to finish before early bird players catch up to us. We intend to do a deep solid tine aeration, about 8-9" deep. We will fill the holes with sand which will assist the holes in healing and will improve ball roll out. Greens should be pretty good to go as the week goes by. In the video it illustrates coring, pulling a core out of the green about 2-3" deep. Our process will not involve pulling out a core but placing a deep 1/2" tine into the green about 8". These deep holes penetrate into our soil layer which is about 5" below the surface of the greens and assists with root growth and moisture penetration. I'll explain more next week after our process is completed.
Staff has been busy removing part of the ornamental planting along the east side of 9 lake over the last few weeks. With the addition of plantings around the clubhouse and pro shop, our horticulturist Becky has just too much for one person to manage. This bed was going to need a complete overhaul but I thought the best way to handle it was to put it back to turf grass. We had a difficult time making the steep sloped bank look good in the first place. I think next season along the turf to grow a bit along the steep side of the bank will look pretty good in place of an out of control planting bed.
We've had a little bit of Large Patch on Zoysia break out a couple of weeks ago. Largest spots were up toward 13 green. We did some spot spraying with a fungicide to help knock it down. The worst time of the year is spring for this disease. The spot spraying this fall will help reduce some of the activity next spring but we will still spray some of our areas where the disease occurs on a yearly basis. The organic fertilizer option could help to alleviate this disease but it takes a couple of years to throw the soil microbe population to the good guy side. Organic does cost more but in the end does it really when you have to keep spraying fungicides on a regular basis?
MSD is doing some storm drainage work in the subdivision next to us in Glen Echo Park to reduce storm water getting into the sanitary sewer line that runs through our course along the lake system. The excessive loading of the sanitary sewer creates issues along Wilson Street in U-City which has been on the news many times in the past from flooding. Part of the work will be some repairs and storm drainage being improved between the property line fence on 9 and the lake. This work will start in the beginning of winter and will be completed before the golf season next spring. Outside contractors through MSD will be completing the work. Some large storm water lines will be installed into our property and a open grass basin will lead water into another pipe that will go into our 9 lake. Our staff will be removing irrigation lines that will have to be dug up and replaced once the project is completed. The club has been reimbursed for work our staff will have to do for this project.
Frost is predicted over the next couple of days. What does that mean? Course will remain closed until frost has lifted from playing areas. We of course are most concerned about greens so this means the practice green and practice facilities are closed until frost has lifted off of those surfaces. What can frost do? Watch the following video from the USGA, they explain it perfectly. The frost delays are normally shorter in length this time of year since the ground temperatures are still elevated. As temperatures cool, the delays increase in length. Factors that affect delays include cloud cover and wind speed as the sun comes up. Remember, the last thing we want is to delay golfers from getting out on the course but our goal is not do damage to the turf that could create issues going into winter or coming out of winter into spring.
Fall aeration is planned on Monday 10/30 with probably 12-14 greens getting completed we hope. We will get the others completed over the next couple of days trying to finish before early bird players catch up to us. We intend to do a deep solid tine aeration, about 8-9" deep. We will fill the holes with sand which will assist the holes in healing and will improve ball roll out. Greens should be pretty good to go as the week goes by. In the video it illustrates coring, pulling a core out of the green about 2-3" deep. Our process will not involve pulling out a core but placing a deep 1/2" tine into the green about 8". These deep holes penetrate into our soil layer which is about 5" below the surface of the greens and assists with root growth and moisture penetration. I'll explain more next week after our process is completed.
Staff has been busy removing part of the ornamental planting along the east side of 9 lake over the last few weeks. With the addition of plantings around the clubhouse and pro shop, our horticulturist Becky has just too much for one person to manage. This bed was going to need a complete overhaul but I thought the best way to handle it was to put it back to turf grass. We had a difficult time making the steep sloped bank look good in the first place. I think next season along the turf to grow a bit along the steep side of the bank will look pretty good in place of an out of control planting bed.
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| Lake bank sodded and seeded along 9. Saved some money and decided to seed the top part. Area next to it is bermuda and will over run the seeded area next summer. Why waste money on something that won't be there for long. |
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| This is our practice green collar that was sprayed with a product called Pylex used at a rate of 1/2 oz per acre. We've made another application since this photo and hopefully will remove some of this pesky grass out of our collars. |
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| Picture above is a fairy ring on #10 fairway. We've had these from time to time on our fairways but not to the size and killing rings that we have been experiencing in the last year or so. We are looking at a couple of different potential treatments next season. First is possibly changing to an organic fertilizer which reduces thatch and improves the microbial population that are antagonistic to the fairy ring organism. 2nd would be a fungicide application. I like improving soil health through the organic fertilizer option. |
We've had a little bit of Large Patch on Zoysia break out a couple of weeks ago. Largest spots were up toward 13 green. We did some spot spraying with a fungicide to help knock it down. The worst time of the year is spring for this disease. The spot spraying this fall will help reduce some of the activity next spring but we will still spray some of our areas where the disease occurs on a yearly basis. The organic fertilizer option could help to alleviate this disease but it takes a couple of years to throw the soil microbe population to the good guy side. Organic does cost more but in the end does it really when you have to keep spraying fungicides on a regular basis?
MSD is doing some storm drainage work in the subdivision next to us in Glen Echo Park to reduce storm water getting into the sanitary sewer line that runs through our course along the lake system. The excessive loading of the sanitary sewer creates issues along Wilson Street in U-City which has been on the news many times in the past from flooding. Part of the work will be some repairs and storm drainage being improved between the property line fence on 9 and the lake. This work will start in the beginning of winter and will be completed before the golf season next spring. Outside contractors through MSD will be completing the work. Some large storm water lines will be installed into our property and a open grass basin will lead water into another pipe that will go into our 9 lake. Our staff will be removing irrigation lines that will have to be dug up and replaced once the project is completed. The club has been reimbursed for work our staff will have to do for this project.
Friday, August 18, 2017
Happy Anniversary
In 2006 I was given the opportunity to vie for the job of Superintendent at Glen Echo CC. Every job that I was given the chance to interview I was successful and was given the job since college. I did not make the cut then but was given another chance in the summer of 2008. I made the cut and began my career at Glen Echo on August 18, 2008.
This is the longest time at any one job that I have ever had in my working career. As my role has changed this past year from a full time Superintendent to General Manager/Superintendent, the world has become a bit more complicated. As a young teen, I witnessed my father being denied tenure at his teaching and football coaching job. The denial was truly unjustified and an error by Board members who later became regular customers at our restaurant. I saw my father turn the other cheek and move forward with his life. What a lesson for his eldest son who loved him dearly.
August 23 will be the anniversary of me being named GM year ago The past 360 days have been some of the most difficult in my work life but have also been some of the most rewarding. I have worked tirelessly, not for myself but in the service of our family at Glen Echo and our guests to improve our product and make it something you can be proud of. At times we've failed but I believe our success has far outweighed our failures.
Over the past few months, our clubhouse management team has been doubled in size with the hiring of Dave and Miguel who have done an excellent job in stabilizing our efforts and providing me with some needed relief so I can do some of the duties I've been tasked with completing. Our hourly staff have continued to become more seasoned and our food quality from Chef Brian and his team has improved.
In the end, what I am asking is that you come visit us a bit more often. Lunch, dinner, cocktails, chicken wings and some drafts. Maybe not enough time for 18 holes of golf but 9 would be just great by us.
In the end, many of you have asked and been concerned about me and my wife Beth and I truly appreciate your concern. I've always been s little more dedicated to my work than I should but trust I do enjoy my time away with my bride. Thanks for your support over the last 9 years and I might not see you on the course as the past but will see you in the clubhouse!
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