Drain/Cover, Restrict/Educate and Pound Sand

 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.

Winter Greens Thaw/Course Opening

Well, we've made it on the other side of the worst weather of the season. Hopefully, our turf has survived any issues. The snow cover should have given the surfaces some insulation. I would not mind some bermuda grass damage but we will see. Bermuda rarely dies, it just gets pushed into the ground where it starts its growth instead of from runners attached to the surface of the ground. 

The course should have thawed and drained enough to open this Thursday, February 25th for play. We would anticipate the range to remain closed at least through the weekend due to very soft conditions from the thaw and balls plugging. Rainfall over the weekend should help reduce some of the soft conditions but the golf professional staff will have to determine when it can be opened.

I've posted a couple videos on social media since Saturday regarding the thawing of the greens at Glen Echo and how we determine when the course will be opened. I made a post in a previous blog regarding the freezing and thawing of greens on February 9th. Below is the link.

Thawing of Frozen Greens and When They Are Safe to Play

The first video shows the spot I cleared away from the practice green on Saturday to show the difference in time it takes from a cleared green to a insulated/snow covered green.

The second video is from  this morning showing the depth the greens have thawed since Saturday and an explanation of our decision making whether to open the course or keep it closed.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aT_2DL1KsnM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BQG3frUc2Ac

The pictures below are depth measurements of the freeze in our greens. Our greens have about 6" of sand on them and then soil. I would think the freeze moved down into the soil layer. The sand layer freezes quicker than soil but the soil layer underneather thaws slower than the sand. It is important that our greens thaw enough to allow water to evacuate through the profile of the sand allowing the green surface to become less saturated. The surface area of the green acts like a soaked sponge but in a greens case, the inprint in the surface can days for days and create a very disrupted surface. We will also want to mow our greens soon to remove its winter growth and the disruption in the surface from foot printing could cause scalping which would delay spring growth.

PG depth of freeze where snow was removed on Saturday

Practice green near the above picture but snow was allowed to melt naturally

15 green middle right

15 green back right

11 green still a little covered in snow

11 green off the left side middle. Still pretty frozen

Frigid Grass, Pipeline, Sap Lotta Sap and Tree Management

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

Green Root Shearing

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

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

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

Turf and Below Zero Temperatures

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

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

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

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

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

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

Tree Management Plan

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

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

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

Maple Syrup

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

     Sometimes you get a bit greedy. 4 buckets of excellent

 flowing trees at the bottom of #3.

                                            

6 to 8 Drainage Project

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

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

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

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

December/January Weather Stats

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

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

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


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

TOTALS          3.82               2.40         1.42         6.49

Happy New Year and 6-8 Project Update

I hope everyone had a nice holiday and stayed safe under the existing pandemic. We had some nice weather in December which allowed for a good amount of play from members and guests and we thank you for the continued support.

We do have firewood available if you would like a load delivered and or would want to pick up a few sticks. We charge a fee based on the amount you take from $ 15 and up. Delivered firewood is $ 100.00 Please contact me if you plan on picking up some wood so we can charge your account appropriately. jwachter@gecc.org  

Some of the staff are getting in a couple weeks of vacation during the holidays and afterward. Once they return we will catch up on some of our other work which will include golf cart maintenance, tree trimming/removal, leaf clean up along fence lines and shop work as we prepare for the spring golf season 2021.  

The drainage project has gone well for us to date. We have about 60' of pipe to put in the ground and cover. I've posted a video below regarding what we have completed to date and the work we still have left to complete. We were hoping the weather would stay dry to allow us to get some sod in place but we received a good soaking New Years Eve which has put us at a stand still at this time. For a full explanation see the video.

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

 

6-8 Drainage Project Update

Made a video today regarding the work we have been doing the last couple of weeks on our drainage project. Its a bit long but wanted to give full details on how we are progressing and what to expect next.

For those with shorter attention spans, here is a summary.

6th hole has been reopened for play.

• 6 in front of the green is mostly complete with the exception of a strip about 12' wide where out drain pipe was installed. This area is to be sodded in zoysia. The soil is a bit soft and pumping. We are working on firming it up but sometimes it just takes some time with the rain and cooler temperatures.
  
• We began work in front of 7 tee from the surface drain toward 8 fairway. 4 sticks of pipe (80') and covered in rock. Part of our work between 7 tee and the pipe is to but some extra 4" drainage into this area to help catch some of the seep water that comes out of the hillside and keeps that area very wet during most of the spring and part of the summer.
  
• With a holiday week approaching and work limited to 3 days, we will not go any further. With a tournament on Friday and open play for the weekend, we did not want to close the hole down. We hope to cover the 80' in front of 7 tee with soil this week.
• We are blowing out the irrigation system on Monday, November 30th and plan to close the 8th hole effective December 1st(weather dependent). We anticipate this work will take about 2 weeks to get to the drain on the left side of the fairway. Part of this work includes shaping 8 fairway to drain into the large storm drain that we exposed on the left side of 8 fairway.
  
• We will then have about a week to 10 days worth of work to connect to the drain near 8 cart path.
• I would anticipate the 8th hole will be closed most of the month of December. 
• The last section we would complete will be between the left front approach of 6 to 7 cart path where we are currently working. It would be our hope to have everything buttoned up by mid-January.

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vhHa4b-tkDU

 

Progress on 6 Approach Storm Drain

 The staff have been busy this week on our storm drain repair in front of 6 green. Everything has been ripped out and new pipe has been connected between the start of the drain to the right of 6 approach connecting to the large surface drain to the left front of the approach.

Just a reminder, the 6th hole is closed to play as is the cart path. Please proceed back to the main road with carts and drive down to the 7th tee. We understand its a par 3 and many players could hit over the area to the green but we have a big mess in front of the green and did not want to take the chance someone could be injured walking around the area trying to retrieve a ball.

Gravel for the most part has been filled in around the pipe. Still have a bit more to add. Took about 50 tons. We will be capping the area with the soil that was removed, compact and then lay the sod back in place. We hope to have the hole back open for play sometime this coming week.

We will then begin to dig from 7 tee cart path across to the surface drain in 8 fairway. 

The course was a bit leafy this week with a large leaf drop over last weekend. We have 2-3 people cleaning greens, bunkers, blowing and mulching leaves daily while our most experienced staff is tackling the drainage project. We can usually do a pretty good job but a couple of high wind days early this week  made it difficult for us to catch up. Luckily, almost all trees have dropped their leaves except for the Pin Oaks which still have at least 50% of their leaves still holding on. They are beginning their drop but it will take a few more weeks.

Also, greens were cut twice this week from the aeration that occurred on November 2-4. Hopefully the rainfall this weekend will help settle the sand a bit more. Aeration holes have filled in nicely. Ready to throw some regulator on them before we put them to bed in the next few weeks to put a little shock into the poa annua. 

Skip digging out soil along the old 3' galvanized pipe.

First 20' of about 550 feet of pipe we are laying between 6 and 8 cart path.

Dropping in the gravel at the beginning of the project.

Tom digging out at the surface drain storm water chamber at the left front of 6 approach. Large surface drains were put in place about every 120' which helps get the surface water underground. Each chamber is large enough for you to step down into where the incoming and outgoing pipe are encased in concrete and brick. We made an sleeve that slips into the chamber out of the double walled pipe. We cut off about 3 of the ridges which reduces the size small enough for the pipe to slide into the existing holes. We then put some concrete patch around it to seal it completely.

Almost ready to connect the pipes. Didn't get the completed picture but coupled the pipes together and got a nice layer of rock on the pipe to keep it in place during the rain we are expecting over the weekend.

Hole 6 Temporary Closure for Storm Drain Replacement

Today was the first day of work to replace the 3’ storm drain pipe in front of 6 green. During construction, the 6th hole is closed to all play. 

We ask golf cart users who have completed the 5th hole to travel back to the main club road and proceed down to the cart path leading to 7 tee. You can than drive up the hill to the tee and turn your cart around.(A reminder to those teeing off on 5 tee, please make sure the group ahead of you is given the opportunity to drive safely back to the main road and proceed toward the 7th tee.)

Walking golfers need to walk down around to the left of the 6th green and then proceed to the 7th tee. 

We anticipate the first section of this major drain project to take about 7-10 days to complete.