Long range tee sprayed

Due to storms lining up to our west on Saturday, I delayed the range killing spray until Sunday morning. Cut off the dead material in a couple of weeks, grow it and spray again.

  

There Will Be Some Killing Going On at Glen Echo Today!

I don't like to utter those words at a golf course, its all about keeping things alive most of the time.

Say hello to my little friend Roundup and Fusilade Long Range Tee Bermuda grass.  I will be spraying out the long range tee this morning in the beginning stages of changing the grass back to Zoysia.  Proper divot patterns are not necessary this morning as you get ready for the Clarkson.  Chop, chop all you like.

 Please refrain from walking on the grass area after this morning to prevent transferring of chemicals to finer turf areas.  We appreciate your cooperation.

Details of Long Range Tee Turf Replacement

I sent out an email blast to the membership earlier in the afternoon giving  notice of our plans regarding the turf replacement for the long range tee.  The following information is some additional detail regarding changing this playing surface from Bermuda back to Zoysia which is the main fwy/tee surface.

There might be a couple of questions you might have regarding this project.  Why start this now?  A couple of reasons.  The Bermuda was damaged coming out of winter and is slow in responding.  Also, we need enough time to kill a majority of the Bermud and give the Zoysia a chance to root and grow before dormancy sets in.

Why not change ends of the range to the top.  A number of reasons I explained to my committee.  Cost would be much higher.  A dozer would be needed to move dirt and build targets.  Hitting balls down hill will increasing ball flight leading to more cost for balls and endangering my staff in our maintenance area.  I'm sure we would be required to put up a very large fence to protect the metro link trains from being hit.  Logistics of cart travel and walkers would be much more difficult and almost impossible.  Shall I list more?

As mentioned in the earlier email, our operating budget does not have the money to fund this project.  I had also stated the project would not be worth our time if we did not remove trees to improve turf conditions. 
My apologies in forgetting the estimated cost of $ 15,000 in the email.  Our staff will do all the work except laser-leveling the tee and some of the larger scale tree work will require some assistance.  No additional labor cost will be required. Like anything else we do extra on the course, we will schedule our regular work and plan our extra work accordingly.

The long range mats will be open as much as possible during the process.  The short range grass tee will remain open until dormancy so you have a place to warm up.

During the construction, I encourage everyone to stay off of the treated turf.  You could track chemicals back onto good turf surfaces such as the practice green from remnants of chemicals used to kill the Bermuda. We have 9 trees to remove on the east side of the tee.  One will die from a lightning strike that occurred a month ago and the other is a hazard tree we will be removing.  The trees shade parts of the teeing ground as late at 10 a.m. each morning.  We plan to keep the shorter scrub material along the creek to provide some separation between the first hole and the range tee but as trees continue to grow, they will be removed as they begin to create shade on the tee.  We will remove some trees along the creek bank on the west side of the tee as well.  These trees shade the tee from 3 p.m. on and reduces the total amount of sunlight to the turf.  We need a minimum of 8 hours of sun or more to have turf that can repair itself quickly enough as we rotate stations through the tee.  Additional sun equals a turf that dries quicker and can become playable that much sooner than the past wet, soggy turf that we have experienced on this tee. A drier tee surface also reduces damage from divots during practice time.   The work on the tee should get us almost two additional hitting stalls and we should have at least one more days's rotation from the very front of the tee.

The following is a general work plan for the project.

•    Spray the tee with non-selective and selective herbicides. GECC staff
•    Scalp and strip the remnants. GECC staff
•    Cover the tee and attempt to grow the Bermuda again. GECC staff
•    Spray herbicide application again.  This total process should take approximately 6-8 weeks.  Using     soil fumigant could shorten window but might require total shutdown of all weather tees on the long     range required by product label. GECC staff
•    Install drainage in tee to improve the health of the zoysia and allow it to opened sooner after rain        events. GECC staff
•    Adjust irrigation heads as necessary. GECC staff
•   Till and Laser-level tee. Contractor.
•   Install big roll zoysia.  GECC staff.
•   Tree removal would be occur as needed.  Couple potential removals could be during winter season  but would need to evaluate.  Staff and contractor

·        The tee will not be ready for play until mid-May to the 1^st of June 2015 depending upon completion date and grow in weather.

      As always, I will keep you informed of the activities as they happen.

St Louis Sports Hall of Fame Ceremony

Just a reminder that Glen Echo is being recognized at 10:30 this morning in a ceremony on the Marvin Pierson Plaza by The St. Louis Sports Hall of Fame.  Take a trip by the club to represent Glen Echo and see the ceremony.

Green/Blue on the course

The next time you play hole 1, you might not notice the new fence as much.  Skip and Russ painted 1/2 of it green today.  We have to order in additional paint and will finish it next week.  We intend to place some vining type plants on the track side of the fence to soften it further before fall.

We will be installing a new bed on the left side of 13 blue tee to provide some buffer between the tee and 15 green.  It is not intended to be a wall but will help in breaking up the open space.  It will be slightly raised and will be of the more permanent plant variety, shrubs, grasses and a smaller tree..  A little mulch each season and some minor pruning is all that will be needed for this bed.

Becky sprayed out the area with Roundup and some selective grass and weed killer.  Some dye was used to help identify the area.

Dye to outline the kidney bean shaped bed.

Needle tining Greens June 2014

Video below discussing needle tining of greens here at Glen Echo this month.  Goals of the program include but not limited to the following:

• Exchange gas.  Good oxygen getting into soil with excess CO2 Carbon dioxide which can build up in soil.
• Improve water penetration in dry areas of the greens and dry out wet areas of the greens.
• Should improve rooting or at least stabilize rooting until additional heat sets in during July.

Needle tining should create little if any effect on ball roll.  Of course if we would not do this, we could have dead greens which could initially improve ball roll and then negatively effect ball roll and yours truly's job security.

Happy Father's Day

Happy Father's Day to all the dads out there.  After leaving from work this morning and a quick trip to mom's, my afternoon will probably be spent on the couch watching the US Open mixed with some World Cup and a nap or two.  Four more days of 3:45 wake ups with the Left Handed Golf Association Tournament this week.  Have a great Father's Day!!