2 Tee Renovation and a Great Deal of Other Work to Discuss

March 22nd and 23rd we did the rough in of the new tees on #2. Due to the movement of a great deal of soil and wet conditions every 3-4 days, we are at a pause in work on this project.
I would hope if we can get dry in the next week or so we will get the surrounding area of the tee finished graded and prepared for sod. The teeing ground will be tilled and laser leveled by Schaefer-Meyer we hope within the next couple of weeks and then sodded so that the tee will be open for play by mid-May.

View from the front of the tee complex. Tees are now set up as 2 separate tee boxes.

From behind the tee complex. Sorry for the poor pictures, just looks like a pile of dirt from this level. Had my drone in the air the other day to take pics and crashed into a tree. Once I finish the repair, I will give you an overhead view.

Being the largest group of maintenance folks on staff at Glen Echo, our crew has been assisting in other areas. We spent about 20 man hours power washing the pool wall both inside and out. Also power washed all the walk ways in the front of the building and a part of Pearson Plaza. The staff power washed some of Limestone window sills that we did not get completed last season. The staff  with some able bodied assistance have also been busy inside the pool area removing some over grown shrubbery and pruning others. We we were in the process of mulching the upper wall bed when our loader broke down earlier in the week. Once it is back up, we will finish the mulching of this area. 

We will also be power washing the swimming area of the pool and installing new drain lids and plastering in new frames for the pool system. We will be managing most of the mechanical start up of the pool this season. I attained my pool operator certification for the pool over the winter.

The staff have also been involved in stringing the patio lights and moving equipment to the patio since warm weather is on its way.

Randy power washing the walk way in the front of the clubhouse

This week the staff have been extremely busy with sod work. Over 450 yards of old sod was removed and replaced with both fescue and zoysia. HATS OFF TO THE CREW THIS WEEK!! Our loader was broke down and we had to load the sod into carts and then unload it from the carts.  Normally we place the sod right in the area of work so double work for the guys this week because of the repairs taking place to our loader.

We first completed the tree removal stump repair and root removal on the old tree near 11 green. This was replaced with fescue.

Area to the right of 11 green. A large amount of roots had to be busted out by hand using axes and shovels.

                                                       The finished area off the front right of 11 green.

We then moved to #5 left bunker area. This area has a number of contributing factors to its look. Small area with a great deal of foot and equipment traffic. Last year we tried to resolve some of it with walk mowing the area. Significant shade and drought is the biggest reason for its decline. A large Pin Oak is growing right in the middle of this area and robs it of sunlight and much needed moisture. We stripped the old sod away, trenched in some new irrigation heads that will hit just in this area. We aerated it and put in a couple of yards of leaf compost. The area was then dragged with a metal drag to break of the dirt turds and move some of the compost into the holes. Sod was then added. Should see some improvement we hope with new sod and the other work we completed. We still have some additional areas to sod around the tree and bunker and will complete this hopefully next week.

Tree on the left is a beautiful specimen set back in the proper area on the hole. Tree on the right is being over shaded and basically is growing on one side. Leaves, acorns, and other material fall into the bunker regularly. The shade and moisture depletion is significant.

This is the trench that is about 15' deep and shows the network of tree roots from this tree.

Small 2-3" long turf roots have no chance in a competition for resources with these trees.

Aeration completed so that we can then add compost to improve the soil.

Compost added to the area.

After the area was dragged with a metal drag. Cores busted and some compost moved into holes.

Staff finishing up the sod work. You can still see the weakened turf around the tree. It will be replaced in a few days.

Complete

The staff worked on the 13th approach today and also did a smaller amount of work on the 18th approach. We removed the bent grass sod, repaired part of the collar on 13 and part of the collar on 16. They removed the rest of the material and then laid zoysia in its place. We also had some bermuda contamination and very weak turf in front of 18 approach which was pulled up and replaced.

 

                Bent grass sod being reused on collar on 13.

Finishing the removal. All of this work is being done by hand.

Zoysia sod being laid on 13 approach 

The finished area.

Jason Cutting the old material off of 18 approach.

The look from the left side bunker.

Same area but from below the area.

Finshed area looks great. Still some weakness in front which we will work on improving with aeration, compost and traffic control from our mowing units.

Collar/Approach Renovation and Bunker Work

The staff has had busy week. We removed the false front bent grass approach on #10 and used the bent for collar repairs on holes 3, 4, 5, 6, 18 and the practice green. Over the last few years we have been converting these approaches to zoysia grass.  There are a number of reasons that this is being done:

• Less chemical applications since the approaches are now zoysia. This will reduce our overall chemical use which is good for the environment.
• Zoysia requires less water which will make the approaches more firm and allows the ball to release forward onto the green instead of hitting the more heavily watered bent grass approach and stopping.
• Our collars are mowed with a walk mower which takes more time to mow than the riding mower we can use on the approaches. We have converted them to a single pass mow which reduces labor which can used on other areas of the course. 

We still have larger approaches on 7, 13, and 15 that will be completed over the next couple of weeks. We reduced the size of 2 and 11 a few years ago but they are still larger than the single lap collars we have converted. We will attempt to remove these if time allows. If we run out of time, they will be worked on this fall.

Laying zoysia sod on 10 approach. This sod was taken off of 2 tee and used for this new approach. Saved operation a full pallet of sod which costs about $ 300 including delivery costs. It does take extra effort to do it this way with cutting the sod, lifting it and laying it but its great to use turf in another area.

Staff continue to lay more sod on 10.

This is a before with the old bent grass being stripped off by the sod cutter.Tom is cutting the bent grass sod into pieces so it could used again on damaged collars.

Staff in front of 3 green on the collar removing bermuda infested and thin turf.

New bent grass sod in its place. We saved nearly 400 linear feet of bent grass to use on our collars.

The guys are finishing up the left side of #6 green collar.

This morning the staff began working on our bunkers. Currently they have completed edging and redistributing sand in bunkers on holes 1-8 and the 2 large bunkers on 7. We will attempt to get the rest by early next week. The work has included adding additional sand to each bunker as needed from checking depths. As a player, you should expect that the sand will be a little fluffy in the bunkers that have been worked. It will take some time for us to get the existing sand to be mixed in with the new sand. We will be taking our packing machine out after heavy rains to help firm up the surfaces over the spring season.

No, not a Fox digging holes. These are check holes to see the depth of sand in the bunker to determine if we need to add any sand to the bunker or distribute deep areas of sand to more shallow areas.

Bermuda grass the was removed from normally the lower side of each bunker. Over time the bunkers shirk in size due to this fast growing plant.

Sand waiting to be added to the bunker on #1.

Newly added sand being shoveled and raked on #1.

Completed bunker on the left of #6

Rough renewal and fertilizer application

The staff have spent the last couple weeks using our slit seeder to drill fescue into the rough and cool season green surround areas.  Once the seeder went over the area, a metal mat was drug over the area to pull up the grass material that was cut and to place the seed in contact with the ground which improves germination.  We purchased 2 tons of seed which is not a great deal if you consider we have about 80 acres of rough but we only seed in close rough areas or worn play areas.

Fertilizer has been applied to close rough this week.  Some of the fertilizer will be utilized by the existing plants before they begin to shutdown in November.  The new seedlings will also use the fertilizer as well.  University research as well as our own actual experience has show greater benefit in applying fertilizer before the turf slows drastically.

Grass plants are like yours truly, when I eat normally, no extra brownies in the morning or over sized burgers at lunch, my bodies power plant is able to use the nutrition and does not store excess into fat. Plants are only capable of utilizing a certain amount of nutrition.  Once they have enough food, it is then turned into storage which is important for the plant strengthening going into winter and for growing out next spring.  Once the plant has stored all it can, excess fertilizer is not used and could go to waste  Too much fertilizer is a waste of resources and can also contribute to negative effects on the environment.  We are finding 30-40% reduction is fertilizer applications still gives us a healthy plant through next spring.  The stored energy gives us great green up in the spring and gives us a more steady growth cycle in the spring.  

The drag that was used to bring up thatch and leaf material that was brought up by the seeder.

The right bank behind #17 green with newly emerged seedlings.  You can see the lines or slits where the seed was drilled into the soil.  

Sod work

The past few days, the staff laid over 600 yards of sod in various places.

Zoysia was placed in zoysia/Bermuda areas that was very weak and slow to recover from winter. Large spots on 3, 1 approach, 3 green and 10 were replaced.  Fertilization has been completed on holes 1-2, 5, 17-18 Saturday which will begin to push growth.  The remaining fairways will be completed early this coming week if the Large patch on zoysia has slowed in its growth. With the warm rain we just experienced this morning and near 90 degrees predicted over the next couple of days, I would expect the majority of our warm season turf to fill in before Member/Guest June 12th.

Other areas included fescue turf around the 3rd green, behind the bunkers on 5 and remaining stump areas.

Staff removing some zoysia in the intermediate along 3 green.  Area was thin and week.  Replaced with cool season.  Extended from bunkers to green edge.  Will look much better.

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Staff adding fescue to the left side intermediate. Opposite side of green. 

Removing damaged sod under the trees behind the bunkers on #5. Severe shade, drought stress from trees out competing turf for moisture and wear from equipment were all contributing factors.