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.

Tumbleweeds, Timing, and Hole Poking

 Elvis Presley says listen up everyone as my dad gives you some information of what has been going on and will be going on at Glen Echo. 

As we rolled into September and then October, I thought we might see a few tumbleweeds dance across the golf course as it dried for an extended period of time for the first time this season. Of course we have come to expect it in the late summer and early fall but this year was pretty extreme. It wasn't desert hot but humidity levels of under 20% and daily winds of 10-20 mph saw our largest use of water on the course for a 40 day period. Of course we wanted the course firm and fast for The Invitational and we were able to deliver some pretty good conditions. First time I took rolling out of the equation over the 3 day event since I've been here. Didn't want ball roll out to get out of control, especially since our guests don't get to play the course as regularly as our membership.

So the timing of rainfall was helpful to replenish the soil but is now going a bit overboard since we are planning aeration of our greens this week. We plan to deeptine 8" deep with an 1/2" solid tine, fill the holes with sand, smooth them out, fertilize and let them breath. Of course, rain is dampening our parade. We will have to work with the rainfall over the next few days and see if we can get a few completed a day.

We were also planning to begin the installing the new drainage across the 6th approach during the first week of November.(Pending aeration completion and weather)  During the work in front of #6, we will be forced to close the 6th hole during this time. We hope it will take only about 5-7 working days to get the old pipe out and new pipe in and covered. This of course is all weather dependent and the pattern is looking more like some stopping and starting over the next couple of weeks. 

3' drain pipe in the waiting room along the main road. 

Tree removals along 7 pipe line that we will try to remove soon. 

The arrows designate the beginning of the project in front of 6 green. 

With the other work taking place, we will still be chasing leaves into December which will keep everyone busy.   

      

Plans for the Fall, The Invitational 2020

 

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.

Enjoy your fall on the course! 

Summer's Almost Over and Fall's Coming and A Major Project Change

 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.

Maintenance Storm Drain Repair

It’s been a couple weeks and a couple of days of a major storm water repair project for the grounds staff at Glen Echo. A 3’diameter galvanized pipe gathers water from about 30 acres above the grounds maintenance building and dumps it into the right side creek just past the red tee on #1. The pipe was 220 feet long and runs within about 5-10’ from our maintenance building, under our car parking area, driveway and greenhouse. It sits at a depth of 5 feet at the beginning to about 12’ as it dumps into the creek. We’ve evacuated well over 100 tons of soil, rock and asphalt as we prepared the new pipe channel.

We have the pipe installed and are 2/3 of the way in getting the pipe completely buried. We still have some large debris piles in our parking area that will be moved to the long driving range back lot area.
Over the month of February, we have to get the greenhouse vase pad made and build the greenhouse against the building as we prepare for the new growing season of landscape plants. They will arrive by the 1st of March.

Sinkhole in the greenhouse 

Bottom 1/3 of pipe was rotted out. Galvanized pipe is guaranteed to last 25 years according to manufacturer’s. This pipe was in the ground for over 50 years

Greenhouse being removed. Greenhouse was built against the building for sunlight maximization, utilization of existing heat source and electricity.

We actually used a walk behind asphalt cutter since we had to cut 440’ of asphalt.

Our initial dig hole to locate our problem. Pipe rotted out at bottom was the verdict.

https://youtu.be/f7R1MvyEAGE

Guys digging and chipping out old pipe from headwall and enlarging opening for new pipe.

https://youtu.be/Kmsoliy6f44

Began project with our backhoe digging the more shallow end to save time when large unit arrived.

https://youtu.be/hfzNxF1lmOA

Big rig digging.

Rented trackhoe in action working on the large tree root wad.

Large tree root wad at end of pipe that had to be removed. Took Skip over 8 minutes to dig out the remaining stump with the very large trackhoe that was rented

Pipe remnants after being dug out.

We attempted to reduce the total width of the dig but many sections along the building collapsed during the  work on the project.

Soil remnants that will be stored for future use in the back of the range.

Gravel used to help backfill the pipe. Most of this material was used and  recycled from the MSD project that was done along the metro link tracks and 1 fwy in 2012

Repairing Wet Areas On the Course

Our old golf course develops a number of wet areas in the spring and they slowly begin to dry as rain dissipates during the summer. Sometimes a wet area pops up and it is not a spring but one of the many 4" clay drain lines that cross the course from area to area.

We've had a wet area develop on #7 down in the valley and Skip and Russ did some investigating on Monday. They dug up the area and found out a clay line that carried water from the area of #5 on the course down across #7 was clogged.  It was full of mud and water was leaking out from the joints in the pipe and was coming out at the bottom of the hill. The guys dug up the area and found an old metal water line underneath it which we don't want disturb. Skips experience over the years are that we are not sure if all these old water lines on the course are not possibly still live. We also found another clay tile accidentally when digging along the first clay line. The guys cracked the 2nd clay line which worked in the end of us. The crack in the pipe allowed water from the first line to flow into it showing us that we had a good flowing drain pipe.

Years ago a black drain tile was placed in the swale to remove water from this area. We had originally planned on connecting the clay line running down from 7 cart path to the black line but the finding of the perpendicular clay line changed those plans. With the black drain line exposed we decided to place a new surface drain in this area which will help remove surface water underground quicker and more efficiently. The quicker water gets into the drainage system, the less damage it can do and the drier the turf areas can become.

Major leak coming from old 4" drain tile. This pipe was coming from the cart path on 7.

Water draining out of pipe after clog/dirt was removed from pipe.  A steady stream of water.

The right side of the hole is the black drainage pipe that is laid in the swale of 7. Next to the shovel is another clay tile we found which rand along the black pipe. The hole in the pipe is allowing water to evacuate. We connected the two clay tiles.

After back filling the area. In the foreground is a new surface drain that will  help remove surface water during rainfall. This view is looking toward 7 green. The sod in  this area will need to be replaced.

This is the view looking up toward 7 cart path and the back of 5 tee.  This area was wet on a regular basis because of the clay tile being full of dirt and probably water weeping from the hillside during the wet times.

We've been looking at a couple of wet areas on #3 that travels down from the cart path on #12(spring). We also had a wet spot or two pop up in the fairway but we believe these are all related to the spring. This situation will be corrected using a sump up in the rough above the 2 irrigation control boxes. We will run drain lines to the sump and it will then feed down along the rough of #3 to the lowest area where there is a drain line running through which will evacuate the water. Hopefully this will reduce the amount of water coming out of the hill into the fairway.

Wet area near the cart path on 12 but on the 3 side of the hole. We plan to place a sump in the aera of the first arrow and a drain line will then be trenched toward the 2nd arrow and down to the lowest point on 3 and connect to the existing drain line.

Beginning of the sump dig.  Look at the water filling the hole.

This area is out in the left middle of 3 fairway down from the irrigation boxes. We have shutoff irrigation water to this fairway hoping the spot would dry up but it has not so we eliminated that potential problem. We believe water is going back under the surface and has found another weak point moving back to the surface in the fairway. Our sump drain when completed should help to dry this area if our hunch is correct.

Long Range Update

An update on the long range tee work.  While we had the trencher here, trenched a couple of additional areas that needed work.

We extended the drain line out of #1 bunker down to the fence line.  

We put a smiley face drain above the new asphalt on #4 to reduce the amount of moisture that builds up in that area during wet times of the year.  Should also keep the asphalt in better shape.  

The pop up drain along the start of 12 fairway was a continuous mess.
Underground you go and a larger surface drain basin to catch some runoff water.

Becky planted the  new ornamental screening bed next to 13 blue tee and will be mulching it today.

Drainage issue at start of #12 Fairway

We've had a significant wet area at the beginning left side of 12 fairway.  Yesterday we put a gravel dump with a pipe in it to drain the area.  We ran a solid pipe down to the cart path where an emitter was placed on the pipe allowing the water to go across the path into an existing surface drain.  The trench still needs to settle and it will then be smoothed and covered with sod.  About 100 yards from the left side of 12 we filled it with dirt to help smooth out a severe rut that formed from the irrigation lake splice at which runs to the property line.  We seeded and covered the area with a straw blanket to protect it from erosion.

Staff hand digging the trench out for the new drainage.  Area was to saturated for trencher.

Continuing to clean out trench.

Back filling trench line.

Water that had already accumulated at bottom of trench line this morning.

The right side it the pop up drain that is removing the water from the saturated area.  Water draining across the path and into drain line that runs under 3 fairway.

Stray blanket to protect new seeded are about 100 yards from #12 green.

Completion of new spillway drainage at #9

The staff completed the repairs to the underground spillway from #9 lake to the small lake on #10.  120' of double walled 12" pipe was put in place, an irrigation line had to be moved and the area was back filled.  The area is full of bermuda grass so our plan is to fertilize it, water it and watch the bermuda fill in.  I'm sure we will need to do some backfilling of soil when it begins to settle when the rain begins to fall again.

Skip, Harry, Tom and Jason placing the pipe in the trench on Tuesday.  The line was backfilled and graded smooth.

The area after grading.