Asphalt Overlay, Green Roots and New Concrete

 It was an interesting month of July we've just recently experienced. All-time record high rainfalls at the airport, a little above normal temperatures with 15 days over 90 degrees and have had 7 days this summer over 100 which is the 18th ranked summer of all-time. 

Asphalt Overlay

We were blessed when our asphalt contractor called and asked to come on property a week early. We were initially scheduled for last week which gave us 10" of rain so we are counting our blessings of the early start which helped us complete our work before we were forced to build Noah's Ark!. Over 12,000 linear feet were laid in 4 days. Overall, the work turned out well with just a slight bit of rutting at a couple of spots.

We did have difficulty with a couple areas on 11 and 12 where the existing paving gave way and rutting occurred. It was dug out and once the paving machine and roller went over it the ground was to unstable creating an uneven surface. We are working with the contractor to get this repaired but this work might be put off until the final work is completed on holes 15-18 next season.

As a part of the clean up, we have started picking up the excess asphalt laying on the sides of the paths. Staff went through holes 4-8. We also have major work along the edges of the new paths in a number of areas. We will begin to back fill these areas as weather and time allows. We will be looking at greens and tees first and then move to fairway areas. This work will not be completed until probably the winter and or spring of 2023. 

As mentioned in another social media post, the staff and I are so appreciative and grateful for the funds  being made available to improve our infrastructure to go along with the excellent turf conditions our staff strives to produce. It makes the grass look even better.

#5 New Cart Path

Green Roots

On July 4th, I took a picture of our roots and commented not bad for this date. Well, within a couple of weeks of very high temperatures and heavy rainfall a root disease broke out and helped to shorten our roots. The disease is called Pythium Root Rot. It is always in the soil but is usually in control from a number of different ways. Average temperatures with proper moisture levels in our greens. A spray schedule in the spring with monthly applications to help reduce any outbreaks and humans making sure proper air(needle tining/venting greens) and proper moisture. As these factors potentially get out of balance, the Pythium infects the roots and reduces the grass plants ability to pull in moisture and feed itself. In the end, the greens begin to thin and patches just kind of melt away.

6 inches of roots July 4th. I was happy.

We sent samples off to our Turf grass Pathologist who moved from Mizzou to Purdue and received confirmation of the disease. We drenched in some chemistry and begin to needle them to help get the product down to the root and also help to dry them out. It appears with last weeks heavy rainfall, raising of mowing heights, using walk mowers and cloudy cooler days has helped us tremendously. It appears the weather is going to moderate again this week which will hopefully allow us to get some much needed sand on the greens and brushing. As greens continue to improve we will lower our heights down and begin the work of increasing ball roll out.  

 

The arrows are pointing toward what appears to be dry spots on our greens but to the left is a larger mass forming. The areas look like they are potential dry areas but they are actual moist and wet. We have a moisture meter that gives us a water moisture capacity reading. These reading are then used to determine if we need more water in an area or not.

                                                        After needle tine and rolling.

New Concrete Walk Paths For Driving Ranges

I apologize for the delay in getting the new walk paths installed but the approximate 2000 tons of asphalt needed a home first. We intend to lay the concrete for the paths at the long range this next week and then the path at the short range the following week. This will improve the look of our practice area and reduce the need for mulching and repairing the washed away mulch.

The long range walk path as we anticipated heavy rain overnight. Took off our lower side framing to allow the water to rage into the creek and did not bring the gravel all of the way down so it would stay in place. No gravel needed toward the parking area since there is 20' of asphalt in the foreground that we can pour the concrete upon. 

Hopefully things will dry out the next few days and we will see you on the golf 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.

Radio interview, Venting Greens, and More

I am a proud member of the GCSAA Golf Course Superintendents's Association of America which is our national trade association. The association has a weekly segment on the PGA Network on Wednesdays at 5. With the Olympic Games originally scheduled for next week, I was asked to be on the program to speak about Glen Echo and our place in Olympic history. As we all know, Covid has since delayed the Olympics for a year but it was decided to go ahead with the interview.  Below is some information regarding the weekly broadcast and how it can be located on satellite radio.  There is also a podcast that is made available after the interview that I will put on the blog when it is ready for those of you without satellite radio.

Listen to GCSAA on PGA Tour Radio Network

“Katrek and Maginnes On Tap" Wednesdays on SiriusXM radio

GCSAA has joined forces with the PGA Tour Radio Network to feature superintendent and GCSAA-related topics weekly on SiriusXM radio. Every Wednesday at 6 p.m. (Eastern) on Sirius channel 208 and XM channel 92, the subject matter will be part of the popular show "Katrek and Maginnes On Tap.”

The program is hosted by Emmy-award winning broadcaster Brian Katrek and John Maginnes, a former PGA Tour player, who spent more than 15 years playing professional golf before starting a second career as a golf announcer in 2005. He won several times on the then Nationwide Tour and had a second-place finish on the PGA Tour at the 1996 B.C. Open, where he was paired with a young rookie, Tiger Woods. He got started on television for the USA Network and then the Golf Channel. He joined the PGA Tour Radio Network in 2005 and has been a fixture there ever since.

We have had a pretty warm July with over 20 days of 90 degrees or better. Our average for July is normally 14.  Timely rains have kept the course green from wall to wall so we have that going for us which is nice. Of course a little quote from 'Caddyshack' which had its 40th anniversary the other day!

Its that time of year for where we try to get a Needle-tine venting of our greens. This process is completed for the following benefits:

• Exchange of gas.  Oxygen into the system and hopefully the removal of some harmful build up of carbon dioxide which can build up in the soil
• Movement of moisture into and out of greens. Some sections of greens are dryer and or wetter based on their location, irrigation head set up and other factors. The drier sections of greens will accept water more readily with some holes in them and the wetter areas will dry quicker with more air entering through the holes.
• Root growth is at a minimum but root life is essential. These small narrow channels provide optimum growth potential if the plants are able to respond.

Our process includes mowing the greens, doing a light topdressing since temperatures are to be in the 80's, needletine, than roll to smooth down the holes. We usually roll the next day to reduce the potential for scalping than start mowing again on the 3rd day. We were able to complete the PG, 1-9, 12 and 18. We will complete the remaining greens this morning.

We had hoped to get some bermuda sprayed on fairways but weather and timing did not allow us to do this work. We will begin spraying in the next week as weather and time allows. Hopefully will get a 2nd application completed to where the effects will not be seen for Member/Guest at the end of September.

We will also begin spraying collars to reduce bermuda competition. More blogging on this work as it begins over the next few weeks.

Hopefully we will see you on the course over the next couple of weeks.

Its Been Interesting, Exhausting, and Just a Wee Bit Frightening

As Asst. Skip reminds us from time to time, don't be scared. Well, the month of June has been interesting but pardon my French, it has scared me just a wee bit with regular member play and the upcoming schedule of events taking place from mid-July and into August. Right now we are in the top five of warmest Junes' on record but it appears there is a break coming by the middle of next week. With predicted highs over the next few days we will have 18 days over 90, our average is 10.

Well, why am I loading up with weather stats? Its not a new month.

June is usually one of the best summer months for ball roll out. I think we were doing pretty well early in the month but then came this blistering weather and things have changed a bit. We needle tined a few weeks ago to open up our greens and allow them to breath a bit. Good thing we did because they sure needed it. Well, we did it again the last couple of days and we have been having to put some serious moisture to our greens in the last 5-6 days. High temperatures, wind and lack of rainfall, .14" in the last 20 days has created some serious challenges for us. Our biggest challenge has been the occurance of Localized Dry Spots(LDS) These are areas of the greens where the sand in non-wettable or hydrophobic(repels water) I won't bore you with more detail but if you want it click the link highlighted above.

We use wetting agents of various types to offset these conditions. They might not completely eliminate the issue but they assist us with getting moisture to the areas as needed. The product I was using this season was not doing the trick so I went out last Monday evening after an outing and sprayed a new combination of products on the greens. This spray required the products to be watered in heavily which we did and we have continued to do with hoses to play catch up with the moisture levels of our greens and get the number of dry spots reduced. Now we slowly have to back the water off and let the greens begin to dry again as we appear to have rounded the corner slightly.

https://youtu.be/mtmjSVjlYxc



Excellent ball roll out conditions occur usually with drier greens, lower humidty, little rain and plant growth regulation. Smaller leaves creating less friction, the heavier or moisture laiden the air slows roll, lack of rain which keeps flushes of growth from occurring and regulation which also slows growth during the day all contribute to roll out. As you noticed at the US Open on Friday, greens conditions were much different than what they were early in the week than right after the rainfall and improved considerably over the weekend with drying wind and some increase in mowing and rolling activity on the greens to increase speed. I will not sacrifice plant health early in the summer with excessive rolling or double/triple cutting. For regular play and activities, it is not good practice with the lack of infrastucture and age of our greens. As mentioned in the past, I prefer to work at this time in my life than not.

Okay,  you've taken 3-4 paragraphs, what's your point? The point is I'm sure some of you are wondering what's happened to ball roll out in the last 10 days or so. Well, ball roll out went out with the bath water as we had to adjust our practices to meet this early summer stress of heat and no rainfall challenge. Future predictions of a hotter than normal summer also come into play here. We've had to reduce our sand topdressing program for a couple of weeks which improves ball roll because of the high heat Even though we have needle tined the greens and there is not major disruption to the surfaces, it does slow ball roll out. Of course the heat has caused us to modify some of our mowing schedules and we have given the greens a couple of days off last week from mowing and once this week.

My main focus is to get through the full year without turf loss. Can that be done in some difficult circumstances, sure but it will require a gentle hand to our greens from time to time and we are going through a gentle time right now. I would expect a change in the weather next week to more average temperatures will help us improve the quality of the surfaces and ball roll out. The expectation and challenge I place on myself and staff is pretty high. I very much understand the significance of our place in history, our yearly Invitational and the Metropolitan Amateur in which only comes around every 15-20 years. I look over to the right column and see the countdown clocks ticking for a couple big events so yes I get geeked up to with these events.

We are also very much concerned about everyday play here at the club. We have dedicated members still coming out regularly in 95-100 degree heat and challenge this beast of a course with her unlevel lies at every turn. We want the conditions as good as they can be under the existing circumstances.  I appreciate your understanding as we hopefully round the corner next week and become a little more seasonable with our weather and course conditions.

One of our spring and summer touches with nature each season at our urban club is the birth and growth of our yearly Red-tailed Hawklet. She/he had one of our gray squirrels in its clutches.Did not realize it until after I stopped the video and it flew into a tree with its prey.

https://youtu.be/f_ql260kYgg

Venting, Needle tine Greens

Our last aeration was at the end of March so its time again to get some oxygen into our greens.  We use our Verti-drain 7316 with an 8 mm solid pencil tine to do this work. We are venting greens more than aeration. There is a small hole but within a couple of days you barely know anything happened but the greens, they are so appreciated of this work.

Its one of the least disruptive processes we do to our greens but very beneficial for the following reasons:

• It allows oxygen into the rooting area and carbon dioxide which can build up in the green out.
• The holes are small but can allow excess moisture which has built up over the month of May to evaporate. The opposite takes place in areas that dry quicker. Water can penetrate these areas and become more available for roots.
• A small channel is created below the surface which can allow roots to become healthier and fill these small areas.
• This improved environment helps all the good microbes in the green profile that are so important in providing nutrients for the rootsand help to fight off bad microbes such as fungus and other not so great organisms.
• Along with the needle tine, we top dressed the greens with sand which helps to smooth the surfaces and protects the crowns of the plants which is where new leaves start as well as roots. 

I'm completing this blog in the middle of a breakdown so hopefully we will be back up and running soon. All greens completed except 9-10, 13-14, 16.

https://youtu.be/aYe8q01m6dw

Green Venting

Venting is a term we use when we have very little disruption to the green turf surface but have a great effect on our green profile. Today we began venting our greens with our Verti-drain 7316 and 5/16" needle tine. 8 tines per holder with 48 total holes being placed into the surface about 5-6" deep. The greens were rolled behind the work and will be mowed on Wednesday. We still have greens 13-18 left to do.

We will needle tine a couple more times this summer and will Hydroject as well which is a machine that sends a stream of water at very high pressure into the surface. This is schedules the Monday after Invitational and the 1st week of August. Probably another needle tine around the end of the August and then our season ending aeration at the end of October.

Key benefits include

• Gas exchange, oxygen in and carbon dioxide out.
• Moisture relief and or ability for moisture to penetrate more quickly and thoroughly through the turf profile and reduce Localized Dry Spots.
• Improvement in root development. Air space encourages roots to grow toward the small openings provided.

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.

Venting/Needle tining Greens

We are venting our greens again with our Vertical-drain with  a 5/16" needle tine. This will be our last for the season.  

We plan to do a deep tine1/2"solid  tine 8-10" deep and back fill the holes with on October 14-15 after the Men's and Wonen's closing Day outings.

Skip needle tining/venting 14 green.  We will finish 15-18 by 9 am.
 

Greens Update from current heat wave

Right now our turf is holding up well under the current heat wave we are experiencing.  It is getting rather humid overnight but the dew pts and humidity are lower during the afternoon.  This allows the turf to stay a little more more firm.  ET rates which basically measure the amount water that is lost through evaporation through the soil and the plant are high right now.  These number range from .12" to nearly .16" over the last couple of weeks.  These type of loses do require us to place moisture on the greens at night with our irrigation system and we do supplement the greens during the day with additional hand watering as needed.

In late July and early August, we were able to topdress our greens and brush them on at least 3 occasions but have to since stop this because of the high temperatures.  Once the heat subsides, we will definitely continue this program.  We will also do some light grooming/verticutting to help stand up the turf but will not do this until we are confident the most severe stress has passed.  We have not been overly aggressive with our greens in an effort to allow them to get through the stressful period.  Being too aggresive during this heat could push our green systems over the edge and give us a miserable fall golfing season and no one wants to see this happen, especially me!!  We did lower our height back to our normal position but I'm confident we will not experience any issues.  The solid roller program gives our turf a little more added protection until we can begin to groom the surfaces again.  If we begin to see an issue, we can always skip a day mowing and roll a particular problem green if that occurs.  We are out inspecting greens in the morning, mid-day and end of the day monitoring conditions.  As the weather improves, so will the programs that will help improve ball roll.  Later summer, fall golf is my favorite time of the year.  Drier conditions and lower humidity have a tendency to provide for the potential to some pretty special ball roll out!

We are breaking out all of the tools to help us through this period.

We are using our polarized glasses which help to identify weakened or dry spot areas early before they actually show up to the naked eye.  Healthy green plants look fine but stressed plants show up brighter red with these glasses.  I usually have to take them off once I leave the green because it enhances every dry ring under trees and or stressed areas on the course.  For a moment you might think you are on Mars!

We are taking moisture readings using our Spectrum Soil Moisture Meter to assist us in determining the % of moisture to a 3" depth that our greens are holding.  I've not had to use the monitor much this season because of the frequent rains but the last few weeks have required the use of this tool.  One of the things I have noticed recently is that our moisture levels are averaging 6-8% lower in general than they were last year before the green shows serious stress.  Last year, a green was becoming stressed at right under 30%.  This season, I'm seeing greens averaging 23-25% and the overall green is looking great with some spots being slightly stressed from levels in the teens and below.  I know our root systems are pretty good for this time of year but I'm trying to come up with some additional answers of why the lower stress %.  I did recalibrate my meter to make sure everything was correct.  I believe some of the answers are from the new products we have placed in the rotation this season but we also cannot completely rule out mother nature.  

This is a reading from #2 green from the Field Scout Moisture Meter.  The top row on the far right is the moisture % for that spot.  13.5% The bottom row on the right is the average for the green after taking 16 readings, 22.4%.  Last season, if I would have had an average reading at 22%, I would have had a five alarm fire occurring on the green and I would have had a panic attack.

I did get one additional needle tine/venting completed to the greens this summer.  Don't necessarily believe that could be it but it is still helpful.  I have started to use a fertilization/poa reduction program on 10 greens this spring after using it on 4 last season.  Just before the Member/Guest in June I started using the program on all greens and the results have been pretty impressive. This is the product from GenNext Complete which incorporates an A&B product that provides almost a 1/4# of Nitrogen to our green system each month as well as other macro nutrients, enzymes and other proprietary products.
  
I've also started using a compost tea called Bio Nectar on a regular basis which should be improving my microbial populations providing a better soil environment for turf to grow.

I'm using a wetting agent along with a penetrent combo monthly which assists with water management.

Lastly, I'm using Turf Screen which has been identified to reduce UV ray damage to turf and has been shown to reduce wilt and overall turf stress.  I am seeing some of the turf going under stress but it seems to be happening at a slower and lesser degree than I've experienced in the past.

 I don't necessarily think there is a silver bullet in our program.  The GenNext product could be that but I want to see some reduction in poa annua this fall and next spring before I give it my complete and undying love and support!  Each product as well as the other products we utilize help to provide the current conditions we experience.  Also have to keep in mind that every greens unit is inspected for sharpness and height of cut before it goes out each day.  This is another factor in our plant health care program that we should not forget.

In the end, five years of thankfully mostly good, sometimes average and I don't like to think about it but it has happened not so good managing of these old greens does count for something as well.
 

Needle tining/venting greens, topdressing, brushing and mowing

Weather gave us a little setback today on our venting of the greens, brushing and mowing.  A lack of sun and wind this morning delayed us in dragging in the sand so we could brush and then mow the greens.  When the mowing started, we planned to needle tine/vent our greens.  Lightning and a light rain interrupted our work after lunch but a nice late afternoon/evening clearing allowed us to get a little further along with our work.  We were only able to get the PG, 1-4 needle tined.  We will begin first thing in the morning and do what we can before play requires us to move from the course.  I was able to get the PG, 1-13 brushed and mowed before dew began to fall.

Needle tining/venting greens, solid tine collars

We are needle tining/venting our greens today and are using our walk aerator to place some holes in our collars.  I've produced a couple of videos below which show our process.  A little unscripted but does give some important points on what we are attempting to do and why.

Needle Tine Venting Greens

We are needle tine venting our greens for the ladt time this season until our fall solid tine deep aeration in late October. This will help our greens exchage gases, oxygen entering and carbon dioxide exiting. It will alao allow them to accept water in drier areas which routinely show up in the low humidity air of late summer and early fall as well as allowing wetter areas to lose or evaporate excess water.
Joe Wachter
Sent from my LG phone

Needle tining/venting greens

We are needle tining/venting our greens today(Tuesday) which will assist them in a number of different ways.

• The small openings will improve water penetration.  The late summer and fall are usually low humidity times of the year so the ability to get water down into the root system are important.
• The channels being opened up also allow for oxygen exchange which will help the greens recover from their summer stress.
• Roots will begin to form in the channels which will also begin to allow for recovery and preparation for the upcoming winter season.  The best root growth of the year occurs during the spring season so anything we can do to improve the overall health going into winter is important.

Holes are spaced at 1.5" apart which provide for many openings on each green.  Most holes will be closed before the weekend arrives and will provide for little ball roll disruption.

Vertidrain aerator with needle tines venting greens.

Needle tines spaced about 1.5" apart in a double row.

Needle tining/venting greens

We made our 2nd needle tining/venting of our greens this week.  It was great timing to vent our greens during this week of cooler weather.  The last few weeks have been a little stressful for our greens with the high heat and humidity.  Here is the link to the last post regarding our needle tining and what we hope to achieve using this process.  Our next venting will be toward the end of the month after the Invitational. 

Assistant Skip got the honors of riding the tractor for about 2 days of needle tining work.

The verti-drain aerator doing its work.  A very non-disruptive practice but very beneficial for our turf.

The holes might be visible for an extra day or two during the more stressful times of the summer but we try to reduce impacts on putting quality by rolling the greens after the venting process which helps to smooth any imperfections caused by the work.

Needle tining/venting greens

Every 3-4 weeks, we do a needle tining/venting of our greens utilizing a 1/4 tine.  We are a few weeks late with our first venting of the season because of the rain events in the middle of the month.  The venting opens up the surface of the greens to exchange oxygen which is good with carbon dioxide which is bad.  There is some slight compaction relief and the practice will also allow water to penetrate into areas that have localized dry spots which are areas of greens which repel water or do not allow water to penetrate into the surface.  We began our work on Tuesday since the course was closed.  We did not mow the greens that day but we did roll them after the venting to smooth the surface and reduce the chances of grass being scalped the next day when we mowed again.  We completed our last 6 greens Wednesday morning.  The process takes about 30-40 minutes per green depending upon the size of the green.

Russ with our Kubota tractor which pulls the Verti-drain 7316 unit across the green.  You might wonder about the weight of the large tractor rolling across the greens in the summer.  The large  galaxy tires that are on the rear of the tractor cost about twice as much as a standard tractor tire but reduce the psi which can negatively effect fine turf grass such as bentgrass greens. 

There are 6 tine holders on the machine which has 8 tines per holder.  The tines are spaced at 1.5" with two rows per holder which adds greater benefit to the procedure because of the tighter spacing.

The green surface after needle tining.  You can see only the tip of my ink pen will fit into the hole.  The tine penetrates about 4-5" into the green which in most cases will go slightly into the soil push layer of the green.

I just checked out the practice green this morning with no visible sign of the process after 2 days on the surface of the green.