Update on 11 Hillside

As the golf season opens and your getting your first looks of the course, many of you have seen the work being performed on the hill above 11 green.  I have described earlier in this blog our efforts to improve this little slice of the course and have great hopes that we can make this a pleasing backdrop to the 11th hole.

It had fallen to the ever increasing reach of invasive weeds and vines, that are prone in areas of direct sun.  The trees and shrubs had taken a toll from the storms and snows that broke many of the plantings including the azaleas.  We rescued as many as we could that were in good condition and moved them to the area around the ninth green to showcase that area.

In order to fit all the work into our schedule we had to begin the clearing stages of the hill, to ensure there were no obstacles that required larger equipment (stumps, rock etc) and then schedule the time to begin the building of a rock wall and shaping of the slope.  The next phase will include those operations followed by the planting of several trees and some shrubs.  The entire area will be mulched and given a finished look until fall, when the rest of the planting will occur.

As I stated last time, due to the invasive nature of the weeds, we keep these areas clear for a period of time to give us room to spray the necessary chemicals to "clean up" the beds before we start serious plantings.  The last thing we want is to have to tear out the plants due to being immediately invaded.  Many of these weeds are very aggressive and required multiple applications of herbicides to eradicate.  Similar practices have proved effective in our efforts at the right of 3, where we are now starting to plant new redbuds and dogwoods, and left of 8 where we will agin start to plant flowering trees later this fall.

This landscape area is quite large, and there is much work yet to be performed on the rest of property.  At this time of year with all the emphasis on grooming and preparing a golf course for the playing season, if we get behind in trying to hand weed an area, then we have lost it for the year.  This is why we try to make sure these new cleared areas are easy to treat and allow us to keep a better eye on them before they become problems.  With all the work that is involved with the course, bringing a new irrigation system on line and the weather that spring brings we have not forgotten this hillside is in the eye of the members.

I can assure you we do plan to clean this up and have it looking good for the season and we hope it becomes a backdrop that makes you pause for a second before you start your backswing to the back pin location on 11 green.

It's not dead, it's Bermuda grass!

The mens tee at the 9th hole and the back two tees at the 14th tee are now Bermuda grass.  We used a new variety called Latitude 36 for its finer leaf texture and early and late color.  These teeing areas were a combination of cool season grasses, which always were beaten up by the time mid summer arrives.  The problem is a lot of play coupled with some of the smallest tees on the course.  Par 3 tees in general are always the toughest to keep in good playing condition.  Trying to accelerate the growth of cool season grasses in the heat of summer leads to many issues; diseases, overseeding, and heavy watering all in the hopes to survive

Bermuda grass is very aggresive in the heat of summer and is less prone to disease and insects.  We can continue to push these tees with fertilizer no matter the temperature, which we hope allows us to provide a better teeing surface all summer long.  The grass goes dormant after the first frosts of winter, thus the tan color.

In my opinion, we needed to try another approach since we always struggled with the surface that was there and then spent most of the fall trying to regrow the tees before winter sets.  If this fails we can always revert back to cool season grasses at the end of summer like we usually do, but I think this is a better approach to solving a problem that has no easy answers.

It's starting to rain!

Well the irrigation system is finally taking shape.  The system is fully installed, pump houses up and running and fine tuning starting to take place.  In the coming weeks you will see heads that weep, sprinklers popping up from time to time and many of our staff on our hands and knees adjusting and documenting the settings we have made.  This part of the process is very time consuming, but necessary to begin to take advantage of all the benefits of our new system.

Because we did not have access to water during the installation we have a lot of flushing of old debris that has been sitting in pipes for the past 6 months.  This all takes time to work itself out and develop a good seal on all the sprinklers.  If you see anything odd please find myself or notify anyone on my staff and we will look at it immediately.

This photo demonstrates some of our capability and the excitment we have when we see 10 sprinklers running at the same time and they are all only watering the rough!  We can't wait to tweak this system to match the golf course.  In the meantime please excuse us while we try to learn the system and I apologize if we surprise you with a random sprinkler turning on near you.

Sometimes a good day of rain helps in many ways.  This year is at least starting with some weather that might help in the long term, to slow down the drought conditions we have experienced the last several years.  Of course this does not change what happens week to week as we prepare the golf course, but knowing that we are not starting out dry keep our hopes that temperatures will be mild early and the course will respond well once we finish the irrigation project.

I took this chance with the rain to attend the annual USGA seminar at Woodholme Country Club.  This annual meeting is not only a great way to catch up with local superintendents and share some time, but to learn from those who have seen conditions from US Opens to local courses.

It's amazing with all the technology available, that there still is not enough time to pull all the resources together to be fully informed, but days like today and the National Conference every year, just emphasize how complex the maintenance of a golf course has become, and how important it is to stay involved and most importantly open minded.

A few thoughts to share from today:

Bradley Klein, who chairs the Top 100 rankings, discussed the importance to renew your sense of place at your course.  What are the roots of your course, the history and design and how best to showcase that and bring out the greatness of what was once an architects dream.  Some great examples from not only the best courses of the world, but those here and there that have lost there way and now returned to their roots.  Very interesting and I know it will shape the way I continue to look and view our course from all angles.

Matt Shaffer,  Superintendent from Merion on how he is preparing for the US Open and his thoughts on how golf should be played.  He has been very experimental in his approach to conditioning, many practices that have failed, but many lessons learned in the process.  I'm not sure many here would be fans of his approach to rough and bunkers, but thats why all the courses are different.  If you get the chance, a trip to this years Open is worth the time.

David Staebler,  USGA rules education director on why the rules are so complicated.  I wanted to share a link to the USGA web site concerning rules.  This is one of most confusing areas for so many, mostly because we all know a little, which in many cases is very dangerous.  The USGA has done a video series discussing common rules and their impact.  A great series to see before you start your season.

USGA: Rules

It's a great time to the year, new ideas, fresh starts and a sense of getting underway.  I once again appreciate the chance to work on our beautiful course and I look forward to any and all feedback on how we can improve.  This great game is played on a field that has only one absolute, the hole is 4.25 inches wide, other than that it is what tests us every time we step onto the first tee.  Go Golf!

One Step Closer

We are getting there one step at a time.  Today was the beginning of the installation of the new pump system into the new pump house.  A crane lifted the pump from one of our trucks on Military Road and placed it inside the shell, which now can be roofed and we are almost there!

Lets hope the snow holds off a little bit and we will be ready for some not so cold water to fire the system up.

A little fine tuning and we should be able to start the long process of punch list items to repair.  We are still looking at being complete before opening day.  Plenty of work will need to be done, touching up low spots and getting yardage plates on all the heads, which by the way will have 3 yardages now.

In all nearly 650 yardages will be around the course, so be patient, it takes time to sort those out to make sure we  get them on the correct location.  An example is shown below.

Watch your step!

Many times over the winter the attraction of golf balls in the creeks is a force that some can't resist.  As the foliage dies back and we on the staff clear the banks the temptation to chase old Titelists is too strong to ignore.  We want to warn the members of the perils that surround these areas,  they are very steep and have some gullies that look safe but are very deep.   Covered in vines to invite you to make the  perilous first step.  This picture shows the kind of dangers involved and the cautious tale to make sure you play in groups.  This could have ended in disaster, but with the help of fellow playing partners, thankfully no one was injured.  Winter golf can be enjoyable, please make it a safe round as well.

WGCC the beautiful

This picture was recently taken by one our long term staff members, Ronald Alvarez.  Not only does it highlight the beauty found around our course, but to me demonstrates how much our staff appreciate and enjoy the natural grandeur of our club.  This photo really exemplifies what we love about this property and the amazing beauty we get a chance to experience in the early hours of the day.

I'll let you guess where it was taken!

The irrigation project continues a slow march towards completion.  We still have around 24 working days left, but February typically has only around 10-13 good working days.  Holes 16-18 have yet to be completed along with some sporadic areas to finish, mostly outer rough we left for poor weather days.

We will start the ordering of sprinkler head yardages in the next few weeks.  The process of installing these is quite slow so expect that they all get installed before opening day.