Wintertime musings

Well I thought with another batch of uncertain weather on the way, I would discuss what this means to the course and maybe what to expect when we start to thaw out.  If you know me, I always begin with "it depends on what mother nature has in store".

Right now some wonder if this winter has been a blessing to the course.  First off, repeated freeze thaws do not benefit anything.  Cart paths get worse, runoff erodes areas, freezing crowns of plants get trampled in the snow and ice which sets back growth.  The only real benefit is a lack of play, but in the same vein, nothing has grown to overcome the traffic when we were open.  A wash so to speak.

What happens now is the soon to come thaw will create saturated conditions that make areas very wet, prone to compaction, and if the subsoil stays a little frozen, shearing of roots that are in the frozen soil while the top 1 inch softens.  Most notably the soil is very cold, so all growth (even poa annua) will be delayed due a slow soil warm up.  Now I do expect crocus, daffodils and other bulbs to begin the steady climb out of the soil, but more likely where the suns shines most of the day.

This weather pattern has also has created uncertainty on the timing of the poa seed head control.  We employ degree day counting to time the emergence of these green speed wreckers, and the timing of the spray is very critical to reducing their impact.  Unfortunately when we get very warm for 3 straight days then cold for 2 weeks it is difficult to gauge when we time our applications to prevent seed heads.

We have several areas we are trying to plant trees but with the frozen soil trying to get them here and installed is frustrating to say the least.  We are working on a plan to provide divot bottles to the walking golfers this year so look for that notice in the next few weeks on it's implementation.  In the meantime we are working to comply with around 100 new EPA regulations and a complete change to the reporting of chemicals applied as well as documentation that concerns the safety of their use.

Lastly many wonder how do we determine the schedule for opening the course.  Well it's a mostly wait and see decision, which makes planning difficult for everyone.  Determining how fast snow melts, how deep is the frozen layer, and how quick the warm up develops cannot be forecast.  We have to be on the ground monitoring situations, so trying to say "Satuday at 10" on Thursday afternoon is really a guess.

The playability of the greens is the determining factor for opening and they do not all react the same. Shade, location (high or low) and composition (sand or clay) all play a part.  Too soft conditions can spell disaster later in the spring.   I wish I had some better prediction for the opening and closing, but as you know " it depends on what mother nature has in store".

Brrrr......6 Degrees this morning

The wall on Military Road

You may have noticed the missing stones on the wall that separates the 8th tee from Military Road.  This wall was constructed back when Arlington County widened the road in the 60-70's.  During the latest freeze thaw cycles the wall lost several large stones from this wall thus destabilizing this section, requiring us to use cones and tape to close the sidewalk.

Sometime in the past Dominion Power installed a support pole and wires for the power transmission poles across the street.  This support pole was tied to a post buried in the wall.  Over time, weather and loads have now caused the wall to fail where this support is located.  We are in contact with both the county, who does not like closed sidewalks, and Dominion Power.  We hope to have some resolution within the next few weeks on how this repair work gets completed.

Missing stones, support post in the wall can be seen to the right

Areas of missing mortar and loose stones

Shade...before the storm

Before the next day or two fills the course with snow again, I wanted to post a couple of pictures illustrating shade and turf relationships.  As most people know shade and healthy grass do not play well together.  This can be helped by limiting the shade to allow for multiple angles of light to get to the turf during the day.  Simply illustrated grass grows around individual trees but not well in the forest.   Properly spaced trees to allow the sun to move around the tree thus we have sun and shade but at different times of the day, where the forest filters most of the useable light most of the day.

Turf and trees can coexist

I bring this up as we look at how to improve certain areas of the course.  As you can see below, the main landing area of 3 is shaded.  So much that even after all the snow has melted there is still lingering snow and ice in this heavily trafficked area.  We will need to improve this sun /shade ratio if we hope to make this area more playable.  Over time trees continue to not only grow tall, but spread out and as the picture shows, we have a significant shade issue.  Back to the basics, grass does not do well in a forest and essentially that is the effect we have created in the landing area at 3.   Filling divots, limiting traffic, adding more drainage all help but it will be hard pressed to overcome the basic biology of the suns impact on turf health.

Hole 3 landing area

We love our trees, but sometimes the purpose of planting a lot of trees to make an impact when small, needs to be followed with proper cultivation as they grow.  The idea of "plant thick, thin quick" is meant to make pruning and removal a natural process,  and ensures the best health for the trees as they mature and develop.  After all we play the game on grass and that should be our first priority when deciding any course of action.

Winters tale.....cold and colder...

Whenever these hiccups of nature occur, we do have plans in place to keep us busy.   With the forecasts moving toward cold we brought all the hardware (birdhouses, benches, tee markers, signs etc) inside to stage for winter refurbishment.

  In the meantime we busied ourselves outside pruning limbs from the last storm, installing some drainage and repair of others around the clubhouse.  On the warmer days we had a chance to put the bunkers back into shape after all the washouts.  Seem strange to talk of rain after all this cold weather,  almost makes me miss rain.

The area around the Kirchner tree has been cleaned up, the stump ground and the wood moved to the bottom of the hill.  We have been using the small pile for firewood.  So any split firewood you see in the bin is from the Kirchner tree.

The next time we see ground we will begin to dismantle the wall, shape the soil leaving a smaller mound where the tree lived.  The area will be sodded and left in place, while everyone adjusts to the view.   Plans then can be developed on how best to make use of the space.

As I mentioned, with the current cold weather we begin the long process of refurbishment.  The staff painstakingly strips, sands and reinforces every piece of "stuff" that resides on the course.  The benches get completely stripped before several coats of stain are applied.  The purple martin birdhouses are meticulously disassembled, rebuilt and carefully painted.  Several staff are assigned to this process and they take great pride in the finished product.  Tee markers, water containers, divot buckets, signs all receive the same process of strip, rebuild and restore.  The continuous exposure to the elements and member use really puts a toll on these items and it's important to get as much life as we can from these functional pieces.

Even the bunker rakes are collected, inspected and a new heat dry vinyl is installed over the handles to make them good as new.  This saves the costs associated with buying new handles every year and protects your hands when the fiberglass begins to splinter....ouch.

Inside work takes over normal equipment storage areas

Tee markers stripped before stain and a new paint color is applied 

Pedro poses before one of his finished creations, very proud!  They rebuild all the wood railings and supports every year.

The last item today is an update on the bridge at 8.  We are looking at four options.  These are rebuild the bridge in place, install a pre-constructed engineered bridge, remove and replace with a smaller crossing, think the stone St. Andrews bridge on 18, and lastly remove and not replace.

There may not be enough space to outline all the pros and cons, but we are looking at all the options before advancing the costs and benefits to the appropriate committees.  Needless to say this is not as simple as replacing a few boards when it concerns the safety of members.   I will continue to update this as we gain more information.

131'  span

A Winters Day

Hard to believe a week ago we were seeing temperatures near 70 and golf was in the air!  Looks like a yo-yo winter but wanted to share some pictures from the morning after.

 Happy New Year.

Some last notes on the Kirchner tree

Well it's been over a week and the majority of the tree is now down on the ground.  We have moved most of the wood to the bottom of the hill for post processing.  In doing so I took this picture of the largest section of the trunk.

The arborist and I started counting rings to see if we could determine it's age.  We both arrived at the 120-125 year age for this white oak.  More interesting is the cyclical growing nature of large trees when you see inside.  This particular specimen shows a robust growth for the first 45-50 years.  Then a dramatic 10 year slow down.  This can be due to climate, pests and disease, or sometimes surrounding shade from other trees.  After that period it again grew rapidly for another 25 years which it then again slowed for about 8 years.

The last years of it's existence the growth was robust and fairly impressive for a tree that size.  As I noted in an earlier post, we had commented on how good the tree looked at then end of this year, full growth with no tip die back.

Anyway, for you who have not seen the area, here are a few pictures of what it now looks like on 13.  In the coming weeks we will begin to dismantle the wall and after the stump is ground begin to reshape the area to prepare for some sod while we determine whats next for both the tree and the surrounding area.  A sad way to end 2013 indeed.

From 125 yards out

From 70 yards out

Kirchner Tree Update

As many members may have seen, the Kirchner Tree is now partially down and moved.  This process was slow and deliberate as we needed the skill of our arborists to climb and detach many limbs that presented issues before the bulk of the work could continue.  The rest of the tree will be brought down in the next few weeks.

Many have asked what's to become of this tree and the wood.  The short answer is we don't know.  Some has been cut into firewood.  Other sections are now at the bottom of the hill to see if we can get a portable saw mill in and at least cut it into some form of lumber.   Next that wood would have to be dried and stored to get the moisture content to a point it is workable

We are not woodworkers, but after contacting several tradesmen, the wood of white oaks is good for outdoor use.  Unfortunately most wood workers are not overly fond of this wood as it is very hard on tools and tends to shrink and expand at different rates making it a hard process for machining.  Right now our goal is to remove the tree.  Store pieces large enough to make it feasible for a portable mill to come to the site and reduce the logs to useable pieces.

Once this process is complete then we will leave it to the membership to determine if there are items that would be desirable to be made from this lumber.  We do not know the costs involved in making all the items I have heard mentioned (pens, putters, tables, benches, etc) , we only control the costs of getting the tree on the ground and out of harms way.  Stay tuned for the next step when we attempt to have the tree milled.

As for what will next occupy that spot, nothing can replace that majestic tree, most likely we will let a season pass and see what direction we should take.