Time to verticut and sand the approaches!

Every other Monday we verticut and lightly sand our greens to prevent excessive thatch build up and keep the putting surface smooth and firm. Today we are doing the same process on the green approaches. The approach is the area just short of the green and it's mowed at the same height of cut as the tees. The approaches need to be firm so when a shot is hit short of a green the ball will bounce up on to the green.

These are the verticut units mounted to a triplex greens mower. There are vertical blades that are set about 1/4" below the surface of the turf that dig up excessive grass and thatch. It's kind of like thinning out a big bushy head of hair.
This is what the turf looks like after the verticutter has gone over the surface. We mow up as much as we can, then blow off the excess.

Once the area is blown off, the sand is applied and then drug in with our new brush, the Sweep -N-Fill III. Today it's pouring rain and the surface is wet so we have to blow off some sand and grass left behind. With dry conditions, the brush works like a champ and we're done.

We are making an extra effort this year to stay on top of verticutting and sanding the approaches. The firmer we keep the approaches, the better chance you'll have of landing short of the green and bouncing your shot up close to that front hole location.  

Move the path or remove the tree?

Cart paths and adjacent trees are like oil and water, they don't mix. When Glendale was built there were no trees on the course. The cart path routing was laid out and trees were planted. Maybe trees were planted to hide the paths, who knows? Fast forward fifty years and we have a lot of tree issues that need to be resolved.

This tree on the 5th hole is typical of so many trees on our course, it's located right next to a cart path. The path is damaged from the tree roots and needs to be repaired. The only real fix is to dig up the path and remove the tree roots. This is an expensive process and we have paths all over the course in this condition. Golf carts and the people in them take a beating driving over these areas. Cutting off those large roots will buy us a couple years before the tree puts out more roots and the path is back in the same condition. The permanent solution is to remove the problem causing the path condition-cut down the tree! Does that tree really need to be there? That is the real question that needs to be determined.

This photo shows the path heading through the trees an the third hole where almost 300' of path needs to be replaced. In the past we were able to add another 2" overlay to smooth out the rough areas caused by the tree roots. As the trees continue to grow the roots get bigger and the overlay process is not an option any more. This path will need to be dug up and the asphalt hauled off to a recycle facility, the tree roots removed, a new layer of gravel added, and 4 " of new asphalt installed. This is big money and a lot of time and disruption to do the work. The solution is to remove those trees causing the problem.

This Spruce tree is located on the right side of the 7th hole. The roots have made the path unusable and most cart traffic drives around it on the left side. Removing those extra large roots will probably kill the tree so it makes sense to remove the tree at the time the path is repaired.

This tree is located next to the path between #16 and #17 fairways. There have been several overlays made to the paths in this area in the last ten years. The path is so high that no more overlays are possible. The asphalt will need to be dug up and hauled away. Do we spend the money to repair it and leave the tree only to do this again down the road? This question will need to be answered before any repairs are made to this and many areas like it on the course.

The condition and location of the tree will also have to be looked at as well. This almost dead Pine on the 16th hole should be removed whether the path was damaged or not. The cart paths on the golf course are in bad shape and some big decisions need to be made regarding the trees casing the problems. I'm not recommending we cut down all of the problem trees, but in certain areas tree removals will make sense.
Steve Kealy
GCC Golf Course Superintendent

Summer is almost here!

The drier than usual weather we have had in May and so far in June has provided us with some great conditions on the golf course.

Fairways are dry and we are getting some roll on our drives that we haven't seen since late last summer. We are in our summer mowing schedule (as long as it doesn't rain too much) and it consists of the following:

 Greens are mowed seven days per week, and the height of cut is  set at .100; Tees and Approaches are mowed Tuesday and Friday (once all of our summer crew is here we will mow them M, W, and F), height of cut set at .325; Fairways are mowed Monday thru Friday, height of cut set at .400; and rough is mowed everyday, height of cut is set at 2 inches. It takes two days to mow all the rough, so it gets cut twice per week. We roll the greens on Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday. Holes are changed and bunkers raked everyday.

I took the photo below of #17 green at 6:36 am the other day. Look at all the sunlight on the green, last summer at this time it took until 10:00am to get that amount of light on the green. The tree removals we did earlier this spring will really pay off in better turf conditions in coming months.

If you want to know current weather conditions before you head over to the club, check out this blog, the current weather conditions are updated every 3 seconds! 

Kelsey Creek construction work at Glendale CC, Summer 2013

The City of Bellevue is going to have work done in Kelsey Creek this summer through Glendale. They have been in the planning and permit process for the past four years and are ready to go starting June 14th. The work will consist of removing all of the concrete weirs in the stream and lowering them so juvenile fish can pass upstream over the top.

The weirs were installed in the early 90's, and over time, the distance from the water level above to below the weir has grown. They are too high and have been for about the past five years. The work will be done by an approved contractor (Jansen Inc.) over the next five months. Work will start on June 14th, and be completed on October 18th. This project is paid for by the City of Bellevue Storm and Surface Water Utility. There is no cost to Glendale CC, we just have to work with the contractor to minimize impact to the golf course and our golf events. There will be some days when work is being done in front of #8, #11, and #16 tee boxes, where the hole will have to play shorter and golfers will have to tee off the other side of the creek. No work will occur on Thursday and Friday of the Men's Member Guest event in July, nor during the Ladies Member-Member event in August. Any damage to the golf course (mainly truck traffic along the left side of the creek on #8) will be repaired and re-grassed by the contractor. I will meet weekly with the contractor so they understand our upcoming golf events, and daily to make sure the golfers and workers don't get in each others way. The pro shop will be aware of the work schedule and will communicate any changes to the course each day. The main benefits to Glendale include:
1. Herbicide treatment and removal of all the Knotweed and Canary grass in the work areas.
2. Repair of the stream bank along holes #9 and #16 where there is a lot of erosion, and we would have to pay for the permits and repairs within the next several years.
3. Maintain our good relationship with the City of Bellevue.
Please make sure to check my blog frequently as I'll post information and photos of the job as it progresses. www.glendaleccturf.blogspot.com
Steve Kealy
Golf Course Superintendent

Japanese Knotweed; the curse of Glendale CC!

Japanese knotweed is a large herbaceous perennial plant, that is native to eastern Asia in Japan, China, and Korea. It was brought to the United States as an ornamental about 75 years ago, and has spread like wildfire all across the USA.  In North America and Europe knotweed is very successful and has been classified as one of the top 100 invasive species in the world. Japanese knotweed has hollow stems with distinct raised nodes that give it the appearance of bamboo, though it is not closely related. The invasive root system and strong growth can damage concrete foundations, buildings, roads, and asphalt paving. Knotweed will tolerate a  wide range of soil types, pH and salinity. Its roots can survive temperatures of -30F, and can extend over 20 feet horizontally and 10 feet deep, making removal by excavation very difficult. Herbicides are the only real control method, and treatment along streams is difficult. Once the plant is established in an area, eradication is almost impossible. It will grow back from the roots, seeds in the soil, and from small pieces of plants left behind during the removal process. I've made multiple applications of Roundup herbicide to the knotweed growing next to the walk bridge, along the creek on the 7th hole. The herbicide will knock it down for a while, but it keeps coming back as if no application was ever made. The only way to get rid of it is to spray it with Roundup, remove the dead plants, excavate as many roots as possible, and plant something else in it's place. During the next several years while the new plants are getting established, you have to go back and remove the knotweed sprouts by hand. Once the new plants are established, the knotweed will not grow back since it does not like shade. The photo below is of an area along the stream on #16, where the knotweed was removed and other plants were planted four years ago.

Look closely, and you can see on the left where the knotweed stops and the native plants start. We planted Red and Yellow Twig Dogwood, Red Flowering Currant, and Salmonberry. These plants thrive close to the stream and are aggressive growers, and within three years are big enough to displace the knotweed.

This is a shot of the 8th tee from the fairway side of the creek. We can continually knock down the blackberry and knotweed, but this is the best it will ever look until we plant some natives to replace what's there now.

This is the view of the stream at 8th tee taken from the bridge. The knotweed is knocked down on the tee side, but the fairway side is growing like crazy. (Special thanks to Joel on our crew who maintains this area. He spends a lot of time keeping the weeds knocked down, and hauling away the remains. It's also very difficult to work on that slope without falling in the water!)

This is at the walk bridge to the 8th tee, on the #7 side. The native plants on the left are keeping the knotweed out, but where they stop, the knotweed thrives. We can remove and replace the knotweed with native plants, but it will be a long and costly process. I think it's a project worth doing, even if we chip away at it, one section at a time.

Bunker lips continue to grow over time.

There are several bunkers on the course that get played from a lot more than the rest. #1 green, both sides; #2 green right; #4 green left; #11 green right; #14 green right, #15 green right, and #16 green right side. With the added shots played, more sand gets blasted out and onto the area between the bunker and the green. Over time the bunker face gets higher, and needs to be cut down. It gets harder to keep sand on the high faces of these bunkers without adding more and more sand. When there is too much sand on the face, shots plug and balls are lost. This equals angry golfers! This condition had developed on the right green side bunker on #15, so it was time to cut down the high lip. Below is a photo of that bunker on #15 as we started the job.

The next photo shows Josh marking the amount of sand to be removed since we last did this about five years ago.

We scraped off excess sand and hauled it away, then put new sod down in it's place.

Once the sod was in place, we roped it off, and painted a white line denoting "Ground Under Repair." In a couple weeks the sod will be rooted and we can remove the ropes. We really need golfers to continue to exit the bunker out the back side once the ropes are removed. There is only a couple inches of sand on the bunker face so balls won't plug. If we have golfers exiting up and out the front of this bunker, it will get contaminated with black dirt and rocks. The only way to remedy this is to add more sand which we just removed. So please help us in keeping our bunkers rock free by exiting out the low side where there is more sand. Thanks!

Stocking the pond with Rainbow Trout

On Thursday May 2nd, we stocked our irrigation pond with 535 Rainbow Trout. 500 are in the 8-9" size range, and 35 in the 10-11" size. We had last stocked the pond about ten years ago, and used it during different events at the club. We had a fishing derby for kids on Fathers Day and several other holiday weekends. Everyone involved had a great time, so we decided to do it again. One other interesting result are the amount of "birds of prey" that are on the lookout for an easy meal. Blue Heron, Osprey (Seahawk), and Bald Eagles will be seen regularly as they discover fish are back in the pond. Below are some photos from the delivery of the fish.

We started feeding the fish a high protein dog food yesterday, and they should be trained in a couple weeks to hit the food like a school of hungry Piranha.