Drain line replacement

When Glendale was built 54 years ago, the contractor installed drain lines all over the course. In greens and tees, across fairways, all connecting into 6", 8", 10", or 12"lines running from the high side of the course and discharging into one the creeks. Usually they supply a set of as-built plans so the owner knows the location of all the lines for future use. We were supplied a set of "proposed" drain line locations, but some are in different locations, or not there at all. This creates a big challenge for us every time we need to do some digging on the golf course. When the original 1959 irrigation system was replaced in 1992, the irrigation contractor cut across lines all over the course. They repaired the drain lines that were visible to them during the trenching process. The lateral irrigation lines were pulled in place with a vertical plow and since we did not know the location of the drain lines, the plow ripped through drain lines everywhere. Some of these areas showed up the next year, some are just showing up today, 22 years later (I'd say we have repaired 150 drain lines since the new irrigation system was installed.) In all of the areas that we have done drainage work over the past 25 years, we have taken photos and made some drawings so we know where they are located. There are still many lines out there that we have no idea where they go or what gets tied into them. Several months ago a 3 foot deep sinkhole appeared  about 20 yards to the left of #4 green. It is in the rough and out of play so not many golfers even knew it was there. Since the course is frozen and closed today, we decided this was the right time to take out our new excavator and start digging.

 The photo above shows our Cat 304C excavator which we purchased this past summer. It is used but in very nice condition with just a little over 1100 hours on the meter. Once we started digging we found an old 6" concrete drain line that was broken. We continued digging along the pipe and found several repairs done years ago, more sections of pipe that were broken, and others areas of pipe full of tree roots. There were several large pine trees that were removed at this site four years ago, and two of the trees were planted directly on top of the drain line. This 6" line comes from up by #2 green, and ties into a 12" line near # 4 approach that empties into the creek by # 8 tee. We continued digging and when it was all done, we removed 105'of broken or clogged pipe.

 If you look closely at the photo above, you can see this area is full of old tree roots.

The new line is 3 1/2 feet deep. 6" ADS black drain pipe will be installed, covered with four inches of pea gravel, and the rest buried in sand to the surface. The ditch is flowing a steady stream of water, so this area should dry up and be in good shape for another 50+ years.
Steve Kealy
Golf Course Superintendent

Tree debris and clean up from 10/25/14 wind storm

The wind storm that passed through on Saturday night 10/25 left quite a mess on the golf course. Tree limbs and debris was scattered all over the course and our crew was only able to clear off greens and tees for play the next morning.

This photo shows #14 fairway as seen from the gold tee. Anytime we get a big storm with winds in the 30 - 50 mph range, it takes us about seven to ten working days to pick up all the tree debris. We blow everything off the fairways then hand rake it into piles and haul it away.

The left side of number one fairway being blown off into the rough.

Number 15 green shown above the next morning before it was blown off. The other thing that usually happens is all of the bunkers get washed out. Since we have a small weekend crew at this time of year, none of the bunkers were touched before play Sunday morning. The crew got them back into playing condition by Tuesday morning. The month of October was unusually wet and the rainfall total for the month was 6.65 inches, while the average is only 3.48 inches. We are doing our best to keep the course as playable as possible but we only mow when the weather allows us to do so.
Steve Kealy
Golf Course Sup't

Golf Course Etiquette 101: Divots, Ball-Marks, and Footprints.

The number one complaint I hear from golfers on the course at Glendale is actually three that come in a tie for first place.
1. Why are there so many divots on the course?
2. Why are there so many ball-marks on the greens?
3. Why are there so many footprints in the bunkers?

I have no good answer as the questions are the same today as they were twenty years ago. Golf is the only sport I can think of where there is no referee or official to supervise daily play. The game relies on the integrity of the individual player to follow the rules and show consideration for other players on the course. The photo below was taken yesterday (Monday morning after a busy weekend of golf at Glendale).

These are the divots that were picked up off the fairways before we mowed them. There are at least several hundred in the cart and almost every one of these divots could/should have been replaced. Some were filled with sand/seed divot mix, but many were not. It took three of our staff (myself and our two assistant supt's) 75 minutes each to pick up all these divots. That's 3.75 hours of labor to pick up the divots so we don't beat up our fairway mowers and leave a huge mess of chewed up divots after mowing. The amount of ball-marks on greens was similar to the amount of divots above. 10-20 on every green that needed to be repaired prior to mowing. Some of the bunkers looked like a well played in kids sandbox. Our staff is here to take care of all this each morning, but it's the golfers who played late on Sunday afternoon who had to deal with the poor course conditions. Golfers need to take ownership of their own fairway divots, ball-marks on greens, and footprints in bunkers.
It all comes down to having respect the game, the course that it's played on, and other players on the course.
Steve Kealy
Golf Course Superintendent

Temporary creek repair along #8 tee

The City of Bellevue hired a consultant to repair an area of the stream along #8 tee where a large section of the bank washed away.

All of the work shown above was done by hand as permits will be required for any permanent repairs. A log was laid along the toe of the slope, then 5 additional logs were laid across on an angle to the stream spaced about five feet apart. Holes were drilled through the top and bottom logs and six foot long pieces of re-bar were pounded through and into the bank. 

One long log was placed on top of the diagonal logs and anchored in place. Several large rocks were moved along the row to help keep them in position. 

The area between the bank and the logs was back filled with a series of coir logs (8 foot logs made out of a burlap type material) and tied down with rope. Then the entire area was filled with rocks from the stream bed. Several sections of a black screen material were placed along the stream bed to help catch small debris and prevent water from cutting underneath the structure. The consultant has a lot of experience working in urban streams and assured me that the design will work. If this design fails, the City will have to engineer a permanent solution and get permits for the project.

Keeping the course green and dry

During long stretches of dry warm weather as we've had this spring and summer, it's very challenging to keep the course dry and green. It's easy to keep the course green, but a lot of areas would be sloppy wet and the course won't play like it should. Differing soil types adjacent to each other, tree roots, sprinkler head spacing, shade, southern facing slopes, areas of the course without adequate sprinkler head coverage, sand capped  fairways bordering rough with no sand cap, and bunker edges are just some of the factors affecting how much water an area needs to stay green.

This wet spot is just off the left side of #6 fairway. The fairway is green and firm. The only way to get this area to dry out is to turn back the times on the three sprinklers that cover the area. But those three sprinklers also water part of the fairway. The wet spot will dry out and still be green but the fairway will get cooked. We could turn down the run times for the sprinklers but then the fairway would have to get hand watered every morning to keep it green. We adjust the run times on areas like this all over the golf curse every day in an attempt to keep everything as dry and green as possible. Two of the new tools we use to help us achieve dry and green conditions are hand held and in ground moisture meters. We have moisture meters installed in the root zone of three of our greens which show the moisture content of that green in real time. They are tied into our new irrigation control system and the numbers help us decide how much water to apply each night. We also use hand held moisture meters like the one pictured below.

These units are used on greens each day in the morning to determine how much more water is needed to be applied with a hand hose to get a desired moisture content level of 25 to 30%. Ten or twelve areas of each green are checked because of varying conditions on each green. Sometimes only one or two spots on a green need extra water from a hose. We have been able to keep the greens much more consistent from one to the next with use of these meters. We are also to keep them drier overall because we know exactly what each green is at each day.

We have two guys on our crew that do all of the daily watering, Tim Zadina (shown above) and Frank Walker. Tim does the back nine and Frank has the front nine. These guys know each green like the back of their hand and with the use of the moisture meters are able to check the problem areas on each green. Tim is shown above checking the 18th green. It takes him about three minutes to check all the spots on the green to determine which (if any) of those areas need additional water. We set the irrigation run times at night to be just on the low side so we don't over water, then check all the greens in the morning. It takes a lot of man hours but it's what is needed to keep the course as green and dry as possible. 

Trying to get the bunkers just right

The golf course has been in good condition so far the past several months, but the pro shop still receives a lot of complaints about the bunkers. The sand is too hard, too soft, it's not consistent, and the ball plugs in the face every time are some of the most common remarks about the bunkers at Glendale. The maintenance crew has been working to try and get them just right for the past two months. We stopped raking the faces and sides of the sand to try and get it to firm up so balls won't plug there. After two months of raking with the back side of the rakes and just smearing the faces or not touching them at all, the sand has packed down and is firmer. Balls are not plugging in the faces. A shot hit into the face usually hits and rolls down into the bottom of the bunker. Problem #1 solved. In an attempt to get the bottoms of the bunkers to get firmer, we used leaf rakes and the sand got firm. Too firm for most players. So we are alternating rakes each week, one with teeth and the next week no teeth. I think we are getting very close to finding the best means of maintaining our bunkers. We still have root problems in all of the fairway bunkers but that will have to be dealt with this winter. Below is a photo of the right side green-side bunker at # 9 green.

Look closely and you can see the edges and bunker face are not raked. The bunker floor is lightly raked and the sand is firm. We will continue this program until the rainy weather returns in the fall and we have to change our maintenance to get conditions..............................just right.
Steve Kealy
Golf Course Superintendent

Course update; flagpole and bunkers.

The greens crew and I have been very busy since my last post four weeks ago. The drier than normal weather has turned our attention to mowing and maintaining the course for daily play. I have never seen the golf course this dry on June 11th, it looks more like July 25th.

The flag is back up and flying high at Glendale CC. The rope broke and we had to rent a lift to get to the top of the pole. I thought I could climb up  a 24' extension ladder and get the job done but the ladder was ten feet short of the top. The photo below show Kyle our assistant superintendent operating the lift, and the second photo is a view from 35' up on the lift.

The other thing I wanted to bring to your attention is an issue with our bunkers. Last summer I toured the course with some members of our board and green committee. There had been many complaints from our members about balls plugging in the face of some of our bunkers. So the decision was made to pull some of the sand off the steep faces to help prevent balls from plugging. We don't get any plugged lies during the rainy months because the sand gets packed down and is hard. As the weather gets warm and dry, the sand gets soft and balls start plugging again. Lately we have a bunch of complaints about hitting the sod liner, or what our members are calling "black dirt." If a shot is hit from one of the areas where sand has been removed to help prevent plugging, you will hit "black dirt." I went out this morning and moved a lot of sand to some thin areas in the left bunker at #1 green, and the right front bunker at #15 green. Below is a photo of the left bunker at #1 green.

The green side of the bunker has a face that is very prone to balls getting plugged. The slope extends back into the bunker about 8-10 feet at the mid point. It's hard not to plug the ball in that area. It's a function of the design. Check out the photo below of a new bunker at Tacoma Country and Golf Club. The sod extends further down the slope into the bunker. No steep face for the ball to get plugged. This may be the design we need as we are exploring the costs of a bunker remodel project in the green committee.


One more thing I would like to remind our members. When entering and exiting a bunker, please do it from the low side. It's easy to walk in and out and won't cause damage to the bunker edges. The photo below was taken this morning showing a foot size chunk taken out of the top of the left bunker on #1 green.