July Courses Update

Summer is always a busy season for golf course maintenance and this year is no different.  Between cultural maintenance projects, improvement projects and basic maintenance the staff has a really long list of things to do every day with little time for rest.  Below are a just a few things we've been working on as of late.

Hand Watering Alert!

The full heat of summer is upon us and with that comes daily hand watering of the Bentgrass greens on the Irving Park course.  Bentgrass is a cool season grass that requires a lot of extra TLC throughout the summer months.  The later we get into the summer season the closer attention these delicate putting surfaces require.  On average we use the overhead irrigation system on the greens every 4 or 5 days to allow the greens to dry out in-between cycles.  This process helps to reduce disease pressure associated with hot, wet conditions.  On the days between these watering cycles we hand water certain areas of the green that dry out quicker than others on an almost daily basis in the morning.  The afternoon watering sessions are used to lightly water the surfaces to cool down the plant by aiding the plant's natural respiration defense mechanism.  On most days we are able to do these afternoon cooling cycles in and around play with little disruption to the golfers.  But, there are always those days when the volume of play and the wilt factor are both high and the staff has little choice but to disrupt play with their cool downs.  Golfers are known to be an impatient group of people and conflict can result.  If you find yourself on the course on one of these days please respect the safety of the staff by waiting until they are finish with their cooling down process.  The staff are trained to stay out of the golfers way but sometimes that simply is not possible.  In the end, they are just working hard in an effort to keep the greens alive and healthy and waiting will have little effect on when you finish your round, because if it is busy enough for our staff to interrupt you then most likely you will catch back up to the group in front of you on the very next hole. 

Syringing Bent

14 Spillway Pipe Repair

The spillway pipe repair project is a little over half way through and the high risks part of the project has been completed.  The old pipe has been slip lined with a new pipe.  Grout has been pump in between the old and new pipe to ensure there is no seepage that could result in erosion issues undeath the dam structure.  The new concrete riser structures are currently in the process of being installed and the last part of the project will be the earthwork to repair the damage done to the dam itself from the project and the earlier erosion related to the faulty pipe.  Weather permitting, we hope to conclude this project by July 28 when we will begin pumping water from our wells and hope for natural rainfall to begin to slowly refill the pond.  We do not expect the pond will be completely refilled until sometime late fall-early winter, unless we run into a really wet period.

Excavating down to original pipe

    

Installing Riser

Tee Box Renovation on IP #1

With the large Oak tree no longer shading this area we felt it was a good time to renovate the existing tee and take advantage of the missing tree to add some additional tee space.  The old tee was poorly constructed with a very uneven and shallow layer of mix, so 60 yards of new mix were brought in to increase the depth of the growing media and to help shape out the new teeing area.  The tee was sodded with Zeon Zoysia and should be ready for play next weekend (7/18).

New Soil Brought in for New Teeing Area

New Mix Added to Entire Teeing Area

#1 Sodded

Cultural Maintenance

The Farm course was aerified in late June this year and the recovery period has been going very well despite the drought as of late.  Tees, fairways, greens and closely mown green surrounds were all on the hit list in what is most likely the most grueling week of the year for the staff.  New drainage was recently added to #2 fairway with additional drainage planned for holes 16 and 18.

The Irving Park course fairways were recently vertically mown in an effort to remove some of the surface thatch and the grain that comes with closely mown Bermuda.  We also used this time to solid tine or vent the Bentgrass greens, which are doing well for this time of the year, but the toughest growing season comes over the next 6-8 weeks, so stayed tuned as we continue to work hard to keep them alive and healthy and rolling consistently.

Busting Plugs - By Far the Worst Job Ever

Aerifying Farm Fairways

Verticutting IP Fairways

New French drainage #2 Farm

Farm Hole #11 Dogleg

Brooks and the staff recently completed a nice improvement project on the eleventh hole of the Farm.  The left corner at the dogleg had been in very rough condition for some time now.  Trees, poor soil, erosion and a lack of irrigation all made this area nearly impossible to grow healthy turf.  Last fall several trees were removed from this area to allow for increased sunlight, which was the first important step in renovating this area.  The next steps included adding addition irrigation, storm swales to redirect water and a lot of new topsoil were all added to the area.  The final touch was installing a large amount of Zoysiagrass to the area.  This was one of the last out of the way, but in-play areas, on the course that has been on our list for several years but has now been checked off.

#11 New Soil & Irrigation

#11 Sodded

Hole #14 Farm Pond Drain Pipe Repairs Starting Soon

Lowering the Pond Level on Farm Hole #14 for Repairs

The drain pipe for the pond on hole #14 on the Farm course is in a deteriorated state and has been leaking for a while due to several large holes.  This is the original drain pipe and is in excess of 60 years old with most studies showing the useful life of galvanized steel culvert pipe anywhere from 10-70 years depending on environmental factors.  We were prepared to make these repairs earlier this year but the Covid 19 Pandemic forced us to put this project on hold until the Club had a better understanding of the financial impact of the Pandemic.  We recently received approval to once again move forward with this project and we are only waiting on the contractor to finish his current job in order to get started with our project.

SCOPE OF PROJECT

1) Drain the pond

2) Sleeve (slip line) the existing 330 feet of 12-inch corrugated galvanized pipe

3) Install a New Riser Overflow/Inlet Structure

4) Repair erosion on Dam bank

5) Repair outfall area erosion

Repairs made throughout this project have all been engineered and all necessary permits have been approved by the NC Department of Environmental Quality.  We are expecting this project, from start to finish, to take approximately 6-8 weeks.

The biggest concern for the community will be the potential for fish kill when the pond is lowered below the current outfall drain pipe.  There is a chance that there may be a pocket big enough below this elevation to sustain fish life but until the pond is drained we will not know what to expect.

Erosion around Riser

Camera View of Interior Pipe Deterioration

Example of Slip Lining (not GCC)

RECENT TREE REMOVALS AT GREENSBORO COUNTRY CLUB

As many members are aware, the club embarked on a vigorous tree removal program over the past several years at both courses.  The plan was set in motion in 2015 when the club began to consider making significant changes to each of the two courses.  In 2015 the club retained an Architect, Keith Foster, to complete a Master Plan on the Irving Park course, which laid out a road map for future possible design changes to the course.  Identified in that plan were trees that should be considered for removal.  Trees included in this plan fell into four categories: 1) Tree Management, 2) Turf Enhancement, 3) Design Considerations, and 4) Unsafe trees 

Under the category of tree management trees were identified that were too closely spaced and needed to be thinned in order for the surrounding trees to take on a fuller, stronger and more mature look.  The thinning of Pines between holes 2 and 11, the Pines between holes 9 and 10 and select hardwoods on 14 and 15 are good examples of where trees were removed in an effort to improve the health and look of the existing surrounding trees.

Several trees were also identified as not being crucially significant to the overall strategic design elements of the course but did create burdensome conditions towards the goal of growing healthy grass that would create better playing conditions with their removal.  The clearest examples of these particular trees where the large Oaks on hole 16 and 1.  Both these trees created management problems for the two tee boxes that resulted poor tee box conditions over the past many years and annual repair expenses to replace thin and damaged turf.  The one large remaining tree on this list is the Oak behind 5 green that creates very difficult growing conditions for that green.  The removal of this tree has been taken off the list for removal and the club will seek alternate ways to modify the growing environment in this area most likely in the form of a fan to improve air flow in an effort to reduce disease pressure on the Bentgrass turf that is thin due to shady conditions.

Trees that would affect changes to the existing course due to slight routing changes have not been removed as the final design considerations are still in the early stages and may change over time.

The last categories of trees were trees that were deemed unsafe and could cause harm to people or property.  The Irving Park course had a large number of Virginia Pines that had very strong leans and posed the risk of coming down at any given time.  The majority of these trees have been removed and there are still a few that we are closely monitoring.

In 2016 the Farm course began considering the prospect of converting the greens from Bentgrass to a new Ultra dwarf hybrid.  As part of that planning process numerous trees were identified as needing to be removed to grow the new warm season turf, which mandates a minimum of 6 hours of direct sunlight in order to thrive.  Unlike Bentgrass, fans will not make a difference without the proper amount of sunlight.  The vast majority of these trees were removed during the conversion process but over the last few years several trees that were considered borderline quickly showed us they were not and have been removed post conversion over the past two years.

While the majority of the membership has been very patient and understanding throughout this process the last few large Oaks on our list have caused some concern that has resulted in a moderate amount of negative feedback.  The good news is the tree removals on both courses that were identified as part of the project will be coming to an end at the conclusion of this current winter season.  Going forward our tree removal program will primarily consist of trees that are deemed unsafe, that are damaged during storms, that have died for natural causes or have been deemed necessary for small scale enhancement projects.  Throughout this entire process the golf course management team has communicated and sought approval from the Green Committee, GM and Board, which has supported our efforts to balance the overall playability and aesthetics of the two courses versus those in the membership that have a strong devotion towards trees.  We are grateful for everyone’s support and are confident that our hard work and all the resources put into this project will result in a great number of positive effects on both courses for many years to come.