Course Update 12/27/18

It was a short week due to the Christmas break, but we were able to continue spraying fairways with the snow mold fungicides.  Lakes and Grove courses are complete, along with most of Orchard.  We were hoping to finish up today, but ran out of daylight.  We'll try again tomorrow, but it all depends on the weather and how much rain we get overnight.

Speaking of rain, the National Weather Service office in Pittsburgh has reported that our region may break the yearly rainfall record if 0.67" of rain is received before year end.  Here at Treesdale we've received 61.58" of rain so far this year, which is 22.5" above our yearly average of 39.08".

Course Update 12/20/18

The courses were a little wet after last weekend's rain, but it was a very productive week for the maintenance team and a few outside contractors.  All greens and tees, along with most of the fairways on Lakes were sprayed with a winter fungicide application to protect the turf from snow mold.  The chemicals used specifically target the disease and are formulated to last up to four months given moderate weather variations.  The ideal application period is when the turf has stopped producing new leaf tissue and the ground is not frozen.  Frozen ground limits the plant's ability to absorb the fungicide which results in reduced disease control.  We had planned to apply the products at the beginning of the month, but the rain, snow, and ice events prevented us from doing so.  In total, we will spray 53 acres of turf with a chemical cost of $17,000 and plan to finish spraying the fairways after the Christmas break.

There are two types of snow mold that negatively affect turfgrass, pink and gray.  Gray snow mold is associated with long periods of snow cover and pink snow mold can occur with or without snow.  Gray snow mold is much more destructive and can kill large areas of turf, while pink snow mold typically attacks leaf tissue and does not harm the growing point (crown) of the plant.  In southwestern PA we use a fungicide that targets both pink and gray snow mold since we don't know what the weather will be like during the winter.

This is the typical appearance of Pink Snow Mold on fairway turf.  Notice the pinkish hue around
the outside of the infected patches.

In addition to the chemical sprays, a considerable amount of time was spent blowing leaves and cleaning up debris.  There were also a couple frosty mornings that allowed the staff to continue removing brush and unwanted vegetation near cart paths.  A few contractors were also on property grinding stumps, deep-tining fairways, and backfilling gravel in the fairway drain lines installed during the summer.

Like I said, it was a busy week!

Removing brush around the drainage swale left of Lakes 3 fairway.

Tree roots, broken branches and a buildup of leaves are limiting the amount of water going into the drain pipe. 

The contractor used three machines to deep-tine the fairways in two days with an equipment value of $250,000.

This was supposed to be core aerification back in September, but the rainy weather kept delaying the process and we decided to deep-tine versus doing nothing at all.  Regular core aerification is already scheduled for the spring.

The aerification process uses 3/4" solid tines that penetrate up to 8" deep depending on soil conditions and the amount of rock present.  Deep-tining fractures compacted soil for improved water penetration, gas exchange, and root growth.

Course Update 12/13/18

Tree work continued this week since the courses remained frozen and snow covered.  The staff spent most of the week removing brush and smaller trees in the wooded area between Lakes 7 green and 8 tee.  They are getting rid of the unwanted vegetation in preparation for removing the bigger trees after Christmas.  We'll be renting an excavator again this year to make removing and cleaning up the larger trees faster and more efficient, and having the brush removed saves a lot of time.  There are several large Oak, Maple and Hickory trees in good condition that we plan to keep, while most of the smaller trees (Cherry, Locust, Poplar) are damaged or in decline, and need to be removed.  Similar to past years, we're removing trees and brush to provide more sunlight and airflow to areas of the golf course that have weak, thin turf.

Looking back towards 7 fwy from 8 white tee.  7 was not visible prior to us removing the smaller vegetation.

Looking towards 8 from 7 fwy.  Still a lot of work to do, but it's a good start.

8 near the silver tee

Woodline to the right of 7.  A significant amount of brush and smaller trees have been removed, but there's numerous trees that still need to come out to improve the turf above the fairway bunkers.

This area between the rain shelter and 8 silver tee was so overgrown you couldn't walk around the rain shelter.

Here's a view of the blue and gold tees on 8.  Notice the shade cast by the trees even when they don't have leaves.

Weak, thin turf around the tees on 8 created by a lack of sunlight and airflow.

I regularly use an app called Sun Seeker to identify where the sun is located at a given time on any day of the year.  For our purposes I chose the first day of spring and summer to identify which trees need to be removed to maximize morning light.  This is a view of 8 gold tee looking back towards 7 tees.

Course Update 12/6/18

With the golf courses still too wet to access early in the week, we continued underbrushing and removing trees around the entrance to the tunnel behind Grove 7 green.  We kept the pine and spruce trees bordering the area to buffer the road noise and the view for the homeowners, but had to remove all other trees and the underbrush that was choking out the evergreen trees.  Cleaning this area up not only improves the aesthetics, but also allows for more sunlight and airflow to penetrate which will keep the cart path drier and reduce the accumulation of moss during the summer and ice during the winter.  The final step for this area is to grind the stumps and clean up the spoils.  The contractor will be on site in the next few weeks to grind other stumps throughout the property, and we will direct him to these as the weather allows.