Course Update 1/31/19

Several more trees have been removed behind and left of the green on Lakes #4 to allow for more sunlight in areas with thin turf.  Two years ago we removed numerous trees along the woodline to improve the turf on the green, which helped tremendously.  Since then, we realized the rough surrounding the green needed help and decided to remove the additional trees.

After finishing on #4 we spent one day around the drainage area left of the cart path on #3.  We started thinning out this area back in December, but didn't have the excavator yet for the larger material.  We still have to flush-cut and grind the stumps, but the area looks great now that the junk is gone.

Tree removal behind #4 green to allow for more sunlight and airflow to improve the rough surrounding the green

View of #4 green from the fairway.  3 trees were removed along the left woodline and 5 trees removed behind the green

Thinning out the drainage area left of the cart path on #3 Lakes

#3 after the brush and debris are gone

Course Update 1/24/19

Tree work continues on Lakes #4.  A total of 95 trees have been removed down the right side of the hole and at the end of the fairway near the rain shelter.  This is the most amount of trees we've removed on one hole since starting the tree program in 2016, but the improvement in turf quality of both the fairway and rough will be evident this summer.  A few stumps still need to be flush-cut before grinding begins, then the debris and surrounding area will be cleaned up and prepped for seeding in the spring.  While down around the rain shelter, the staff also cleaned up the overgrown banks of the drainage ditch between #4 and #5 to improve the aesthetics and better define the hazard.

View from right of the cart path near the fairway bunkers on Lakes #4.  This area will be seeded in the spring and maintained at regular rough height.

This is the drainage ditch between holes #4 and #5 after the overgrown banks were cleaned up.  It will be much easier to maintain the banks with rough mowers and string trimmers now that the jaggers and small brush are gone.

Flush-cutting stumps is much easier when using the excavator.  We rent the machine for 3 months during the winter at a cost of $3,000 per month.

Course Update 1/17/19

Tree work continues on Lakes #4 and our productivity has increased now that the ground is frozen.  Several large Maple and Cherry trees have come down along the right of the cart path that will have a noticeable improvement in turf quality.  Another benefit from removing trees is it opens up more width for tee shots at the beginning of the fairway.

View from the blue tee.  Notice how the right side of the hole has opened up by removing the trees that were growing into the line of play.  We also plan to remove a few trees down the left side that are affecting tee shots

Another load of wood being hauled out

This maple tree had a large crack up one side that created an opening for fungus to attack the wood

Here's a view of the infected trunk and you can see the significant amount of wood rot

Course Update 1/10/19

Tree work continues on Lakes #4 along the right side of the cart path and at the end of the fairway near the rain shelter.  So far 40 trees have been removed and we're already seeing more sunlight in the areas with little to no turf.  We're hoping the sub-freezing temperatures last a while to freeze the muddy ground and make it easier to work in these areas.

The mild weather at the beginning of the week also provided an opportunity to test out the recently acquired fairway topdresser.  It took some time to get the settings dialed in, but we were able to topdress Orchard 2 & lower 8, along with Grove 1 & 9 fairways before the rain.  There was 480 tons of sand piled up in the back parking lot at the clubhouse that is meant for one application to all the fairways.  The topdresser unit can hold 6 tons (12,000 pounds) of sand so it will require 80 trips to topdress all the fairways one time.

Topdressing Orchard 2 fairway

Course Update 1/3/19

Tree removal is in high gear now that the holidays are behind us and we're working on Lakes 4 along the right side of the cart path.  Several trees were removed along the left side of the path last winter to allow for more sunlight and airflow around the fairway bunkers, but we quickly determined that more trees needed to come down to achieve our goal of having good quality turf down the right side of the hole.  Removing the trees will also keep the fairway and surrounding rough drier.

Chipping the first of many trees

Trees are removed first then the stumps are flush-cut and ground down

The maintenance staff hard at work

All the trees right of the cart path have damaged trunks that will eventually lead to death of the tree

A majority of the trees removed so far are showing signs of wood rot that most likely started because of a damaged trunk and/or compromised roots

Surface roots cause problems for golfers and mowing equipment, and are typically associated with poor soil conditions

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.

Course Update 11/29/18

It seems like winter may have arrived early with the cold, snowy weather the first part of this week.  Since we couldn't perform any turf-related maintenance activities, we continued cleaning up broken branches and removing damaged trees.  Most of our time was spent behind Grove 7 green pruning broken branches on some Oaks and Maples, along with removing 5 white pine trees that were severely damaged by the recent ice storm.

Please be aware that we had to close and winterize the restrooms on each nine due to the extended period of sub-freezing temperatures.  The walls and ceilings are not insulated and the buildings were not designed to stay open all year.  The restrooms will open in the spring once the temperature warms up so there's no chance of frozen pipes.