Tree Work
In October, a tree assessment was conducted to identify unhealthy trees. We located around 20 trees that are in declining health. Included are a couple sweet gum trees that are dying from iron chlorosis. This occurs because of decreased iron intake due to high alkaline soils. High soil PH creates alkaline soils which is the makeup of most soils in the Cincinnati area. Chlorosis causes the sweet gum's leaves to turn yellow throughout the season and eventually leads to dead branches. This is a slow process that ultimately creates significant canopy dieback resulting in the declining health of the tree.
Wood rot is another common malady noticed on some WHCC trees. Wood rot is caused by fungi that infect the trees through open wounds. Some of these wounds are caused by storm damage, pruning, and, most frequently on a golf course, through mower damage. Trees benefit from wide mulch rings when in a commercial or residential setting. These rings should encompass at least all of the critical root zone. Having these wide mulch rings on WHCC golf course trees is not feasible because of their proximity to fairways, tees, and greens. Also because of the abundant amount of trees, wide mulch rings would interfere with play. Consequently, we have to grow grass up to the root flares and the subsequent mowing chops into tree roots causing an ideal pathway for fungal pathogens. The one exception is the champion overcup oak, which we have a very wide mulch ring around to protect it from mower and cart damage.
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| A wide mulch ring around the champion tree keeps mowers and carts off its critical root zone. |
A few healthy trees made it on to the removal list. They are being removed to increase turf health and/or help with golf shots. Two ash trees-one by #12 white tee and the other by #16 fairway- are being removed because they are encroaching into fairway and tee shots. One pin oak by #4 red tee will be removed to thin out the tree canopy to allow some turf to grow in that location.
In addition, some pruning will occur. The pin oak trees to the left of #14 tee and to the right of #17 fairway are hindering fade shots into their respective locations. A balance between tree health and playability is the goal. If too many branches are removed the tree loses its ability to photosynthesize and create sugars. This will lead to the eventual death of the tree. Both of these locations need these trees to create barriers between holes to keep errant golf shots from being a safety concern. We will attempt to prune back these trees but understand that there may still be some branch encroachment in order to keep the trees healthy.
Around 15 of the removals will be accomplished in house. We rented a chipper (with the possibility of purchasing it in the next month) to keep the debris pile down in #2 dump. This is a BC 1000XL Vermeer wood chipper. It can grind branches up to 12" in diameter. Along with the chipper a 40 ton Champion log splitter was purchased to keep large logs out of the dump area. There is a tremendous amount of tree rubbish that accumulates over the course of the year from wind storms, dead branches, and tree removals. These two pieces of equipment will help to decrease the club's debris foot print, keeping material out of the creek that flows behind #2 dump.
In early January, a USGA agronomist will be coming to WHCC to compose a tree report. He will look at each individual hole and make recommendations on tree removals based on turf health and golf playability. In addition, locations will be identified for future tree plantings, keeping in mind that diversifying the tree population will benefit its long term health and sustainability. I will post the report and talk more about this in future blog posts.
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| Cutting down a sweet gum tree by the red tee #4 |
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| Using the BC 1000XL chipper. We are chipping up debris accumulated throughout last year from wind storms and chipping up trees being removed during the winter. |
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| Cutting down a walnut tree by #6 cart path. |
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| Gregory Forrest Lester pruning dead limbs out of pin oaks above the south tee by #6 cart path. |
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| Using the 40 ton log splitter. |
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| Split firewood. Stacked by the grounds building |
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| Future limb removal to the left of #17 tee. This should help with fade shots from #17 tee. |
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| Future pruning cuts on #14 tee. Photo courtesy of Kevin Lester. |
Bunker Work
The crew is hard at work tackling some problem bunkers that hold water. The WHCC bunkers are over 20 years old and every year we clean out the drainage in many of these that hold water after major rain events. Because of their construction, many bunkers have water and soil that contaminate the bottoms. This leads to drain tile being clogged with soil and debris causing big puddles to form in the low areas. To rectify, we take out the contaminated gravel and drain tile then replace with new drain tile, pea gravel, and sand. Ultimately, installing concrete bunker liners and reshaping many bunkers to redirect water is the best solution; however, this will be a major project and cost a significant amount of time and money. We will continue to work with the Green Committee to find the best solutions moving forward.
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| Cleaning out the drain tile in #8 green side bunker |
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| Same bunker in July after a big rainstorm |
Bermuda Grass
Bermuda grass is a turf species that originated in Africa. It is classified as a C4 grass plant (made up of 4 carbon atoms per molecular compound), meaning it grows best in warmer climates. Contrary to the cool season turf, or C3 species (bentgrass, fescue, bluegrass), it thrives in hot, humid weather and goes dormant (turns brown) during the winter months. In the early 2000s Bermuda grass was plugged into some southern sloped fairway areas where the bentgrass died during hot summer weather. Consequently, during 6 months out of the year these areas look and perform great; however, during the other 6 months the areas look brown. It was during the cooler seasons that complaints began to surface about the aesthetics of these fairway patches. Starting in 2020 the agronomy team began to overseed these locations in the fall with intermediate ryegrass. This grass does well in the winter months but dies out in the heat of the summer. Also, beginning this February we overseeded all the fairways with newer varieties of bentgrass. The results have been remarkable, and many of the problem Bermuda grass areas are hardly noticeable in the winter. This has allowed us to keep the Bermuda grass in these areas for its great summer performance while hiding its brown color in the winter. We will continue to utilize this procedure and hopefully it persists to produce good winter coverage.
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| The very noticeable Bermuda grass patch in the winter of 2019 on #15 fairway |
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| Same patch in 2020 after the first year of winter overseeding |
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| The same patch this year (2023) after overseeding with intermediate ryegrass in October and overseeding with bentgrass last February. |
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| Bermuda grass patch on #11 fairway in 2019. |
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| Same area on #11 in 2020 after first year of overseeding. |
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| A different look of this area in 2019. |
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| This area in December 2023 |
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| Bermuda grass patch #11 in December 2023. |
So far, December temperatures have been well above normal. This has allowed us to continue to work on leaf removal. This will persist until mid January, when the pin oaks finally drop all of their leaves. As we move further into the winter months the grounds crew will continue to work on tree removal, bunkers, staff recruitment for 2024, equipment maintenance, and snow/ice removal. Of course, we are still busy maintaining the golf course especially during warm periods with high golf rounds (click here for a previous blog post on winter work). According to the long range forecasts, it looks like some colder winter weather could be in store for January. In the meantime, the agronomy team wishes everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
Brad Piecuch
Grounds Superintendent
