Western Hills Country Club Grounds: Springing out of Winter

Saucer magnolia in full bloom. One of the first indicators for the arrival of spring.

In November of last year I started to get worried. The popular national weather outlets predicted that the Ohio Valley was likely to experience an exceptionally warm winter. Whenever I see extremely warm winter predictions, I know what's coming-so I start prepping. I fire up the snowblower, stockpile salt, stack firewood, and dig out all my winter gear. Because I know Old Man Winter's response: Hold my beer!

True to form this past La Nina winter ended up 4℉ below normal for the months of December (+2℉), January (-6.1℉), and February (+.1℉). We also experienced a decent amount of snowfall with almost all of January under a blanket of snow cover. Luckily, March has seen above normal temperatures; however, the cold winter has left us with some unexpected consequences.

Tree Work

On New Years Day I contacted the tree company and told them the temperatures looked perfect the following week to begin tree work (we look for below freezing daily high temperatures and cold low temperatures so the rough freezes up enough to support tree removal equipment). With predicted highs in the 20s and lows around zero everything was coming together, then the January 5th snow storm happened. After the storm dropped over 11" of snow on the course I knew we would have to hold off on tree work. But we were not expecting the snow depth to hang around the entire month. Once the calendar rolled over to February the snow was melting, but turning into a sheet of ice. Then the heavy rains hit, and then more snow. Needless to say, we were limited on how much of the tree work got accomplished this past winter; however, we were able to finish the in-house tree removals which consisted of around 20 trees.

One of the reasons we like to have tree work done before March is because the soils are typically wet and soft this time of year from the freezing, thawing, and rain. The week of March 10th we thought there was a dry enough window to accomplish the work by #18 fairway. In October a tree assessment was conducted and many of the pin oaks in that area had an abundant amount of dead limbs posing a safety concern, as well as, one particular pin oak requiring removal because of a large amount of decay at a bifurcated branch junction. After consulting the company foreman and monitoring the conditions we decided to move forward with tree work before more rain was expected that weekend.

Well, the ground was a bit more soft than we anticipated. The company was able to finish the trimming and pin oak removal to the left of #18 fairway, but a decent amount of ruts and tracks were left behind. A couple of the trucks even needed to be pulled out. We have since smoothed out the ruts, seeded, and strawed the area; however, we will need to have it roped off until the seed germinates. The lightning struck tree to the left of #16 fairway is next up for removal, but at this point we have decided to hold off until the conditions improve. I'm not sure when that will be with our typically wet spring conditions, but I will keep you posted if/when a date materializes.

Tree company taking down a massive pin oak and trimming 7 other trees in that area with many dead branches

Fixing the disaster area

Smoothing out ruts with 20 yards of topsoil.

Seeded, strawed and roped off. It is wet after a recent rain event.

#14 Tee

As I wrote about in last November's blog post, #14 tee provided us with some issues (click here for the post). In short the issues were as follows:

The old blue tee needed to be shaved down around 7" to make it level with the old black tee.
After the base soil was exposed it consisted of hard, blue clay that was plowed up from the pond construction.
The late November rainfalls, along with the shade from the adjacent pin oak, and the low November sun angle kept the area extremely wet causing us to excavate the wet clay and fill with drier better quality soil.
10" of the clay soil was removed and another 10" of fill dirt added to firm up the base.
During the end of the process another 1" rain storm occurred delaying work and washing out the newly installed base.

The construction work finally was completed right before Thanksgiving. In addition, the only local bentgrass sod producer (other places that sell bentgrass sod are located in Pittsburgh or Chicago which would have increased the cost considerably) had issues with the summer droughts that decimated many acres of bentgrass sod. The poor quality sod (that was discounted) for #14 tee had to sit longer than expected on the pallets due to the delay of construction. All this led to the tee top decomposing grass being laid in sloppy, wet conditions right before a cold snap that seemed to last through the entire winter.

We replaced many of the worst pieces of sod with bentgrass sod from our nursery whenever conditions were favorable enough during the winter months. The other tees (#4, #12, #17) that were completed earlier in November are much further along, look healthier, and are filling in. We expect these tees to be open by mid April. However, the #14 tee is just starting to grow after winter dormancy. We have topdressed with dry sand, seeded, and fertilized to try and push growth. Also, we are plugging bad areas with bentgrass to help fill in the worst spots. The tee is looking much better but still has some growing to do. Hopefully the warmer weather continues to help push it along. In the meantime we ask for your patience. The tee will heal in eventually, however, the date to open the tee is still in limbo.

#14 tee right after completion

#14 in mid December. We were starting to resod dead patches on the left side.

#14 tee in early March, breaking winter dormancy.

#14 tee late March

The grass is healing in.

Irrigation System

In the beginning of December we winterized the irrigation system. We pick this date because the tee leveling is completed in mid to late November and, depending on conditions, sometimes we need to water the sod. Usually it is warm enough in early December (average high is 50 degrees) to get the lines blown out with an air compressor. Last year was an anomaly, with very cold temperatures setting in the week of Thanksgiving. Noticing that the forecast models were predicting the cold snap we drained the system a week earlier, but the air compressor needs to be rented and could not get on property until December 2nd. The system draining gets rid of 90% of the water, but each individual head needed to be blown out to keep them from freezing. This is where we ran into a problem. While blowing them out 40 heads became cracked and blew off.

Every March the system needs to be turned back on and pressurized back up to 110 psi. The pumps are checked, pump house components pressurized, computer software evaluated, and any leaks fixed. This year we also replaced the broken irrigation heads from the December winterization. Luckily, the heads were under warranty and were replaced at no cost to the club. I wanted to inform the membership just in case they saw some geysers coming up from the sprinkler heads while we were starting up the system.

Blowing out the irrigation system in December.

Verticutting Fairways

Verticuting of the fairways was implemented in 2021 with the purchase of a Weidenmann Triple V verticutting unit that has helped decrease the thatch layer and reduce compaction. Verticutting consists of vertical rotating blades, which penetrate the surface at a depth up to 1". A significant amount of organic matter is brought up and picked up with a TC-125 John Deere sweeper. This procedure was completed in late February and early March and will continue to help with the health of the fairway turf; creating firmer conditions during the golf season.

Verticutting #1 fairway

Picking up debris on #7 with the TC-125 sweeper.

Dumping thatch.

Landscaping

Two areas around the club received a landscape upgrade. The first was next to the elevator area entrance. We lost an Alaskan cedar last fall, the boxwoods were dying, and the globe blue spruce bush had seen better days. Mr. Walsh had the idea of creating a "Short family garden" named after the Short family that owned this property for around 60 years. This looked to be a good location for that garden and we installed some of the plants named after Charles Wilkins Short (a famous botanist). Included are Solidago shortii (Short's Goldenrod), asters, sedges, and deutzia. We may look into adding a sign at a latter date.

In addition, the bed behind the pool needed to be replaced. The snowball spirea bushes were in decline and the junipers were getting overgrown. They were replaced with ornamental grasses (miscanthus 'Gracillimus'), Karen azaleas, and deutzia 'Yuki Cherry Blossom'.

Old Elevator entrance landscaping

Removing plants

Short Garden

David and Hector removing snowball spiraeas in the snow!

New pool landscaping.

Driving Range

Some questions have emerged about the driving range rotation/policy. Here are the most frequently asked questions.

When will the driving range grass open for the season?

The practice tees will open on April 1st starting on the north tees, switching to the south tee in mid May and moving back to the north tees after Labor Day. After November 1st the grass on the practice tee is closed and it is mats only.

Why can't we use the grass during warm days in the winter?

As the temperatures cool the healing time takes longer. In the winter, germination has ceased and the grass' growth has either shut down or slowed down considerably. Consequently, divots that are made after November 1st will not fully heal until growth begins again in April. Beating up the range in the winter will only lead to poor spring time conditions and will inevitably create poor practice tees for the following golf season.

Why are we still hitting on the mats when the grass is open?

The rotation of the practice tees is 5 days on the grass and 2 on the mats. We need to utilize the mats twice a week because the tees are under sized. Typically, an 18 hole course will have close to 2 acres of turf. Combining all the new WHCC practice tee areas we are still just under an acre. To keep the turf in decent shape, so there is still some green grass to hit off of, we need to use the mats twice a week and allow divots to heal (healing takes around 3 weeks during the warm summer months). One of the mat days is always on Mondays and the second day is rotated between Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday so golfers are always hitting off the grass on weekends during decent weather.

Remember to use the linear divot pattern on the practice tees. This pattern will heal faster than any other divot.

Other Jobs

The crew has been busy with other jobs as spring begins. Some of them include, raising drainage drains, installing the pond fountain, and picking up stump grindings. The blooming tulips are on the horizon and we are starting to fill in other areas with spring annuals. The bloom time is about 2 weeks behind schedule which should help for Easter color.

We have begun mowing the fairways, tees, and greens. And the rough is starting to green up as of this writing. Moreover, the March winds and thunderstorms are providing an abundant amount of cleanup work in the form of sticks, gumballs, and catalpa tree cigars. Also, the Bermuda grass fall time overseeding has produced good results with the Bermuda grass fairway patches hardly noticeable during the colder months. Hopefully, the warm weather pattern continues allowing turf to heal in before the start of the 2025 golf calendar.