Spring Happenings

Cold late March temperatures freezing the newly turned-on clubhouse fountain

Spring is here and the Grounds Crew is busy getting the golf course ready for the season. The temperatures have been up and down; with the first part of the month well above normal and the latter half much colder. Mowing has begun on the putting greens, fairways, and tees. The rough should start to grow in early April. 

Verticutting of the fairways is underway. This will help decrease the heavy thatch layer that had accumulated over the years. Thatch is the buildup of organic material between the crown of the grass and the soil. It is composed of undecomposed rhizomes, crowns, roots and stolons. It binds up water and nutrients prohibiting its percolation farther into the soil profile. This causes moisture and roots to hold closer to the surface. Shallow roots and thick thatch lead to soft and wet fairways. Since we have started verticutting in the spring and deep-tine aerating in the fall, the fairway conditions are beginning to improve. The thick thatch layer is decreasing, and the roots are growing deeper into the soil profile. This has allowed us to cut back on irrigation leading to firmer conditions. Hopefully this continues and we will keep up with these annual cultural practices. 

Assistant Michael Westendorf verticutting #10 fairway

Verticutting and picking up debris with the TC-125 John Deere sweeper

Thatch from a #10 fairway plug in 2020. Puffy thatch and organic material are noticed above the red line

A soil plug from the same location on #10 fairway in March of 2022. The thatch is decreasing. 

Soil profile from #18 fairway notice the white roots extending below this core. Estimated at 8" deep.

The work on finishing phase 1 of the driving range project has begun. We pushed to get as much accomplished as possible before cold winter weather and decreased sunlight brought it to a halt. Over the winter, many areas of the driving range floor, on hillsides and at the low center,  washed out from water rushing through after rainstorms. To fix this we added a 12" catch basin below the 18" pipe that drains under the new practice tee. This is connected to 6" perforated drain tile that connects to existing tile. Also, swales were added to the center to help slow down and catch water before it washes soil and seed away. The ruts on hillsides were filled in and seeded. Target greens are marked, and we will soon begin to mow them at a shorter height so they can be seen. Now, warmer temperatures are needed for germination and, eventually, for the grass to fill in. Hopefully, we will be able to open the far tee and the driving range floor by the beginning of May.

Driving range floor in late February. Notice the long wash out occurring in the center.

Fixing the driving range floor

New catch basin installed in front of the 18" pipe that drains under the new practice tee.

Wilfredo and David laying sod around a catch basin located in the center of the range

Ricardo, David, and Jorge fixing ruts on the hillside.

Seed and futera matting added after soil leveled and prepped. Now we need warmer temperatures and moisture for germination.

The expanded putting green area and the chipping green are filling in. We have begun the process of mowing, rolling, fertilizing and topdressing, but these areas will need much more time to grow before they are ready for daily play. The tentative opening for these areas is June 15th.

First mowing of the year for the putting green expansion. It will take time to fill in and for us to begin to decrease the mowing height to match the other greens.

Bunker work is next on the list, and we have started adding sand to the bunkers that need it. We are measuring each bunker to try and keep 4 to 5 inches of sand in the bottoms and 2 to 3 inches on the sides. Understand that after rain events the consistency of the bunker's sand will change from the sides washing out and mixing in with the surrounding soil. Keeping the right amount of sand after washouts is very difficult (especially on steep slope faces) and I will be discussing with the Green Committee some possible solutions as the current project work winds down. Click here for more information from the USGA on bunker washouts.

Ricardo and Jorge adding sand to the left side #1 fairway bunker.

On the horticulture side, mulching of the landscape beds is underway. The proshop landscaping is completed with a new retaining wall built and new plant material installed. The plants consist of roses, ornamental grasses, hydrangeas, and dwarf lilacs. Something should be blooming in these landscape beds from late April until the first frost. The tulips will be in bloom in early April and there is a chance of the blooms extending into Easter Sunday.

Lemon zest roses by the wall and pink knockout roses in the back.

Pansies added in front of the verdin clock plaque

Miguel and Wilfredo trimming incrediball hydrangeas.

The warmer weather is right around the corner, and I will continue to update the happenings around the grounds as we move into the busy golf calendar. 

Brad Piecuch

Grounds Superintendent

Roller Coaster Ride

This winter has been a roller coaster ride for temperatures. After the 4th warmest December on record for this area, January ushered in below normal temperatures. Snowfall was scarce and the ground, especially greens, froze 6"+ deep. The turf went from a late March emerald green color in December, to a brown, frozen tundra by the beginning of February. Then we had a 3" ice/sleet storm that hit the grounds on February 3rd. This storm was a challenge to plow, since 3" of sleet is much heavier than the same amount of snow. We had to plow the lot 7 times to stay up with the precipitation so our bobcat could keep up with pushing the sleet. After working long hours for two days we were able to have the parking lot ready for members as soon as the roads were passable. 

#5 green looking like an ice-skating rink

Plowing during the ice storm

 The cold January temperatures allowed us to get much of the winter tree work accomplished. All of the limbs that the Green Committee suggested for removal have been eliminated. This will be noticed by many golfers this spring. It definitely opens up these holes for more aggressive shots. Most of the trees recommended for removal are taken down, and now we are beginning the process of grinding up the stumps, removing the grindings, filling up the holes with topsoil, and overseeding.

#9 tee area after limb removals

The grounds maintenance building is getting some much-needed upgrades. The lighting and heaters were installed in the mid 1980s and were malfunctioning. The 16 fluorescent lights in the back area were replaced with new flat panel LED fixtures. 12 fluorescent lights located in the mechanic shop, hallways, and break room were also replaced with flat panel LEDs. The old 200,000 BTU heater, that when turned on sounded like a bomb exploding, was replaced with a more efficient 250,000 BTU unit. This heater is much more effective and should save money on propane usage. In addition, the garage doors, and some other doors will be replaced. The drop ceiling will be lifted up in the back corner of the garage to accommodate a new lift that will be used to work underneath many of our heavy carts, mowers, and tractors. This will be installed once the new golf cart building is completed, and we have access to the existing cart wing for storage.

New flat panel LEDs on the right and the old fluorescent bulbs on the left. The old heater in the back.

New LED fixtures in hallways. I never knew that door was white!

New 250,000 BTU heater

The railroad ties on #16 tee are being replaced with left over stone used for the pro shop retaining wall. We have had issues with golfers slipping on the railroad ties and this should eliminate that problem. Also, another retaining wall was built next to the walkway by the men's grill to keep mulch from clogging up the drain by the door after rainstorms.

Replacing railroad ties on #16 tee

New retaining wall by walkway to men's grill

So far, the month of February has had below normal temperatures, but long-range forecasts suggest the latter half will be warm. Once the temperatures rebound, we will begin cleaning up the course and starting to prep for regular play. Dormant seeding will take place at the end of the month in all rough areas. Verticutting of fairways will, hopefully, start in mid-March but that is heavily weather dependent. The projects are currently on hold and the floor of the driving range needs to be completed as soon as mother nature cooperates and tentatively will begin sometime in March. Staff recruitment is underway, as we try to navigate the rough waters of this limited labor market. In the meantime, springtime temperatures are closing in, and the staff is ready for whatever roller coaster lies ahead!

Brad Piecuch

Grounds Superintendent

Grounds Update- Infectious Diseases

 One thing working in this industry for the last 20 years has taught me is humbleness. Every time you think all things are under control, nature throws another curve ball. Spraying in late December and early January is typically not something that needs to be accomplished. Usually, temperature and humidity in winter are low enough to keep most diseases away. However, this year was the exception. The last week of December turned out to be the warmest I have ever seen for that time period. Christmas day we reached a record high of 69 and the week that followed had highs in the high 50s and low 60s with lows only a couple degrees lower than the daytime high. Also, it was extremely moist with heavy rain events and cloudy days that let the moisture and dew sit on the turf for the entire day. It was during this time that a disease popped up on the newly seeded areas. Greasy, circular patches with a white mycelium became evident and once noticed we quickly sprayed with different fungicides to contain it.

 I am not a plant pathologist, but superintendents have to play one every day they come to work. I speculated it was one of three diseases, take-all path, pink snow mold, or another outbreak of the damping off disease which we battled earlier in the season. We sent samples and pictures out to Mr. Todd Hicks, Program Director for the Turf Pathology Program at Ohio State. After looking at the sample he was unable to get the mycelium to act up, which is a good thing since it shows that the plant protectants that were used worked in stopping the attack. Based on the pictures I sent and a conversation we had on the phone about the conditions leading up to the outbreak he concluded that it was probably Pink Snow Mold.

The crazy thing about Pink Snow Mold is that it can occur even without snowfall. In fact, there are two forms of the disease, Pink Snow Mold and Microdochium Patch. The former is a true snow mold that occurs under snow cover while the latter happens in cool, wet rainy weather. Both phases of this disease are common on newly seeded greens and fairways. Pink Snow Mold is something that we preventively deal with every season and this year was no exception. Once we stop mowing for the season, a preventative snow mold granular fungicide is applied to all the greens. This usually occurs in mid-December; however, this season we were mowing greens all the way until Christmas and could not put down the preventative application until later in the month. The fungicide was put down on the putting greens and newly seeded areas the week after Christmas. Unfortunately, the product takes a while to get into the grass and the unusually warm (for this time of year) and extremely wet conditions were a hot bed for this outbreak. The good news is I think we have the disease under control, and the only affected areas were the newly seeded chipping green and putting green expansion. All other greens were unaffected. The fungicides combined with the return of normal winter temperatures have stopped the disease as of this writing. Also, the recent removal of the three pin oak trees above the chipping green will help immensely to decrease the amount of time the turf plant blades are moist. We have taken plugs from our nursery to help heal affected areas and will monitor as winter progresses.

Picture of disease on new putting green area

Pink snow mold on chipping green with new plugs from the nursery added to the center. The plugs will eventually grow into the unhealthy area.

Close up of disease

Same area one week later after the disease, hopefully, is contained.

Many of you may have noticed the white tarp that we have over the transition area between the old putting green and new expansion area. When we seeded this location in early October many rain events followed that continued to wash out this area, causing us to constantly reseed. As we got later into November the turf really slowed down growth and germination came to a halt. The good thing about the warm December is it did help to increase some germination. Moving forward the plan is, with the help of the permeable cover (which helps to raise the temperature of the blanketed soil), to have good coverage by spring.

Grow cover for putting green transition area

A view of the transition area in November. Notice the bare areas that were victims to wash outs.

Same area in late December from the opposite angle. The area has filled in nicely because of warm December temperatures and the use of this cover. Hopefully it continues to grow in the rest of the winter.

Tree work is underway. A tree inventory was done in late October and some problem trees were detected. Many of the diseased oak trees have fungal infections that affect the structural integrity of the trees. When the fungal infection is noticed to be severe, we recommend them to be removed. This year three trees were noticed to have different fungal diseases observed by conks, mushrooms, and other fungi growing in the trunk areas. Removing them is imperative as the following pictures will help to show. These trees could have fallen in the next year and possibly caused someone harm, or in the very least fell on a fairway or cart path leaving a ton of debris to clean up and massive ruts to fix during the busy season.

Trunk area of a red oak tree that we noticed had a significant ganoderma infection. The tree would have eventually fell due to the remarkable amount of decay caused by the infection.

Black locust tree with significant deterioration from shelf fungus disease. This tree was going to fall at some point in the near future if not removed.

Problem limbs are also being removed. The Green Commitee has a list of bothersome limbs that we are going to tackle as weather and the budget allows. Some of those areas include limbs left of #4 fairway, limbs #6 valley, pin oaks left of #8 fairway, pin oaks by #9 tee, ash trees valley of #9, red maples right of #10 fairway, right of #15 fairway, left of #16 green bunker, and pin oak left of #17 closer to the green. One thing we never run out of at WHCC is tree work! We will try and get as much as we can done during these colder winter days.

Pruning cuts on red maples left of #10 fairway

Job completed. Limbs overhanging the fairway were trimmed back.

Pin Oaks trimmed up on the left of #9 tee.

The project work has slowed down this winter. The concrete at the mat area has been poured, and the bids that have come in for the asphalt have been received. Unfortunately, the asphalt for the parking area and cart path on the driving range will not be accomplished until spring because of the lack of availability of the asphalt product during the winter months. The floor of the driving range will be completed in the spring. Also, phase 2 of the driving range renovation will start in February or March with trees being cleared for the new cart path on the north driving range tee. The construction of the cart building is underway, and the grounds crew is hauling away dirt as needed. Some of this extra topsoil will be used in the coming months to fill in stump holes. In addition, we are getting prices together for some much-needed upgrades to the grounds building once the new cart building is completed.

Raymond working the bobcat to remove a large pile of dirt produced by the construction of the new cart building

Other winter work will include equipment maintenance, staff recruitment for the 2022 season, staff educational seminars, parking lot snow and ice removal, adding soil to high cart path areas, fixing crushed limestone cart path areas, removing and filling in stump grinding holes, and hardscape work. Finally, after avoiding the pestilence for the last 2 years, the Grounds Crew has fell victim to the omicron variant and we currently have 4 employees out. We are lucky it has hit in January and not in the middle of the golf season. We will get as much work done during the winter as the variant and mother nature allows and are hopeful for a disease-free turf, trees, and crew for the upcoming 2022 season!

Brad Piecuch

Grounds Superintendent

December update

 We have moved into the detail phase of the driving range project. The cart path and parking areas have been shaped and 4" of crushed limestone has been smoothed over the top. The driving range mat areas are framed and in the process of having the concrete base poured. In addition, the chipping green and practice tee bunkers are being edged and filling in with sand.

The three pin oak trees at the top of the chipping green area are casting a significant amount of shade over the bentgrass green and need to be removed. This has already caused a poor growing environment for the newly seeded area. We have been battling some disease pressure because of the lack of sunlight to evaporate the morning moisture causing prolonged leaf wetness on grass blades. The increased moisture presence is a catalyst for many turf diseases and one in particular that has already occurred is damping off disease. Also, the trees are causing a tremendous amount of late fall and winter shade. Shade in the fall and winter hinders the grass to recover from the long, hot summer. This causes the grass to be weak in the spring and it may not have enough time to recover before summer heat occurs once again. In addition, the winter shade causes the green to freeze for longer periods of time, consequently, causing it to be closed more often. When growing in a green we need to optimize the amount of time it receives sunlight so it can become thick, healthy and ready for play as soon as possible. Once these three pin oaks are removed mounding will take its place and viburnum shrubs will be planted to block any errant golf balls coming from hole 6. For more information on shade and turf click here or click here for a previous post on trees and turf.

sand added to practice tee bunker

form for driving range mats

crushed limestone cart path in new chipping area

3 pin oaks set to be removed

pin oaks casting shade on new chipping green for the majority of the day

Damping off disease on new chipping green

Phase two of the driving range project is already on deck. This will begin during the winter months with removing of trees above the north range tee. Also, the dump area will be cleaned out and the cart path reworked. I will continue to update as this phase begins.

Holes #4 and #8 are healing in since the golf preservation project. They do have some scalping that occurred, and we have been watering them daily, however, the growing season has quickly come to a close and we may have to wait until the spring for these areas to fully recover. 

Hole #13 is just starting to root in. We have rolled and mowed the green using the walking greens mowers, but the sod has to become more rooted and stable before we can begin to get our bigger roller and topdresser on the green.  Also, we are mowing the green at .200" and we are mowing the other greens at .130" during the growing season. They recommend lowering the height by .005" every week until the desired height is reached. So once the turf begins growing in the spring it will take 14 weeks before the turf is at the same height as the other greens. In addition, right now the green is extremely bumpy and will need a significant amount of topdressing before it will be smooth enough for play. Obviously, because of all these factors it may be until mid-summer before this green is rolling like the others. This green will be closed until mid spring- mid April or early May.

The crew has been busy getting the course ready for winter. The fertilization is almost complete, and the irrigation system has been blown out for the season. Leaf removal is ongoing, and it will take some time before the oak trees are done unloading their leaves. 

The winter tree and limb removal list has been created. Many of the trees that are being removed are dead or diseased trees. Again, we are having issues with oak trees, in particular, becoming infected with ganoderma root rot. Also, some of the black locust trees have some fungal growth issues and need to be cut down. Some pin oak trees under cart paths have significant dead limbs that need removed and some limbs blocking fairway shots will be addressed. In house tree work will address many of the smaller dead trees that have to be removed.

pin oak root removed from #11 farway

area of exposed pin oak roots in #11 fairway

The landscaping team, headed by Kyle Brater, is in the process of making a garden wall next to the new paver area by #1 tee. The verdin clock plaque has been installed on the pro shop wall, with landscape lighting to illuminate it at night. The landscaping around this area has been removed and we will be replacing it with new trees and shrubs that are the right size and add color interest to this busy intersection.

Garden wall installation. The New landscaping will follow.

As we enter the winter season, I think it is important to touch upon winter closures and course conditions. There are five main reasons why the course may be closed or delayed during winter months.  They are snow, frost, frozen ground, thawing ground, and very wet conditions. The first is fairly obvious- finding a white, or even colored golf ball, after a snowstorm is virtually impossible and trying to putt would be comical. Snow does provide insulation from low temperatures and winter winds; however, melting snow can refreeze and cause crown hydration injury. Frost and frozen ground can cause significant damage to the turf when walked or driven on. Thawing ground can cause root damage from foot traffic when the top layer of soil is thawed, and the lower layer is still frozen. Any traffic during this scenario will break/shear the roots in between the two layers and footprints will be visible for months before they heal. Wet ground is also very common this time of year from the freezing, thawing, heavy rainfall, low evapotranspiration rates, and the dormancy of the turf (prohibiting any water uptake). Walking on highly saturated soil will cause deep footprints that will create craters and unevenness especially prevalent on putting greens. The golf course will have to be closed at times during the winter to prevent negative turfgrass damage. For more information on winter play closures click on this informative article by the USGA.  or this USGA video or this USGA video on root shearing.

Brad Piecuch

Grounds Superintendent