Glen Eagle Maintenance (8/30/24)

I hope everyone has a Safe and Happy Labor Day Weekend!

A reminder that the course is closed starting next Tuesday (9/3) thru the following Monday (9/9) for maintenance.

This is our last multi-day maintenance closure of the year. We will continue to be closed on Mondays for maintenance thru October 14th.

During this closure we will focus on aerification of greens, tees/collars/approaches (TCAs), fairways, and roughs.

Below is a video clip of pictures taken this week. During our closed Monday, we double verticut greens, mowed and topdressed. We also sprayed wall-to-wall with foliar fertilizer and plant growth regulator to reduce vertical growth and encourage lateral growth.

You will see in the pictures, the maintenance items above, along with some good summer weather is producing nice course conditions.

I look forward to seeing everyone on the course, and as always, if you have any questions, flag me down or shoot me an email. I always enjoy talking turf!

Glen Eagle Maintenance (8/22/24)

The golf course is looking really good this week. Unfortunately, it has been a bit hard for anyone playing golf to enjoy as the weather has been a bit difficult this week. We haven’t picked up a lot of rain but at some point every day, usually in the morning, we have had lightening close enough to set off the alarm.

Here are a few pictures from the course this week…

One project started last Friday was the cleaning of the drainage pipes that run underground between the lakes. Here is a video of the process. There will be several techniques used to clean the pipes depending on size and access. In this technique, a diver takes the suction hose from a trash pump into the pipe and uses it to pump the dirt, etc. out of the pipe. Reminds me of the Mike Rowe show “Dirty Jobs”. They will be working around the course/community over the next month or so to finish up this project.

I look forward to seeing everyone on the course, and as always, if you have any questions, flag me down or shoot me an email. I always enjoy talking turf!

Glen Eagle Maintenance (8/16/24)

 Well, just as fast as the rain came, it went away again. It has been very hot and very dry now for about 9 days. Pretty rare that we go that long in the middle of summer without afternoon showers. Although it is hot an humid in the lower atmosphere, the upper part of the atmosphere is relatively dry which prevents thunderstorms from developing.

The dry weather has allowed the course to dry up and for the most part, except for perimeter areas, it is looking pretty good…

The big “event” over the last week was the installation of the Osprey platform in the common area across from the clubhouse, adjacent to the first tee. The nest will be moved the day of this posting (Friday, 8/16). The nest is being relocated to prevent hazardous materials from falling onto the tennis courts, and allow repairs and maintenance to court lights during nesting season.

A short video showing the installation

I look forward to seeing everyone on the course, and as always, if you have any questions, flag me down or shoot me an email. I always enjoy talking turf!

Glen Eagle Maintenance (8/9/24)

 And the rain keeps a coming. Tropical Storm (eventually Hurricane) Debby dumped 6.4” of rain on Glen Eagle, most (5.93”) within a 24 hours period last Saturday and Sunday.

That brings our year-to-date total to 50.74”, 42.61” of that since June 1st. Needless to say, it has been a wet summer.

Trivia time. The Glen Eagle property is approx. 362 acres. So Hurricane Debby dumped 62.9 million gallons and year to date, we have had 498.7 million gallons of water on Glen Eagle. In comparison, our annual water permit allows us to pump 73 million gallons. Which tells me that most of the rain that falls on Glen Eagle runs off the via the weir at Davis Blvd, evaporates, or goes into the ground to recharge the aquifer. 

Even with all the rain, the course overall faired well with most of the water accumulating along the outer edges, only two small trees blown over and we were back to 90 degrees on Thursday.

The installation of the weather station couldn’t have come at a more opportune time as I was able to monitor the rainfall and wind during the storm. On Sunday, the day TS Debby passed by, we had a gust that reached 38 mph and the wind averaged 15.3 mph during the storm.

While we were waiting for the water to recede, we were able to add some plants around the weather station to make it look better and help protect it from equipment and carts.

Here is a video of a rain squall on Monday that was associated with the tail end of then Hurricane Debby.

We ended up closing the golf course on Tuesday because the cart paths on 5 and 17 tee were under water, limiting our ability to get carts around the course. By Wednesday, the cart path on 5 was clear allowing us to open the front 9 and Thursday 17 was clear, allowing us to open all 18.

When the water rises above the lake banks, as is receeds, all the debris that was brought with it is left on the turf and has to be removed by hand. Our team has been out since Monday, cleaning up Glen Eagle and after many hours of raking and shoveling, it is starting to look normal again.

Here are some pictures of the water on the course this week.

Bunker on #3 flooded (the lake was over the turf on the left after the storm)

Lake on #5 tee spilling over into the UROS

#10 Rain accumulation

#16 Bunker Washout (Before Repairs)

#16 Bunker (After Repairs)

Drain in 16 Fairway

Hole #1 on Wednesday Afternoon (getting back to normal)

Looking back on 16 from 17 Tee

You can see from the haze in the picture of number 1 that it is very humid. The feels like temperatures in the afternoons since the storm have been at or near 105 degrees.

It will take another week or so to catch up on mowing etc. but with some drier weather in the short term forecast, we should be back to normal conditions relatively soon.

I look forward to seeing everyone on the course, and as always, if you have any questions, flag me down or shoot me an email. I always enjoy talking turf!

Glen Eagle Maintenance (8/2/24)

 July finished as it started, wet 😂.

It rained 20 of the 31 days for an accumulation of 12.83” which brings our 2024 rain total to 44 inches.

Fun fact, we went the entire month of July without running overnight irrigation.

Despite the wet weather, we the course is looking pretty good and the rain is helping the turf as it continues to recover from the intensive maintenance we completed during our last closure a couple weeks ago.

Today, we installed our new weather station and already it is collecting a lot of useful information.

The weather station uses solar radiation, humidity and wind speed data to calculate ET (Evapotranspiration) rates that will aide in determining irrigation timing and application amounts. Using the data from the weather station we can manage water usage more efficiently with the goal of reducing annual water usage while increasing course playability.

During the last closure we had two very large trees trimmed to provide better sunlight to the turf.

1. Tree across the path from the tees on hole #2…

Before

After

2. Left side of #7…

Before

Almost after

Debris from trimming

I look forward to seeing everyone on the course, and as always, if you have any questions, flag me down or shoot me an email. I always enjoy talking turf!