Course Thaw

Finally. . . the freezing cold weather we experienced last week that closed the course has finally come to an end.  The weather forecast for the next week or so has replaced the below-freezing temperatures with lots and lots of rain.  So, what does this mean for the golf course and it goes without saying that the million dollar question is, is when will the golf course be open again?  

The answer to that is, it depends.  Over the next few days, we will be watching the impact of the rain and warmer temperatures on the greens.  These two things combined, will slowly thaw the permafrost that formed below the surface during last week's freezing temperatures.  What is going to happen over the next few days is, the greens (and all other surfaces) will thaw from the top down as the warm rain softens up the soil, eating away at the permafrost as it moves through.  Going forward while this process is occurring, we have to be careful not to put any traffic on the greens until they are all the way thawed.  

Sheeting water on greens due to frozen surfaces.

Until the permafrost is completely gone, it will act like a back-board inhibiting any type of drainage through the profile making the greens very squishy.  Moreover, any traffic on top of this backboard will essentially squeeze out any existing pore space which would have a very detrimental effect on the turf health.  The grass depends on this pore space for proper gas/oxygen exchange and root growth.  This is why we need to be judicious about when we allow play to resume on the greens.

As of this morning, I could only get my ice pick into most greens about a  quarter of an inch.  It might take a couple of days depending on how warm it gets.  

Ice pick hit permafrost at 1/4".

What have we been up to?

 My last post discussed the drainage addition that we completed on hole #3 and since then, the agronomy crew has been very busy with projects on the golf course.  I wanted to take a moment and quickly walk through the list beginning with what most of you noticed, the massive drainage installation on the 15th fairway pictured below.  We were able to install 565 linear feet of pipe right around the 100 yard marker.  We are especially excited about this improvement as this area had been chronically wet through all four seasons and had become a maintenance nightmare not to mention that it was right in the middle of the second landing zone on this fairway.

Drainage installation on 15th fairway.

After we wrapped up this project and got all the sod back in place, we were able to knock out an additional 200 linear feet to the right of the green.  This last project increased our grand total of installed drainage pipe up to 1,180 linear feet so far this winter.

Crew member, Derek Costa took over as our backhoe operator this winter and has
quickly become an expert, knocking out the trenches in no time.

This area was in dire need of additional drainage.  Notice all the water already
moving through the trenches.  The playability of this area will be much better now.

During the same stretch of dry weather that we installed the drainage pipe on hole 15, our silica bunker sand dried out so much that we were able to bust out a machine that we own called a Z-Screen which is essentially a vibrating sieve.  We used it to sift rocks and gravel that had worked their way up through the sand from the subsurface.  This machine only works well when there is no moisture in the sand otherwise the sand sticks and clogs the screens, making it impossible to sift.  We made quick work of this, focusing on green side bunkers that had the worst contamination, namely, to the left of #3 green, all bunkers around #4 green and the right side of #12 green.  Unfortunately, we got about 2.16 inches of rain a few days after we began this project, making the sand wet again.  We hope to continue this practice on a few more bunkers once the sand dries out again.

Tate and Sam sifting sand on #4.  

The trough at the bottom catches all the rocks and gravel while the sand
falls straight through the bottom of both screens.

Unfortunately, our golf course is built on a soil type known as glacial till which essentially means lots and lots of rocks and gravel.  With the heavy winter rains that we experience in Snoqualmie plus the lack of bunker liners, we are constantly subject to bunker washouts which exposes the glacial till soil.  This exposure compounded with rainfall makes the sand extremely prone to contamination.  The picture below shows what a typical washout can look like.

Notice all the rocks and gravel.  Not good for keeping the sand clean.

Speaking of bunkers, we have been able to restore and resurface the two pot bunkers in front of #1 green.  Over the years the bunker sand inside the bunkers makes its way into the surrounding turf through a variety of means including wind, foot traffic and golf clubs splashing sand onto the face.  Multiply this by a number of years and the surrounding turf can grow up to an astonishing foot or two, depending on the bunker.  Usually the areas between bunkers and greens are the worst due to the higher volume of play.  Here are some pictures that show the buildup and restoration.

The back side of the middle bunker on #1 had about 5 inches of bunker sand
buildup.  The darker colored soil shows the original grade.

Re-grading.  This eliminated the volcano-like shape of the outside of the
bunker and restored it to a sloping crater like grade.

The area between the middle bunker and green had about 8 inches of bunker
sand buildup.  

Finished product.  The visibility of the green from inside the bunker is
much better and the size of the bunker expanded once all the sand
buildup was removed from the edges.  

Original grade of the bunker on the right side of the green.  Notice the
inverted lip.

Stripping away the turf and bunker sand for re-grading.  We removed about
a foot of sand buildup between the green and bunker on this one.

Bunker all-re shaped and sodded.  Ready to redistribute the sand.

Finished product.  Visibility of the green from inside the bunker
is much better here too.  The volcano like edges are also gone.

We also have a few brush clearing projects that we have been working on that I am excited about but I will save details on that for another post.  In the meantime, our temperatures are forecasted to take a nosedive and remain in the teens/20's for the rest of this week so I expect that we will get a lot more brush clearning accomplished this week.  I will leave you with a gorgeous shot I captured of our pond on the 9th hole during the last cold snap in December.  I have a feeling I will be able to capture quite a few more similar photos this week!

#9 Irrigation Pond