Am I Losing My Mind?

What do you notice about this picture?

Take a minute to look at the picture and see if you can find anything different or new (No, Waldo is not in the photo).

Anything?

I can hear it now: "He's crazy! It's only May and he's already gone off the deep end. There isn't anything different!".

While this response wouldn't surprise me and I assume that many of you have probably already had that thought that regarding me, the picture does show something VERY different and VERY important.

What are you supposed to be seeing?

The flag at #12 green is blowing in the breeze even with leaves on the trees!  For those of you that have been members at Elcona for a while, this is probably something that you may not have seen before, or at least not on a regular basis during the summer.  The wind on this particular day was blowing out of the northwest, which is common, but in the past, the dense trees between #12 green and #13 tee and understory plants that were growing along the fenceline all but eliminated every breath of air from reaching #12 green leading to extremely poor turf conditions on and around the green.

Remember all of the tree work that was done last winter in this area? This is exactly what we were trying to accomplish.  Here are some photos to remind you of how many trees we removed. Click on the pictures for a larger view.

 Click this link to go to a previous blog post with several more before and after photos.

At this stage in the game it would appear that we have accomplished our goal, but we still need to wait and see what kind of curve balls Mother Nature decides to throw us this season.  We certainly do not want a repeat of the last two summers where we struggled to keep this green alive. At least this season I feel we have a good head start on what may be coming down the line.

Tree Work: Before and After

I have been discussing and preparing you for the planned tree work around #12 green and #13 tee for quite a while and now the time has come to show you the results of our plan. For those of you that don't recall these discussions or reading about it in previous newsletters, I will give you a 'Cliff's Notes' version of what all the discussion was about.

 During the last two summers we have faced unusual spells of very hot weather coupled with extremely high humidity and excessive rainfall leading to very stressful conditions for managing turf (especially on greens).  #12 green has not responded well during these stressful periods and has led to a loss of turf on the putting surface which required us to manage that particular green differently.  Even with the fan running to help cool the surface and increase air flow, it simply hasn't been enough. So, what could we do to help prevent this from happening again?  The simple answer is to improve air flow even more and to increase the amount of sunlight the green receives.  In order to accomplish both of these goals, an aggressive tree removal plan was evaluated, discussed and approved.  Below, you will see several before and after photos of the areas around #12 green and #13 tee.  This post is significantly longer than my normal posts, so please take your time and enjoy the photos. Click on the pictures for a larger view.

The first two pictures show  before/after of the area directly south of #12 green (looking toward #7 green tee).  The goal with removing five very tall and equally large trees in this area is to improve the amount of sunlight that the green will receive in the spring and fall when the sun travels across the horizon at a lower angle than it does during the summer months. More sunlight = Healthier turf.

Before

After

The next two photos really show how many trees were removed with the goal of improving air flow coming from the west.  These photos were taken from the north side of #13 tee looking toward #12 green.

 While improving air flow from winds out of the west will be extremely helpful, we really aren't accomplishing much unless we evaluate how to utilize winds from the northwest as well as the north.  These four photos show the work that was done along the fence line on the northern edge of the property by #13 tee and #12 green.  We had been talking about cleaning-up this area as it always seemed rather unsightly. I think you will really enjoy the new view to the north, while #12 green will enjoy being able to breathe a little more easily.

Looking northeast from #13 tee - Before

Looking northeast from #13 tee - After

Looking northwest from #13 tee - Before

Looking northwest from #13 tee - After

And now for the big reveal! Many of you are probably extremely nervous about how the view has changed from #12 fairway looking toward the green.  While we did make some rather significant changes, I think you will find that the backdrop to the green hasn't changed much.  Yes, it does look different, but I feel very strongly that we were able to keep the same overall view for your approach shot while opening the area for improved air flow to the green and surrounding areas.

Before

After