A portion of the new trees that were delivered on Monday included a batch of arborvitaes for along the path near 1 green. Since the path sits about 10 feet from Chicago Avenue, a row of bushes are being planted to prevent the feeling of sitting on the street. The installation of them has been difficult. The area is too small to get a backhoe to work effectively. As a result, the holes need to be dug by hand. The crew has found that digging a large trench [.....]
All of the trees were planted on Monday with no problems. As the trucks brought the trees, the trees were dropped into this pod so the truck could return to the nursery to pick up another.
This truck brought 30 arborvitaes that will be places along the fence by 3 green.
The first truck is dropping a tree into the pod then returned to the nursery to pick up the next tree. There were 5 trees planted with the 90" tree spade.
This is the [.....]
Sept. 24, 2010 Scouting Report
Fall Arrives Officially: Our last 90 degree day, Dollar spot wows, Tim's Biorational results, Nick says ImageResizer and MediaFire
Chicago/Northern Illinois Update: Derek Settle -
Sept. 23 officially marks the first day of fall, yet a 90° high temperature returned to Chicago's south side. For example, Midway Airport recorded 90°. A little farther to the west in Lemont, Sunshine Course didn't quite make it there (we would record 88°). At a CDGA board meeting at Lake Shore Country Club that same day (each club has one elected representative) I was wearing a nice tie and did my very best to summarize 2010 regarding turfgrass health.
As I spoke, a hot, windy day [.....]
Here is an update on a few things you may have noticed around the course.
We have put in a stone pad with a gravel base for the beverage station at 4 tee. We were having problems with the water from the irrigation cycles running down the cart path a gathering at the low spot on the path. The low spot happened to be right where the beverage station sat. A drain was installed as well to remove the excess water.
Lines have been painted on the [.....]
September 24th USGA Green Section Record [.....]
Many of the rough areas that were prepared for sod got pieced together today.
The rain we receive early Wednesday postponed the sod delivery until today. The crew was busy all day moving the sod to the course and watering after it was in place.
[.....]
On Wednesday we verticut the greens. This was the first time this was done since the spring time. We will likely get back to a more regular schedule on maintenance practices like this now that the grass has recovered from the summer heat and the cooler temperatures appear to be a regular habit of the weather. We are planning to verticut the tees and approaches this week also. Check here for more information on verticutting.
There are very small lines visible on the greens from the verticutting [.....]
We have started sodding a few more areas throughout the course. Most of these areas are small spots that we were hoping would heal on their own. Though some of the areas did heal, we were not satisfied with the recovery of others. These areas include spots on bunker faces and near cart paths. A few characteristics are shared by these areas, and we believe one or more of these resulted in damage. One characteristic is they are near cart paths or bunkers resulting in much higher temperatures [.....]
Sept. 17, 2010 Scouting Report
Dry Continues: iTurf Expo is Sept. 22, Seed and fertilizer flies, Dollar spot stops, First fall color, PCNB and snow mold, Tim's Crabgrass C4 vs. Kentucky bluegrass C3, and Nick's says "Lexingon and Firenza" tall fescue
Chicago/Northern Illinois Update: Derek Settle
Dry. In a week, we are seeing lots of recovery from summer injury. For example to my surprise on Tuesday, a research trial at North Shore Country Club was stopped in its tracks. For approximately one month we had been experiencing rapid progression of dollar spot. This week, my data collection was less impressive - turfgrass recovery now seemed to have the upper hand. Why? Cooler nights of 40s and 50s [.....]
September 17th USGA Green Section Record [.....]
The Tuesday we took a trip up Gro Horticultural Enterprises, Inc. to see their nurseries. Gro Horticultural did the tree transplanting work during the renovation project and has continued to consult for us on many of our trees. Gro Horticultural specializes in transplanting large trees with 90 inch or 100 inch tree spades. This fall we will be planting a few new trees to replace ones that have fallen this past year and to establish a new tree in locations where existing trees are declining.
Gro Horticultural visited about [.....]
The sod work to repair damaged areas in the fairways has been completed. A few small isolated areas in the roughs will continue to be sodded through the fall. The sodding used the entire fairway nursery that we maintain at the end of the driving range. The sodding work done on the greens has used the rest of our green nursery as well.
Both nursery areas have been reseeded to begin the reestablishment process.
The sod is establishing well in the fairways. A fertilizer application was [.....]
Sept. 10, 2010 Scouting Report
Beautiful Weather: We smile, Christmas early?, Sub-70 soils, Rapid recovery, Few Issues, Dollar spot and white grubs, Tim promotes, and Nick says, "Powered by Google"
Chicago/Northern Illinois Update: Derek Settle - DSettle@cdga.org
Smiling! "Turned the corner." One superintendent saw it that way this week. Another sent a weekend email and said "Merry Christmas" instead of Happy Labor Day. It was finally over - a long, hot summer. In a week, rapid turfgrass recovery occurred and soil temperatures again read sub-70 degrees. In a week, we reflected on a year that taught us lessons. Those lessons, if heeded correctly, will allow change ... golf course and our abilities can now improve. Quickly the mood changes [.....]
September 7th USGA Green Section Record [.....]
The intermediate cut around the fairways and the walkways from the tee to fairways will be grown out for the fall. The hill in front of 3 green will be given the same treatment as well. The thin and damaged areas that are visible now are the result of a disease called summer patch. Summer patch is more severe in areas with a lower height of cut. This is evident in the picture on the left. The taller areas next to the walkway do not show symptoms of [.....]
We worked at the putting green through most of the day today. The work involved aerating the green with solid tines, topdressing the green with sand to fill the holes, then overseeding the entire green.
The holes allow for better air exchange between the soil profile and the air outside the green. Along with air exchange, once these holes are filled with sand, they provide a seed bed for the new seed that was applied.
We applied the sand at a heavier rate than a normal topdressing. [.....]
The course received 1.48 inches of rain late Thursday evening. It came down very quickly and washed out most of the bunkers. Water was across the floodway, but doesn't appear to have damaged the seed that has been put down.
When rain washes out our bunkers it requires lots of work to get them back into playing shape. We had a large crew working in the bunkers on Friday morning. The work requires removing debris that may have washed in from the surrounding turf. This debris will [.....]
Last week we began sod work on the fairways and greens to repair the larger areas of damaged turf. Our overseeding of the fairways is completed and we have germination of the seed that was applied. We are sodding the larger areas of damaged turf to expedite the recovery process. Most of the fairway sod work is completed at this point. This week we have our sights set on the largest areas of damaged turf which are located along the floodway in 2 fairway and 9 fairway, and [.....]
Sept. 3, 2010 Scouting Report
It's September, It's Labor Day Weekend: Dry conditions peak, Roughs go dormant, Mosquito spray, Summer patch, Mystery patch, Type 1 Fairy Ring, Pythium blight, Tim's Poa control data, and Nick says "wordpress"
Chicago/Northern Illinois Update: Derek Settle - DSettle@cdga.org
Lucky number 18? It turns out weathermen run statistics at the end of each month. We now know Chicago's recent June to August period was the 18th hottest and 18th wettest. Other regions were similar and some even hotter. For example, the Chicago Tribune recently reported on Central Park's temperature in New York City. "For June through August, the historic average for Central Park is 73.9 degrees, and it was 77.8 this year. The previous record high [.....]