April is Cloudy and Cold! Bentgrass Purples, Snow Falls, Sub 50 Degree Soils, and Tim talks Tall Fescue Green-up
Chicago/Northern Illinois Update: Derek Settle -
Cold and Wet. A week ago, I praised the progress of spring. I was sure winter was completely behind us and, like many others, I was checking off the appearance of our earliest blooms in the landscape - Forsythia, check. Also, for the first time, all cool-season turfgrass had attained a nice uniform shade of green and a few trees had begun to leaf out. This week things changed. During the day we had to accept a dismal cold and wet weather pattern above our heads. At night hard frosts would return and Mother Nature even delivered one final snowstorm for good measure. The weathermen put it to us this way: "It's rained 14 of April's first 21 days--a fact not lost on many rain and cloud-weary Chicagoans." "April 2011 is tied with 1953 as the cloudiest APRIL on the books here. The month, with 9 days left and at least two additional wet storms in line to visit the Midwest, has already logged 3.25 inches of rain..." Tom Skilling blog 4-22-10
Superintendents were in disbelief (emails, texts, and photos to me) as some measured 2-3 inches of snow on Monday, April 18. Still, there is no holding back all the seasons - Easter is Sunday!
Click here to view the April 22, 2011 Scouting Report.
Have a good weekend and Happy Easter!
Derek Settle, PhD
Director of Turfgrass Program
630-685-2307
Timothy A. Sibicky, MS
Manager of Turfgrass Research
630-685-2310
Chicago/Northern Illinois Update: Derek Settle -
Cold and Wet. A week ago, I praised the progress of spring. I was sure winter was completely behind us and, like many others, I was checking off the appearance of our earliest blooms in the landscape - Forsythia, check. Also, for the first time, all cool-season turfgrass had attained a nice uniform shade of green and a few trees had begun to leaf out. This week things changed. During the day we had to accept a dismal cold and wet weather pattern above our heads. At night hard frosts would return and Mother Nature even delivered one final snowstorm for good measure. The weathermen put it to us this way: "It's rained 14 of April's first 21 days--a fact not lost on many rain and cloud-weary Chicagoans." "April 2011 is tied with 1953 as the cloudiest APRIL on the books here. The month, with 9 days left and at least two additional wet storms in line to visit the Midwest, has already logged 3.25 inches of rain..." Tom Skilling blog 4-22-10
Superintendents were in disbelief (emails, texts, and photos to me) as some measured 2-3 inches of snow on Monday, April 18. Still, there is no holding back all the seasons - Easter is Sunday!
Click here to view the April 22, 2011 Scouting Report.
Have a good weekend and Happy Easter!
Derek Settle, PhD
Director of Turfgrass Program
630-685-2307
Timothy A. Sibicky, MS
Manager of Turfgrass Research
630-685-2310
These cooler temperatures have given us the opportunity to get more little projects done rather than concentrating on mowing everyday. We have been able to weed and prep our pine beds, chip a pile of limbs into mulch, clean the fence rows along the property lines and get our beginning of the season bunker work done.
If all the world's golf course putting greens had the ability to express the magnitude of their tortured existence - in a manner that could be recorded by the print and broadcast media, there would surely be a new Guinness Book of World Records mark for "Volume of Complaints from a Single Source." I have chosen to speak for the greens.
Wouldn't you scream to high heaven if thousands of rock-hard golf balls speed from the sky each week - tearing into your outer skin, crushing your tender circulatory system, traumatizing your nervous system and leaving unsightly depressions that require about five days to heal if repaired immediately, or two weeks if unattended to?
Wouldn't you raise particular Cain if part of your daily regimen was to submit to being trampled and disfigured by ever-increasing hordes of thoughtless players - each of whose shoe-bottoms contain 24 half-inch metal spikes that are designed to prevent slipping on tees, fairways and roughs - but are not meant to be part of an adagio dance on a green's tender surface (or leap in the air and click of of the heels) after holing a 50-foot "no-brainer" putt?
The foregoing barely scratches the surface of the number of ghastly horrors that daily attend the overseeing of current state-of-the-art greens. Construction costs for greens today approximate $100,000 to $250,000. With the 18 greens, superintendents find that they are dealing with 18 different personalities. Let's look at some background:
In golf's earliest years (1450-1850), putting surfaces were not clearly defined. They were the immediate, semi-barren areas surrounding a gull feather that protruded from a partially filled in rabbit hole. The driving area for the next hole was only seven to 10 paces away from the gull feather. Wet sand for teeing the ball on the succeeding hole was obtained by reaching onto the hole just completed and grabbing a handful!
Golf, in its totality, was quite a simple game for its first 450 years, when less than 150 courses existed worldwide. In Scotland, it appeared that nature created links-land to accommodate the game.
In the last 100 years, the game's popularity, capitalistic opportunity and mega-marketing have caused serious crowding and cost crises.
Threats to perishable putting surfaces today are truly legion. They include: frost, ice, hail, snow, humidity, birds, insects, rodents, sun-baking, loose farm animals and "Bambi," rowdy teenagers, floods, worms, beetles, fungi, snow-mold, competing grasses, irate and thoughtless players and poor maintenance equipment.
Walking on frost-covered greens crushes the blades (not the roots) which thaw to an off-white color in the shape of the foot that crushed them.
Large flocks of geese nibble at the slightly taller grasses at the green's fringes. They can tear out fids of turf the size of a wedge divot. Swarms of starlings deface greens by pecking open 1-by-2-inch holes in search of cutworms.
Adventurous teenagers can be severely destructive. Driving across greens while violently spinning the wheels is a criminal act. Using the flagstick or broken branches to scrawl obscenities deep into a green's surface means heavy fines and extended community service.
Player indiscretions include such things as carelessly replacing the flagstick so that it breaks down the sharp edges of the hole, which can cause putts to lip-out for players that follow. If you have a relatively short second putt and will have to wait to finish, mark your ball and move a good distance away from the hole. If all four players are standing whispering distance from each other when the last party putts out, it means that all four players will then turn at the same time to head for the next tee. What happens at that moment is that four pairs of shoes (with some 96 spikes) will turn and "push off" from the very crucial putting area around the hole. A forest of nearly 100 small soil eruptions (called spike marks) appear and they become like roadblocks to players that follow.
Words may be exchanged; there are still a few dim bulbs who insist on repairing their ball marks by tapping in the sides of the depression with the toe of the putter and sickening eyesores can occur and linger when an irate player (after missing and 18-incher) takes a swipe at his ball with the putter - misses - but lifts out a fairway-sized divot from the pristine green. The awful scar telegraphs the guilty party's name to every member of the club. The memory of the act is as a hard to remove as a tattoo.
A suggestion to parents: Should a son or daughter make so much as a peep about desiring to become a golf greens superintendent, seek psychiatric help for the child immediately. That is unless he or she was born with cartilaginous scales for skin, a prehensile tail and breathes fire from both nostrils.
Herb Matter, Jr. - The Naperville Sun, Friday, July 22, 1994
Herb Matter, Jr. was a long-time member of Naperville Country Club, and a member of the Matter family who is referred to as "The First Family" of Naperville Country Club. Herb Matter, Sr. was a founding member of the club in 1921. Herb Matter, Jr. was an avid golf historian and collector as well as a columnist for The Naperville Sun for 15 years. This is one of his columns from his time at The Naperville Sun. A full collection of his columns are compiled in a book that is available at the club. With golf season upon us (eventually), I felt like this would be a good reminder for the golfer to do your part to preserve the playability of the greens through the season.
The Anatomy of a Pitch Mark - USGA Green Section
It's Not the Tool - It's the Toolee - USGA Green Section
An Appeal for the Return of Golf Course Etiquette - USGA Green Section
April 15, 2011 Scouting Report
April is Nice! More Flowers, New Leaves, Average Soil Temperatures Hit 50+, Rhizoctonia Yellow Patch, and Tim's Colorific Kentucky Bluegrass
Chicago/Northern Illinois Update: Derek Settle -
Flowers. This was a terrific week in your life, especially if you have horticulture in your blood. I grew up learning the art of growing plants from an Iowa farm girl. It turned out I knew a little Latin before I was told it wasn't a real 'living language'. Hah! This week turf greenup continued its good pace across the landscape. Golf courses in Chicago and Northern Illinois look terrific with few issues reported. Another nice warm week during April has meant good things for more than just monocots (grasses). Increasingly, we've begun to see some nice flowers. For example, star magnolia is now with creamy white flowers, one of the first to deliver a potent fragrence. Another woody ornamental with a medium yellow flower appeared this week - Corneliancherry dogwood or Cornus mas. Golf continued its return as well, just ask Sunshine.
It is the best spring I have experienced in 5 years - turf healthwise. We still face the risk of a late hard freeze and to remind us of that, Mother Nature turned off our tap of warm air this weekend. In the meantime we can enjoy spring's progress up to now. Yellow flowers anyone? DMS
Click here to view the high resolution version of the April 15, 2011 Scouting Report. The high resolution version may take longer to download.
Have a good weekend, enjoy spring, and stay warm!?!
April is Nice! More Flowers, New Leaves, Average Soil Temperatures Hit 50+, Rhizoctonia Yellow Patch, and Tim's Colorific Kentucky Bluegrass
Chicago/Northern Illinois Update: Derek Settle -
Flowers. This was a terrific week in your life, especially if you have horticulture in your blood. I grew up learning the art of growing plants from an Iowa farm girl. It turned out I knew a little Latin before I was told it wasn't a real 'living language'. Hah! This week turf greenup continued its good pace across the landscape. Golf courses in Chicago and Northern Illinois look terrific with few issues reported. Another nice warm week during April has meant good things for more than just monocots (grasses). Increasingly, we've begun to see some nice flowers. For example, star magnolia is now with creamy white flowers, one of the first to deliver a potent fragrence. Another woody ornamental with a medium yellow flower appeared this week - Corneliancherry dogwood or Cornus mas. Golf continued its return as well, just ask Sunshine.
It is the best spring I have experienced in 5 years - turf healthwise. We still face the risk of a late hard freeze and to remind us of that, Mother Nature turned off our tap of warm air this weekend. In the meantime we can enjoy spring's progress up to now. Yellow flowers anyone? DMS
Click here to view the high resolution version of the April 15, 2011 Scouting Report. The high resolution version may take longer to download.
Have a good weekend, enjoy spring, and stay warm!?!
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We opened the greens a little over a week ago, since then Mother Nature has been stingy with her golf days. Today the soil temperature is hovering around 45 degrees, we are still waiting for things to really kick in and show signs of spring. Our plan was to let carts out over the weekend, .8 inches of rain threw a wrench in our plan but we are still hopeful that with a little cooperation (in the form of wind and sun) we will be able to run carts shortly (maybe Sunday). Check the blog and the website for current information.
