The summer flowers have arrived and most of them have found a place in the beds around the clubhouse and entrance. This is usually a process that takes a few days to finish. The flowers that were in place this spring are available for you to take if you choose. They are underneath the pine trees near the parking lot.
The crew hard at work planting flowers.
Disease symptoms resulting from fungicide pathogens were noticed on Sunday, and so, we have applied our first fungicide application [.....]
Sunday weather brought the course another 0.87 inches of rain. That brought the total for the weekend to 1.17 inches. The rain during the week had the course's soil saturated before the weekend. As a result, this weekend's rain has nowhere to go, so it is sitting on top of the soil. Carts will not be available for Monday morning, but we will evaluate as the day goes by. The practice tee will be open.
Our crew is working on getting the bunkers back in shape this [.....]
Memorial Day Weekend! Rough Takes Off, Words of Wisdom, Microdochium Patch?, More Waitea Reported, and Tim says Early Dollar Spot
Chicago/Northern Illinois Update: Derek Settle - DSettle@cdga.org
Spring? In 2011 it never seems to be one season for long. Spring (if you want to call it that) took a step backwards this week when our medium jackets were back on, it felt cold. It all began Sunday, May 22, when a cold front broke the truce. A cloudy sky grew overhead and dropped significant rainfall, 2 inches, for some (north [.....]
Don't let the rain stop you from coming out and enjoying an early start to the holiday weekend. The course will be soft and casual water should be at a minimum for tomorrow. The rain total for the past two days came to a little more that 2.3 inches. The course has handled the rain well, and by this afternoon we were more positive about the conditions than we thought we would be. There are a handful of areas like the one pictured on the left. Water in [.....]
This will be the first of a series of posts through the summer that will highlight the tools we use to monitor course conditions on a daily basis. The first tool we will highlight is a Soil Profile Sampler. We use this on a daily basis to see what is happening to the part of the turfgrass system that we cannot see from above ground.
Just like a hollow tine will pull a core when aerating, this tool pulls a profile of the soil that is about [.....]
From GCI Magazine Tim answered a few questions for an article titled "You've Got The Look" in the May issue of Golf Course Industry Magazine. The article discusses how Superintendents manage the look and playing conditions of the course. Another Chicagoland Superintendent from another NCC (Tommy Witt, Northmoor Country Club) is featured in the article as well. [.....]
Clear Skies and Sun! Bentgrass is Green, Bentgrass Seed Germinates, More First Dollar Spot, Waitea Progresses, and Tim's Research Work for 2011
Chicago/Northern Illinois Update: Derek Settle - DSettle@cdga.org
Wed 50 low /60 high and Thu 46 low /73 high. A pair of nice days and Friday is just as nice - warmer nights and how about full sun? It means this season has just turned the corner and is in a direction that creeping bentgrass likes (i.e., bentgrass needs average soil temperatures at 2 inches to stabilize at [.....]
Each year, right on cue, we field questions about thick and difficult rough conditions. In a 2010 article titled “Spring Rough Is Rough”, Senior USGA agronomist Darin Bevard noted that difficulty of the rough was a topic of discussion at nearly all of his Turf Advisory Service visits.
Fundementals of Turfgrass Management, Nick Christians Aggressive spring growth of cool season turf is normal. As depicted in the graphic below, cool season grasses experience a primary surge of growth in the spring followed by a smaller (recovery) growth [.....]
We count a 90° day: Soils reach 65° at 2 inches, First Dollar Spot, First Waitea, Crabgrass Germination Begins and Tim's Data on Poa annua Control
Chicago/Northern Illinois Update: Derek Settle - DSettle@cdga.org
I'm awake! In a week our temperatures went through the ceiling. What happened was unusual and our environmental conditions quickly shifted from a cool month of sluggish greenup to midsummer. Three days at or near 90° began onTuesday, May 10 when Chicago set new record highs with Midway's mercury reading 91°. Little Sunshine Course matched that and then went on to log two more 90° days. It meant midday wilt stress of sand-based golf greens began. Hand-watering of those purpling patches also began. Just a week prior those same [.....]
17 pond has been the home of many different species of wildlife. During the construction project the pond was constructed to strict specifications to provide different habits for wildlife. As I drive by several times a day, it is obvious that we have succeeded with our original intensions. Here is a post from last year that talks about the wildlife last year: 17 Pond Is Getting Crowded. Here is a picture I was fortunate enough to be in the right place at the right time to get:
[.....]
The greens have been very slow this week. We are working to fix this as soon as we can, but it will likely take a few days to fix this issue. Our mechanic, Greg, has been away from the course on an unexpected temporary medical leave since Friday, May 6th. Thankfully, Greg has been able to return home, and is expected to be back to work next week. As you have noticed this week, Greg is extremely important to our quality of cut and it's impact on green speed and smoothness. We have done our best to continuously adjust the mowers, but we are off our sharpening schedule.
The warm weather this week has been excellent for golf, [.....]
We have completed the drain in 15 approach. We had a large group of guys that worked very hard to get this completed in 2 days. They did a fantastic job and the final product looks great. A montage of photos of the drainage project can be found at our YouTube account HERE.
This was another area that was notorious for remaining wet for several days after a rain event. This would force us to skip mowings in this area and leave it roped of to cart [.....]
I mentioned in yesterday's post that we had another drainage project lined up. We thought it was best to do it this spring for the best playing conditions throughout the year. This is a bigger project than the drain in 1 fairway, but we hope to be done by the weekend. [.....]
The course has finally turned the corner for the year. The weather slowed its progress for several weeks, but today the warm weather was very noticeable by the blooms on the redbuds, crabapples and hawthorns. The soil temperatures are up making the grass is green and now beginning to grow like we expect it to this time of year. We are beginning to find ourselves starting our regular summer mowing schedules, which is probably the result of regular play on the course. We may attempt to complete another [.....]
May 6, 2011 Scouting Report
Let there be sun! It's May, Illinois dries, Missouri reports dollar spot, and Tim's Shoreacre bentgrass trial versusPoa annua
Chicago/Northern Illinois Update: Derek Settle - DSettle@cdga.org
We turned a page. On the calendar it's May. In the sky we see sunlight. On the gound, the sound (equipment mowing) means turf has quickly regained both growth and color (not purple). Even Poa annua responded and produced seedheads on greens this week. Soggy, cold conditions are generally not good for plant growth and definitely slowed this spring and interfered with golf. Still, let's keep perspective. This is not spring 2010 when some of the most extensive winter injury existed on golf surfaces in recent memory (decades [.....]
We have been talking about how the weather has created a slow start for us this year, and how this cold weather has caused the plants to be farther behind. Here is a picture that was taken last year to illustrate this. The picture to the left was taken on May 5, 2010. The amount of leaves on the trees is obvious.
This picture was taken on Tuesday, May 3, 2011. The cloud cover and cold temperatures are to blame for the dramatic differences. Yesterday we collected [.....]
I did not think I was going to be posting this until tomorrow, but the crew was able to finish the drain on 1 fairway today. This should cure the chronic wet area, and keep ropes off the fairway after rains. It will take a few weeks for the sod to grow back together, maybe longer if this weather does not warm up soon.
Part of the crew is laying the tile in the trench, while the other part is following with gravel.
The finished product. [.....]
The continuous rains through April convinced us to start a drainage project today in 1 fairway. We planned to install a drain in this area this coming fall as a continuation of the drainage projects that were completed this past fall. This area gathers a large amount of water off the approach and the fairway. The area with the new drain at the bottom of 2 fairway has shown a noticeable difference from last year, and we expect this area to have the same result. We hope to [.....]
April 29, 2011 Scouting Report
April's Record Cloudcover: Floods then Tornados, Yellow Patch, Microdochium Patch, and Tim sees overwintering Thryidopteryx ephemeraeformis
Chicago/Northern Illinois Update: Derek Settle - DSettle@cdga.org
After 118 years Chicago finally did it and set a new April record - most days with cloudcover. Most folks, including golfers, were increasingly cranky as we counted each and every cloudy day. The effects on turf health were obvious; creeping bentgrass remained strangely purple-bronze and roughs remained thin, without recovery. I even noticed my skin had become increasingly pale. However, more serious weather to the south was in the news and an inconvenient soggy month in Chicago quickly became less serious though it had interfered with course maintenance, plant health, [.....]