The course has dried enough for carts today, but do not expect it to play firm yet. We do have several ropes up around the course to direct traffic. We are waiting for the fairways to dry more before we mow them, so they will be long today. The approaches are being mowed today. It looks like we might have a couple of dry days to get the course back in shape, but the evidence of standing water will remain. [.....]
Our trees received some attention this week. On Monday and Tuesday a tree inventory was done on the entire property and on Wednesday a tree climber was in to clean out the remaining hanging branches left from the storm 2 weeks ago.
This was the 3rd time that a tree inventory was done on the property. The first inventory was done in the mid-80's, then another in 2004. The purpose of this inventory is to get back to a starting point after the renovation project. The inventory [.....]
It would be nice to post something good about the weather, but I have not had the opportunity. This last batch of rain (0.90 inches last night, 0.10 today) is exactly what the course did NOT need. We have stressed the importance of being able to control the amount of water on the course during warm periods of weather. Last week we were fortunate to have been able to do that, but since Friday we have lost control of the amount of moisture on the course and it [.....]
Allowing air below the soil to exchange with air above the soil is a regular maintenance practice for us throughout the year. We have many different pieces of equipment that we can use depending on what our ultimate goal is. Through the summer we try to get through the course every 3-4 weeks, but use equipment that will cause minimal disruption. We decided this week would be a good time after the very hot temperatures and the excessive amount of rain we received over the weekend.
On [.....]
One Hour at a Time: Record Heat, Brown Patch, Dollar Spot, Pythium blight, Take-All, Physiological Decline, Turf Dormancy, Worn Collars, Tim likes Fairy Ring Research, and Peter says MRTF
Chicago/Northern Illinois Update: Derek Settle -
As predicted the week's weather was dangerously warm and golf playing sufaces now look a a tad bit wilted and possibly dormant in places. It was the combination of summer's hottest temperatures accompanied with humid air. What normally stays south in places like Texas and Kansas arrived in the Great Lakes. What [.....]
It has been a rough few days for courses in the Chicagoland area. We feel like NCC received our fair share of it, but reports from other courses show the weather certainly did not share fairly. Rain totals for here at the club:
0.55 inches on Friday
2.50 inches early Saturday morning
1.25 inches over Saturday night
1.00 inch Sunday morning.
The immediate evidence from these storms is the rain washing out bunkers and a wet course. Any damage from lightning may take a few days to [.....]
and lots of it. No carts again Sunday. 1.25 inches of rain over Saturday night and lots more this morning. That brings the total to 4.3 inches since Friday. We have not had the course closed today because of water, but the lightning is keep golf inside. [.....]
Expect soft and wet conditions with standing water in places. No carts today. [.....]
We received 2.5 inches of rain early this morning. The course has the typical flooding right now. There is minimal tree damage, but the bunkers are all washed out. This bring our rain total to just over 3 inches in the last 24 hours. We will let you know when the course opens for play. When it does re-open, there will be no carts available for Saturday. [.....]
Some areas on the course are beginning to show signs of hot weather. The annual bluegrass in the fairways and areas that receive the most traffic is showing the most stress. This reaction from the annual bluegrass is what we expected.
Here is a picture from 9 fairway that shows the yellow annual bluegrass. Annual bluegrass is more shallow rooted and less heat tolerant than bentgrass.
This picture is from yesterday afternoon. The cart traffic is concentrated around the edge of the bunker, which will lead to more [.....]
I should have done a post about our irrigation auditing first, this post may make more sense if I had.
Golf Course Industry magazine asked several courses what methods they have been using to conserve water. Naturally, the conservation of irrigation water is a big issue for many golf courses. Though we are not subject to water use restrictions for our irrigation water, many areas of the country are subject to them on a regular basis. Here is a link to what we offered.
Deep In [.....]
Throughout the past week a beetle has been burrowing in the putting green and creating several little mounds. These beetles have not been causing any damage to the green, but the mounds are difficult to putt over.
The beetle is the seedcorn beetle. Other than creating the mounds, we do not foresee any other issues. [.....]
You may have noticed this term used recently on weather.com if that is where you get your weather information. We thought we would send out a special weather statement of our own for this week. This type of forecast is not very accommodating for turfgrass growth, and it looks like it will be hanging around for about 8 days. A 2 day stretch of weather like this normally is not a problem, but a string of days like this is something that will be very stressful on the [.....]
It's Hot: 80 mph Winds, Physiological Decline, Brown Patch Wows, Fairy Ring on Greens, Rust Begins, Tim says Digiteria, and Peter Learns Rhizoctonia
Chicago/Northern Illinois Update: Derek Settle -
The forecast has our attention. The '10 day' has all superintendents and staff gearing up. As far as the eye can see, for the next ten days, daytime highs are to be as hot as it gets. In Chicago that means highs will reach 90° or more. Midsummer is our worst enemy as far as management of cool-season [.....]
Early this year we tracked down a video from 1951 taken at the club during the annual Round-Up event. Tim took the video to Memory Keepers downtown and had it made into a DVD and .avi format. It is now on our YouTube account to watch.
The Round-Up was an annual event at the club that involved a round of golf and a typical summer cookout after. It is interesting to see the course in 1951. I will try to get some photos of similar angles so the viewers can have a better feel for which part of the course they are looking at. You will also see that the term "appropriate golf attire" was more liberally [.....]
A refresher on divot repair from the club's Divot Digest.
Seed and soil boxes. Seed and soil boxes are located on the par 3 holes. They are filled with a mixture of sand, peat, and T-1 bentgrass seed.
If your divot is intact, it is best to replace the divot. If the divot explodes then it should be filled with the sand/seed mixture.
There is no need to overfill your divot, simply fill the divot about half-full that then tamp it down firmly.
[.....]
The latest storm did leave a large amount of clean up on the course, but the most noticeable evidence from it was the lack of power at the club until about 2:30 yesterday afternoon. Here is a series of pictures from the last two days:
Tree behind 2 green.
Yesterday afternoon after the clean up. [.....]
Since the storm yesterday morning, the club has been without power. Most importantly, this means the club is without water. No restrooms are available at the clubhouse or halfway house, and cart availability will be questionable. The course will be open for play, but services available will be similar to our closed day on Mondays. We will let you know when power resumes.For the green department, we can continue our maintenance with few other problems...until our equipment runs out of fuel. Then we will have to chase down [.....]
The storm that blew through this morning left a large amount of debris and a few trees to clean up. We received 0.50 inches of rain. The club is still without power at the clubhouse and maintenance facility. There will be piles of limbs around the course over the next few days. [.....]
A String of Hot Days: Wilt Stress, Water Management, Physiological Decline of Roots, Summer Patch, Tim's Early Dollar Spot, and Peter says 'Zenith'
Chicago/Northern Illinois Update: Derek Settle -
Part II begins. With peak turf quality experienced just prior to the Fourth of July, we were smiling as we battened down the hatches. It's midsummer after all and we've come to know it well. The first week of July was hot and the cloudy days which had provided a chlorotic (yellowish) look to our outdoor world suddenly went away. We entered a new week, and this one was all about water management and tanner skin. In my workday I began to move about the city on a [.....]
Another look at the club's fireworks show. The angle is different from what we normally watch fireworks from. The camera is sitting next to the fireworks looking up.
[.....]
A Hot Summer Arrives: Turf Quality 9s, Signs of Fairy Ring, Japanese Beetles Emerge in Chicago, Tim Finds first Brown Patch, and Peter Likes Diagnostics
Chicago/Northern Illinois Update: Derek Settle -
Summer has arrived. The calendar says it's so, and now the weather says so too. This week we gradually warmed and during the transition we were able to enjoy some of our nicest days this season. Several cloud-free days appeared and we learned the last time Chicago saw back-to-back clear skies was mid-February following our major [.....]