Here is a short edit of the storm clouds that moved through earlier today. We only received a little more than a 0.10 of an inch of rain.
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It is time for another special weather statement. I think the first "Special Weather Statement" came a few weeks later last year. Here is a weather report for the next 8 days for the golf course. First glance finds all 90s with lows barely dipping below 70. Here is a post that discusses the ideal temperatures for cool season grasses, and what happens when the weather presents temperatures outside those ideals: Turfgrass Temperature Stress, Part 1. We have been warmer than normal this year, but another environmental anomaly has [.....]
June Sees A Little Rain: Dollar Spot, 1st Japanese Beetles, Anthracnose BSR, Peter's Billbug versus Kentucky Bluegrass and Tim is still saying Waitea
Chicago/Northern Illinois Update: Derek Settle -
It was hard to keep a ballcap on a few days this week, whether near the striped turf of a baseball diamond (Cubs/Sox) or near the striped turf of a fairway (us). Hot wind meant turf ET climbed to outrageous levels, but our saving grace was rain which had made a dent on a dry landscape (0.5" last weekend for most of [.....]
The Fireworks Extravaganza is this Sunday. Due to the celebration, the driving range tee and chipping area will be closed on Saturday, after the morning crowd has teed off, to begin preparation. The driving range tee and chipping area will not be available on Sunday morning. [.....]
This is not how divots should be taken. "This should be required viewing for all members." That is the comment that was left on this post "Practice Tee and Divot Patterns" Our efforts to change the divot patterns on the practice tee this year have thus far been futile. The scattered divot pattern still prevails, and the the resulting wear. Something as simple as changing how a golfer takes divots on the practice tee will save wear. We addressed this in a few posts earlier this year, and one [.....]
The persistent warm and dry weather this year is beginning to show in the usual areas of cart traffic wear. The constant traffic on these areas and the resulting soil compaction leads to a shallower root system and a weaker plant. We have ropes placed to control cart traffic in these areas, but the golfer can help us by dispersing traffic patterns as they move around the course.
These two pictures show the traffic patterns of the carts on the course. It is evident in the top [.....]
The west parking lot will be closed Tuesday morning to allow the painters to finish the lines. It should be open by 11:00am. After that, the process of sealing and painting the parking lots will be finished. [.....]
Dry Roughs Now Get Scary: Take-all, Waitea, No Dollar Spot, No Brown Patch, No Pythium Blight, Peter's Bent Fairway Drought, Tim says Bent Green Stress
Chicago/Northern Illinois Update: Derek Settle -
It's dry. Weathermen are pulling out all the stops to impress us with a June (again). It turns out June 2012 is bone dry in Chicago and only 1988 (June 1-15) was drier. I can say little Sunshine Course's grass has never seen such dry (established c. 2001). Nevertheless, our turf health remains stellar, wherever irrigated, and the same is [.....]
The frequent blog updates have dried up the same as the weather. As I attempt to break my recent trend, we will see if the weather breaks its own trend. The course is playing great. All of our projects planned for the spring have been finished and we have moved into our maintenance mode for the summer.
Dry has been the story over the past several weeks. The only measurable rain we have had since May 8th was 0.75 inches on May 31st. The gaps in the [.....]
Our afternoon temperatures have been rising as the week goes on, but our morning temperatures have been cool. This has created some beautiful scenes in the morning when the sunrise shines through the mist coming off of the ponds. Yesterday I noticed mist coming off of a tree trunk. I set up the camera, but with the sun behind the tree, the video is not as clear as standing there watching it. The video is better in HD.
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Cool Rain as June Begins: Take-all patch of bentgrass, Fairy ring on fairways, Wet Restarts Dollar Spot and Microdochium, and Tim says that 'W' Word Waitea
Chicago/Northern Illinois Update: Derek Settle -
In a week we were the driest in quite some time - like several years. Of course, my eyes were on the turf and less than normal rain continued to be the look. The brownest looking lawns had appeared very early - it was May! Memorial Day weekend did the trick when a combination of heat and wind dropped [.....]