Skokie Country Club Golf Course Management

Skaters Enjoy Rink!

2012-01-22T19:17:00.000-06:00

First of all, Happy New Year to All!
Yes, this is my first post of 2012 but prior to this point, since the turn of the year, there hasn't been anything really exciting to blog about. Equipment maintenance; mower sharpening; sanding and painting of ball washers; planning and ordering spring / summer flowers; sanding and refinishing rakes, benches, and trash receptacles; and other such activities; is exciting stuff to me and my staff, but not something terribly interesting to you. Today, however, with Mother Nature finally cooperating over the past several days, there now is something of interest... The new SCC Ice Rink, adjacent to the new Paddle Facility, is getting a nice amount of use!

First real test of new rink (and some new hockey equipment) by my son, Joe.

Report was...Rink solid, ready to be enjoyed!

Heather Blackwell & guest skate during "Sno-maggedon" last week.

Snow was falling so fast that as soon as I cleaned off surface, I had to start again!

Since we don't have a Zamboni, Steve and I settle for the hand operated, "Rink Re-surfacer." It really works quite well and the process takes only about ten minutes. We'll continue to keep this up as often as needed.

Post re-surfacing... Now there is some quality, frozen H2O!

Today at the rink several youngsters and one larger youngster, (the Steele family and others) enjoyed passing around a puck. I think they had a great time skating and enjoyed the after skate hot cocoa too!

It was really great to see all of the above, and many others over the past week or so, having fun on the ice, and hopefully we'll continue to have cold conditions for a few more weeks. You can call the main office and/or the paddle house (evenings) to check on rink availability but if it's freezing outside there is a pretty good chance it is open. If the temperatures warm up for a few days it's best that you give us a call.

Just a few things to remember please:

The rink is not supervised and is "skate at your own risk".
Helmets are highly recommended. Especially for younger children.
A bench is provided next to the rink for you to put on/ take off skates. Skates not allowed in Paddle House.
Rink is not intended for hockey but if everyone on the ice approves it is ok to "pass around a puck" Use discretion and courtesy please!
Be Safe, Have Fun, Come Soon & Come Back Often! It will be spring before long!

Mild Weather allows Late Year Projects

2011-12-14T15:23:00.000-06:00

I thought by now it would be 'Beginning to look a lot like Christmas', but not just yet! After finishing leaf processing (mulching), winterizing the course (irrigation system and winter disease protection), covering the greens, removing all course furnishings, and finishing a few minor items related to the Paddle Project (drainage and site clean up) we thought it would be time to come inside and begin our winter equipment maint. and repair activities. The mild temperatures and lack of snowfall (one of the five lowest snow records to this date - only a half inch) have delayed that for now and this past week we've been able to work (or continue work) on a few outdoor projects.

A couple weeks ago we topdressed all fairways with sand (a program we began a couple years ago but just this fall expanded to include all 18) and aerated with shallow (4" deep) solid tines. Shortly thereafter we began a second fairway aeration but with larger tine sizes capable of penetrating up to 9-10 inches. This depth helps break up compacted areas deeper in the rootzone aiding water penetration and root growth. The mild temperatures (no frozen ground yet) and snow free fairways, have allowed us to continue this process and our goal is to finish all before freezing conditions set in.

Rafa continues the Verti-drain deep, solid tine aeration (minimally disruptive on the surface but yielding valuable soil compaction relief below) hoping to complete all fairways before it gets too cold!

As I've mentioned in earlier posts, the record flooding last summer, and then near record temperature and humidity that followed, caused turf thinning and some turf loss in several low, slow-to-drain areas in a few fairways. Throughout the fall and early winter we installed additional drainage pipe in these damaged areas and our goal is to ultimately add pipe and drop inlets (catch basins) in all such areas. The mild conditions we've had lately have allowed us to continue this work (on #18 fairway at the moment) and hopefully we'll have several more days before we have to rest the trencher.

Hard to see from photo but this trench is less than 4 inches wide and allows our 2 inch flexible pipe to fit nicely followed by a covering of gravel and then an 8 inch finish layer of rootzone mix. The narrow cut will heal quickly in the spring with a little seed and normal encroachment of adjacent turf. I selected this process (narrow trench, small pipe) as opposed to typical 4 inch pipe (larger trench and scar) to minimize recover time and eliminate need for sod cutting and replacing. More trenching and pipe installed, and less repair, with this method.

Chances are pretty good that at some point our weather is going to become more typical and drop below freezing and stay this way for some time. It's a pretty safe bet. Unfortunately, some might say. But for those whom enjoy the cold and snow (which also will likely come) we plan to once again flatten some tracks so that skate style skiing can be enjoyed. And speaking of skate style, this year we are adding another winter activity option (for those whom really like it cold and even freezing) and that is ice skating.

Nearly every year we are asked if we would allow skating on the ponds and we have always resisted due to the hazardous potential of dangerously thin ice. Also, several of our ponds are aerated (oxygenated for fish health) and so the ice never completely forms on these ponds. This year however, in looking at the area just north of the Paddle Facility, in the rough west of #14 fairway, we determined that an ice staking area could be developed. After doing some research we decided to go forward with it and so an ice rink is now in the works! We purchased a simple to erect, reusable ice rink kit that includes shallow walls (plastic panels), supports, a durable plastic liner, liner protector for walls, and an ice resurfacer tool. It's a nice size of 40 x 96 and we'll likely add some lights for your evening skating pleasure. It's our first time at ice making and rink maintenance but I think we'll figure it out and hopefully have a nice place for you to skate with family, then kick off the skates and go inside the Paddle House to warm your toes by the fire! Hopefully you'll have some fun!

Ice Rink walls (supports and panels) begins after leveling a few low areas with sand.

Ice Rink walls up and we now await onset of consistent below freezing temperatures so that we can place liner, kick plates, bumper caps, fill with water and begin to make ice.

By the way if you are wondering if the turf area beneath the liner will be damaged by ice, that was one of the first things we wanted to know too and from our research we found that with this being rough grasses (bluegrasses, fescues) they are quite tolerant, and in fact the area under cover may emerge greener and healthier next spring. So with that, here's hoping for a good cold spell after next week! I'll post again when we get ready to finish the "Rink at Skokie"!

Greens Aeration - Session 2

2011-11-04T11:35:00.001-05:00

In mid-October we conducted our first fall greens aeration session utilizing small diameter tines which allowed for rapid healing. The purpose was many-fold and included: compaction relieve (from a summer season of mowing and rolling); aiding topdressing sand incorporation; improving air exchange; and creating open channels for new root growth which follows the summer stress period of minimal root growth. Small tines were used at this first session to minimize healing time so as to retain quality putting conditions during this early-mid autumn period, which can often be some of the best playing conditions all year. The period was in fact quite nice with firm and fast surfaces through much of October and overall very high quality putting conditions.

As we now move further into autumn and the days shorten, temperatures begin to drop, and moisture is likely to increase, all leading to diminished play, I want to complete a second aeration session utilizing larger, more conventional sized tines for the primary purpose of managing the natural increase in organic matter accumulation. We began the process this week and it simply involves aerating with approx. 5/8th inch diameter tines, removing the cores, applying a heavy amount of topdressing sand, and incorporating to fill the core holes.

Core Aeration with approx. 5/8th inch diameter cores.

Yes, I know it's not popular... but it's essential! And it is November!

We're removing cores this session to manage accumulation of naturally developing organic matter which can lead to excessive moisture holding and surface softness.

Heavy application of sand is needed to fill core holes as completely as is possible.

Over years of frequent sand topdressing in conjunction with the natural accumulation of organic matter (as stems and roots naturally slough and decompose) a 4-5 inch layer of sand/organic rootzone now exists. This sand/organic layer is indeed desirable and many times when we aerate the greens we re-incorporate this mixture. Too much organic material accumulation however, could eventually cause surfaces to hold excess moisture and lead to anaerobic (lacking oxygen) conditions and therefore periodically I like to remove the material completely and then re-fill all the core holes with fresh sand. We do "recycle" the removed core/sand material by using it to propagate putting green nursery sod, for use should we have any damage to our regular greens.

Profile shows twenty-one years of frequent light topdressing on top of former heavy soil / organic material. The light colored column is a recent core hole filled with fresh sand. Color contrast shows how organic matter (from naturally occurring, continually decomposing, plant parts) darkens the sand. Our management practices includes the periodic removal to prevent excessive accumulation.

With this aeration - core removal - heavy sand topdressing - brooming process requiring more time to conduct and days being shorter and frost delays now quite common, this task will likely require several days to fully complete. At this time we have completed the back nine holes. Next week we will tackle the front nine. Thank you for your understanding of this vital, putting green, quality maintenance task

Course & Projects Update

2011-10-14T14:42:00.002-05:00

I know... It's been too long since I've posted, but not because I haven't had much to write about. Much to the contrary for sure! Last time I left you we were thick in the process of repairing/restoring turf cover to areas damaged by the late July record flooding and record temperatures. Also we've been active assisting with various items related to the Paddle Project, installing drainage in several fairways, and lately addressing several typical fall tasks such as; deep tine aeration (fairways), core aeration (tees), fairway topdressing and solid tine aeration (select fairways), and daily leaf blowing/mulching throughout the entire course. It's been a very busy couple months for sure! The following photos and caption information will hopefully give you a little recap and update of many of these tasks/projects:

Remember the flooding in late July? 12 inches of rain in a 10 day period...

It resulted in many "bird bath" areas (low spots which held water for long periods) dieing and requiring re-grassing efforts such as sodding and/or this aerification and overseeding procedure

The small aerification holes provide improved soil drying and ideal locations for...

seed to be planted and protected during establishment.

A light covering with a sand/peat mixture further helps to provide good seed/soil contact and aids moisture holding during critical seed germination period. Unfortunately additional heavy rain occurred after several areas were complete and the entire operation had to be repeated. And actually due to even further untimely rain events, in some cases we repeated this work three times!

but...eventually we had good germination and today these areas are filling in and recovering quite well.

We picked a bit of bad year to perform several green expansions, locations where we are recapturing former putting surface areas which had been lost over many years due to cautious mowing practices. These areas were very gradually lowered in height from approach height, down to green height, over the entire early spring through mid-July period. They were beautiful until the 100 degree day of July 22nd, and the flooding and extreme high heat and high humidity period that followed for many days, at which time we saw significant thinning. This wasn't all together unexpected, as in 1999 and 2000 when we did similar expansion, we had similar turf loss. Fortunately the following year these areas had little to no thinning. I'm hoping this is the situation next year!

In the past I experimented with this technique whereby we aerated a thin area and removed cores, then aerated a good quality area to serve as healthy stock cores which we then inserted into the thin area holes. This provides some improvement in appearance and eventual spreading and recovery, but mainly so that mowing equipment (we still need to regularly mow these areas) would be supported such that seed, we also plant in these same areas, is somewhat protected from compression damage. Above is an example where we employed my "core transplanting" technique. Why not? They do it with hair, why not with turf? It works!

Projects: We've had a few!!

An earlier project, after we completed installing a new cedar shake roof, on the Half way House, was replacement of the tired fencing and landscape on the south side.

Paddle Project site work...installing storm drain lines (shown), and sump pump discharge drains (not shown) between courts.

Paddle Project site work...saw cutting area prior to trenching, from Grounds Operations Center to new Paddle House for data, phone, and cable lines.

Plenty of concrete rubble beneath the pavement made this a bit of a challenge!

One thing that this years flooding showed us was the exact locations where we need more drainage!

Our goal is to place additional lines and drop inlets in all these areas...there are many and this will take us a year or more to complete, but we'll keep working at it as long as it takes to help prevent, or at least significantly decrease, flood damaged turf in the future.

Here we are working on #18 fairway (the same location as above photo)... We've installed about 1000 ft (in 3 different fairways) so far and hope to do at least as much before the ground freezes.

An earlier location (#13 fairway) nearly fully recovered from flood damage and subsequent drainage installation and then seeding and core planting procedures. Drainage works!

It's that time of year...Aeration. Tees aeration is complete, fairway core aeration and greens aeration will begin next week, October 24. Tine size of greens will be 3/8th inch so putting quality will not be terribly affected.

Core processing includes dragging to reincorporate the desirable sand mixture that exists and then blowing and removing the small turf/mat remains.

Several of our fairways (lower, slower to drain) have been sand topdressed over the past couple years. This practice has begun to show benefit such as surface firmness, surface smoothness (improved mowing quality), surface drainage, and divot recovery. Other benefits will occur over time. We're applying sand to these fairways again at the present time.

Solid tine aeration post topdressing. Another benefit... With sand topdressing we do not want to remove cores (as we will soon do on many other fairways) and as such we do not have the core processing issues (nor mud mess issue should damp conditions occur during process!) that conventional core aeration has. It's a much cleaner, less potentially problematic process compared to conventional methods. More later on this...

I think the above brings us to present on special projects and special tasks underway. I'll try not to keep away so long before the next post!

July Recap in Pictures

2011-08-07T17:36:00.002-05:00

The last month or so has been challenging in many ways (a nice way of saying cruel!) with record rainfall, extreme and prolonged humidity, wind storms, power outages, paddle project site work, tournament and event preparations, turf disease, flood damaged turf, mosquitoes, flies, cart recovery from channel, and probably a half dozen other "challenges"! With all this fun I haven't had much time to blog. Each of the above could be an entry on it's own but I thought today I would recap the past month in photo/caption form.

Mid-July, Mowing and more frequent rolling in early preparations for Derby

Bunker prep with sand depths of all checked, sand redistributed and added as needed, surfaces smoothed, runners (turf that has encroached into sand) removed, edges compacted and smoothed. They were all ready for Derby.

Rafa and Javier perform annual pre-Derby "harvesting" of cattails at pond #18
(and other ponds too)

Jacob, Carlos, Alo, add fabric and stone and then level in areas which will be under the five new paddle court locations. Gravel helps melt water drain better, keeps area (and heaters beneath) cleaner and drier, and makes heater servicing more accessible.

Believe it or not irrigation was needed through first 3 weeks of July. We had only approx. 1" of rain from the middle of June through the third week of July. Hard to remember it being dry huh?

On this day we were seeing a nice dry sheen and a little spritz was needed to limit any wilting and potential mower injury.

Jacob adds just the right amount of water, only where needed, to keep surfaces fast and firm.

Then the rains came and in about 12 days (July 23-Aug. 3) we were left with 10+ inches.

Here in afternoon on July 23rd I'm turning on a few sprinklers in the flooded areas to add cooler water to the rapidly warming water. Perhaps it helped to lessen the damage, as in these areas the resulting turf loss is minimal.

As the waters receded this was a familiar sight. Here Urbano squeegees on #3 fairway.

We put a lot of wear on these this year!

This guy's wondering where the water went? It quickly drained in this bunker on #2 but the sediment that the flood waters left behind would need to be hand scraped and discarded to prevent contamination and potential future diminished drainage.

By the way... It's been damn hot at times! 101 degrees in the shade!

With all the water gone (and hopefully heavy rain and extreme heat past) we now see areas were turf is damaged. Repairs have already begun and include additional drain pipe installation where needed, and one or more processes such as aeration, sand topdressing, spiking, seeding, and sodding.

This goes in the category of "Anything is possible on the golf course!"

It was a miserably hot day so Jacob didn't mind jumping in to secure a tow strap to the front bumper. We pulled it out with our 4X4 Dump Truck and now Ed has a new bridge railing project!

Back to the Paddle Courts. Here I'm digging for the main electric feed from the Grounds Operations Center. We've got some additional drainage to add near the courts too and landscaping to install before long.

Mornings and sights like this help us forget the many "challenges" we've faced this year.

Looking forward to a long, mild fall!

Derby Storm

2011-07-23T14:55:00.000-05:00

It's getting all to frequent that at some point in a multiple day tournament the skies open up, or the winds whip up, or the air and humidity heat up, and we are left with some form of damage to... clean-up!

Last night's storm dropped another 5 inches of rain on top of the Day 1 Derby total of 1.5. You can do the math but suffice is to say it was enough to put portions or entire fairways, of nearly every hole, underwater.

The photos below give a reasonable picture of what the course looked like this morning. Some haven't changed much moving into the afternoon:

Hole #10

Hole #13

Hole #3

Hole #6

New Duck Pond on #8

-This was after a much larger area had drained

Holes -4,11,3,13 - From 4 Tee to 13 Green underwater this morning

Brick Cart Path at #17 Tee

Crushed Brick Path near 18th Green

- completely washed down to lower approach

Fun stuff huh? We're pumping, squeegeeing, replacing sand in bunkers (only a couple though), raking debris and in general prepping so that, hopefully, the first round of Derby can be completed and a second round can be started and completed as well. More on Derby...Pre-prep, storm, and storm repair, later.

We go 30 days without much rain at all and then just when we don't want any we get 6.5 inches! I guess next time we're in a long dry spell and need some rain, all we'll have to do is hold a tournament! Chances are it will rain!

Things could be much worse. There was a flurry of activity at a home near the 15th green this morning with several fire trucks blocking our entrance.

Firefighter putting out remains of a probable lightning induced fire that burned the entire roof and likely destroyed much of home content. Fortunately the family was gone on vacation.

Puts things into perspective... We'll have a delay in our tournament, and may lose some grass due to standing water heating up and suffocating it, but this family probably will lose their home!

Old Fashioned Style Watering

2011-07-12T22:10:00.000-05:00

Round Three. Another powerful storm ripped through Chicagoland yesterday and left over 800,000 customers without power including Skokie Country Club and the Grounds Operation Center and (of potentially critical importance) our Pumping Station.

This storm actually was fairly mild in terms of tree debris left for clean-up but power supply was disrupted (and still is as of tonight) and with no power there is no ability to run irrigation pump motors, and therefore, no water available from the usual manner. During the last storm with extended power outage (4 days) soil was moist from plentiful rain, temperatures were cool, and skies were cloudy. Very low turf and personal stress.
Conditions during this outage are much different with no rain for three weeks (and very little rain from the storm), temperatures warm to very warm, and clear, sunny skies. Much greater turf and personal stress!
While I tossed and turned last night I had visions of my plan, for today's putting surface watering, dancing in my head. With a large component of our putting surfaces being poa annua there is little tolerance for weather stresses, whether from; high or low air temperatures, high or low soil moisture levels, and/or high or low humidity levels. As such we started early this morning using our jetter tank and our sprayer tank, along with small gasoline powered water pumps, and directly pumping from our ponds as well, to provide a modest amount of water to sustain the greens for the day.

It was slow going, as it took three of us (plus extra help during filling procedures) nearly six hours each to irrigate all the greens, a task which usually can be performed automatically with our 1800 gallon per minute pumping station, a mere 15-20 minutes total! What can I say...sometimes you have to do things the old fashioned way. Hopefully not very long though!

First things first...setting up generator cart to power coffee pot... then fuel pumps!

Steve and Mike filling up jetter tank

Steve watering 1st of many greens.

Here I'm watering 13 green directly from ponds/channel. Did same at 3,9,11, &12

Jacob with sprayer tank & small pump on #17. One of several he watered.

The pumps that we all used each produced approx. 12 Gallons Per Minute!

The 3-60 HP motors capable of pumping 1800 Gallon Per Minute, that I hope are running tomorrow!!!

Weather Extremes Continue

2011-07-02T21:00:00.000-05:00

It's been one of the oddest weather years I can remember in many years. Cold and wet for much of the spring, a few record hot days sprinkled in, then temperatures cooled off again, then, as summer began, two wind storms ripped though the course, and now as of Independence Day weekend, high temperatures and record heat indices are expected. Will conditions ever moderate? Less just hope that the month of July is somewhat normal without extreme heat, extreme humidity, extreme wind speed, or extreme rainfall or lack thereof!

Last Tuesday night high winds in excess of 70 mph caused tree loss, power loss, and tree debris to be strewn about the course. Six trees were destroyed, either blown over or split apart and many others lost significant limbs and numerous small branches. Our on-going tree management efforts which includes maintenance pruning and removals as necessary, surely limited the amount of tree damage we might otherwise would have received. We lost power to the Grounds Operation Center (and also the Helps Quarters, Paddle Facility, Irrigation Pumping Station, and Half Way House -all fed off the same power lines) and it remained off until Friday morning. Of all of these areas, what can potentially be devastating in an extended outage is lack of power to the Irrigation Pumping Station. Obviously, without power, pumps cannot run and irrigation cannot proceed. If weather conditions at the same time are hot and dry, turf can be severely stressed and turf loss could occur. In spite of bad luck having the storm occur and cause two full days of course clean-up for our grounds staff, the good luck was that it was cloudy, cool, and turf did not require any irrigation. A good thing indeed!

The "Debris Field" June 22

The old apple tree near Half Way House, uprooted

Willow on #11 lost approx. 1/3 of canopy. Perhaps time to remove in winter??

Half of the canopy of this Hackberry on #7 was split, disfiguring to point that removal was necessary

Another example of large limbs that fell. This is an Ash on #15

Ryan and Gus in full "buck-up" mode

After a few long days of clean-up the course was back to normal, but then another wind storm came through this past week leaving behind another deposit of branches and leaves requiring yet another day of debris removal. Our Grounds Staff once again rose to the challenge and not only prepared the course for a busy holiday weekend but also spent a good portion of the day cleaning debris. Three clean-up day's in a week and a half is more than enough for a while! A little moderation on the weather front would be nice for a change!

Kiltie Days Recap

2011-06-20T17:52:00.000-05:00

With a golf season thus far of up and down temperatures and frequent rainfall, we have to cross our fingers prior to any event and hope for full cooperation from Mother Nature. We certainly got our wish with Kiltie Days this past weekend! Aside from almost an inch of rain on Wednesday, the tournament weather conditions on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday were mild and dry and about as good for golf as we could get. From all accounts I think it was one of the most successful Kiltie Days to date!

Prior to any major event such as Kiltie Days, or the Derby, there is a significant amount of course preparation involved. We schedule maintenance activities to peak at the same time as the event. Topdressing, plant protection (disease and insect management), growth regulation, and detailing programs (edging sprinkler heads, markers, and drains, edging cart paths, filling divots, removing runners/grass clumps in bunkers, removing sucker sprouts on trees, and more) are all addressed. And, of course, mowing of all primary play areas is performed each day and repeated often, as is the case for greens. Double mowing each morning, followed by greens rolling, and single mowing each evening (also often followed by rolling) is employed to provide the ball roll speed challenge that competitors enjoy, or at least think they enjoy!

Quality mowing begins with sharp and well adjusted mowers. Here Mike (and his friend Gato) inspect a bedknife in the process of being sharpened

Rafa, and Miguel (in background on bunker rake machine), smooth and adjust depths of sand

Mowing and Rolling equipment head out for tournament evening tasks

In addition to these course maintenance activities, other items such as erecting the scoreboard, finishing up projects ( at this time #5 Mound & the Half Way House fence/landscape replacement) and other assorted tasks such building and setting the target "gong" for this year's Kiltie Days, add up to a very busy pre-tournament period. It's always a rather feverish and sometimes very challenging time for us, but when the tournament is underway and players are enjoying the competition, it's also a very rewarding feeling knowing that our efforts have made a significant contribution to the success of the event.

Mound project at #5 after hauling material and shaping

Mound seeded, drainage installed, & final prep for sod

Sod, seed, and mulch blanket in place

Resolving one of several drainage issues along haul road route

Mulch blanket installed post seeding along length of #5

After all work was complete we came in this morning to see this.

Do you suppose it was the rope, or the bright orange ribbons, or the different color sod that this cart driver was oblivious too???

This pix shows the damage a little better. Just thrills me to have to repair this!

Apparently this rope is not visible enough either!

Fescue beginning to emerge above blanket. We intentionally seeded at a low rate to see if this tall rough area will be more playable than other such areas. Establishment will be slower but it may be a benefit long term.

A quick project at Half Way House. These overgrown shrubs and deteriorated fence needed to be changed.

New fence, enlarged stoop, new shrubs, more road space, much better!

Beautiful day and nice crowd watch playoffs for this year's Kiltie Days Championship.

With a few weeks now before tournament preparations for our next "major", The Skokie Derby, begin, we'll keep plenty busy with routine mowing, trimming, raking, topdressing, plant protection,and more and we'll add a few projects or two such as drainage in a few places and re-grassing a portion of the bank at No. 9 pond.

I'll keep you posted of these activities.

Weather, Project Challenges

2011-05-28T22:24:00.000-05:00

Over the last several weeks we've certainly had our share of weather woes. It's been unusually cold and cloudy, for what seems like an eternity, and then there was a few clear days of warm, near record high, temperatures. The welcomed warmth was followed by a few days of near record low temperatures, and now we're back to cool, cloudy and, most recently, extremely wet conditions. It seems like we've had spring, summer (though not much) early winter, and fall like conditions in the span of only a month! The good news is that through all this it's mostly been just mildly uncomfortable and may have only slightly affect playability and cart use, but it's not devastating weather conditions like in other parts of the country where floods and violent tornadoes have destroyed property and tragically, many lives. We should all keep those, whom have been afflicted by these life changing catastrophes, in our thoughts and prayers. In comparison our minor inconveniences are really quite insignificant.

We've had plenty of activity and challenge lately, with normal course maintenance, project work, and now this week, with excessive rainfall, but overall we are making good progress in all of these areas.

Course Maintenance:
Extended cool, cloudy, and wet conditions (at times) have significantly delayed seed germination in various rough areas where turf was very thin coming our of dormancy. Many of these areas were aerated, seeded, and covered with peat moss (to retain moisture and enhance germination) several weeks ago but are just now finally starting to germinate and establish. Rust disease as well as drought conditions last October likely contributed to the thinning we experienced and hopefully this recent overseeding as well as nutrient applications will soon provide good recovery.

Seed finally germinates. Notice the tufts of seedling. These are growing in the aerification holes.

The cooler temperatures, and windy and wet conditions through much of our so call "spring" have also caused delay in many typical tasks such as applying broadleaved weed control products, topdressing fairways (performed on about a third of our fairways), planting annual flowers, and some of our routine mowing programs. We're making steady progress in all these areas but we certainly have had more delays than in typical spring periods.

Project Work:
The Paddle Tennis Project began on May 13th with demolition of the old building and wooden decking and site preparation including removal of all the concrete piers which formerly held the old courts. The court contractor disassembled the courts but we assisted in moving 30 - 6'x30' court sections to a staging area where they will remain until a later time when portions will be returned to use.

Court section being transported to staging area

Pulling old concrete piers - a semi-truck load of them

Prior to excavation beginning, a couple poor quality trees were removed in the vicinity. This one was ready to fall without our help!

The hollowed out portion was filled with these huge wood borer larva. A delicacy in some countries!

After the court decks were removed excavation for the building basement took place (on Thursday and Friday, May 19-20) and on Friday my staff, using two of our dump trucks and two larger capacity rental trucks, hauled the excavated material to the site behind No. 5 Green. While the soil material was delivered (over 180 loads!) I began shaping it and blending into the existing berm. At 9 o'clock that evening we had completed hauling of approx. 750 yards of material and had it all shaped fairly close to finish grade. It was a long two days that day but we wanted to take advantage of relatively dry ground conditions and dry weather at the time, and without stopping at all except to fill fuel tanks, we tackled the task at hand. I am indeed grateful to my staff for this accomplishment. Had we been delayed just a couple days we would still be waiting to move this material as this week's rainfall would have prevented any movement of heavy equipment and any shaping.

We were all too focused on the task at hand to photograph the excavation, hauling, and shaping but this photo shows material in place and shaped. Hard to believe that this is the equivalent of about 75 semi-loads of soil.

Paddle House Basement - Where No. 5 berm soil originated.

At the present time we await dry conditions so that we can finish grade, seed, and seed mulch the berm and the haul roads. We're at a bit of a stand still right now but there is no question that with the material in place and shaping complete we have progressed quite well on this project. Yesterday I tried to work the haul road with an implement which scarifies and smooths but hit a bit of an unexpected soft spot and, well, the picture tells the story. I think I'll give it a couple days to dry out a bit!

Operator (that would be me) thought that he couldn't get this machine stuck. He was wrong!

Some gravel placed under the tracks and a helping pull from our 4X4 dump truck solved this little dilemma!

Excessive Rainfall:

We had several days of rain this week (hence the problem I had above - really, it was only a little water on the surface when I crawled over it - but I hit a pocket of soft mush and dropped about 2 feet!) and this resulted in nearly two days of lost course work and a delay in continuing progress on the No. 5 berm project and haul road repair.

A total of 3.5 inches of rain fell Weds. and Thurs. this week.

An all too familiar site last year... hopefully this doesn't have to be repeated again this year!

We will eventually get caught up, the course will dry out, we'll be able to finish the berm work, and then we'll move on to other tasks and projects. Lets hope we have some nice weather very soon!

Have a great Memorial Day!

Paddle Project Begins

2011-05-13T17:04:00.000-05:00

At the 114th Annual Meeting of Skokie Country Club last evening, the Phase 3 Improvement / Paddle Project was overwhelmingly passed and as such brought about a whirlwind of activities for us today. Fresh off the Cedar Shake Roof Project on the Half Way House today began another project, where the SCC Grounds & Greens Dept. got the low bid! We began bright and early this morning removing windows, doors, carpeting, electrical panels, plumbing equipment, wood decking, the water meter, and gas lines, and what then followed was the crushing of the building and loading into refuse boxes for removal. While this work was in progress the water main contractor began installation of a new 8" main, the gas company continued work on providing a new gas supply line, the paddle court contractors began disassembling the courts, and surveyors laid out work for the building foundation excavation. Soil was dug and hauled, gravel delivered, and refuse boxes switched were switched out. It was indeed quite the hub of activity near the Grounds Operation Center today and I'm not sure we could have had anything more going on in one place!

Hopefully the following photos give you at least a glimpse of what transpired today:

The calm before the storm! Equipment ready for action

Jacob saw cutting to re-route power service

Decking dis-assembly and Building Layout

Deck removed

North Shore Gas directional boring new supply line

And then the real fun stuff begins...and ends... about 15 minutes later!

Building gone and neatly packed into 6, 30 yard roll off boxes. Approx. 70% of material will be recycled. Water main installed and ready for pressure test and chlorination. Cone is where new building water tap will occur.

It was a very productive day at SCC and I can't thank my staff enough for their hard work and determination. Kudos to newly established SCC Demolition Experts...Jacob, Gus, Alicus, Robbie, and Devin. And to Ryan, Steve, and the rest of our Grounds Staff for "keeping the fort" and making final preparations to the course for the first golf event, the Elmer Muffwinkle, set for tomorrow. Great work guys!

After a bit more clean-up and the court contractors finish their removal work, the excavation for the basement and foundation for the new paddle facility will begin. When this begins next week, we will be transporting approx. 600 yards of soil to the area behind number 5 green where we will be adding on to the existing berm in this area (behind 5 green, left side of hole 6) and eventually grassing with fescue, and native grasses such as Little blue-stem, and a few clumps of Indian grass. I'll be entering a new post shortly detailing this work.

Miserable Wet Weather

2011-04-22T21:17:00.000-05:00

Ok the weather can start to improve any time now!
Cloudy, cold, wet, and general gloomy conditions has been the norm of late and we've actually had rain on nearly half of the days of this month. This excessive moisture and resulting soft soil conditions has really put a damper (pun intended) on many course activities. Topdressing (both greens & fairways), overseeding of thinned rough areas, rolling, nutrition and plant protectant applications, general mowing of many areas, and more, have all been delayed due to the saturated soil conditions this month.

Aside from these frustrating delays, one area of concern during excessive spring moisture periods is that root systems (that are most actively growing at this time) may fail to develop to the same density and depth as when soil moisture is dryer. This can then result in a root system that cannot utilize deeper soil moisture later in the year when water is needed to a greater extent and a plant that is more prone to the stresses of summer such as heat, drought, and traffic from equipment and players. We cannot change the weather but we can continue to perform the tasks we already perform such as:

Aeration - To create pore spaces and encourage root growth.
Topdressing - To eventually create a soil profile that drains more rapidly and better supports traffic when wet.
Tree Management - Trim and thin trees to improve sunlight and air movement to aid drying after rainfall events.
Drainage System Maintenance - Keep our current drainage system in good repair through pressure jetting to maintain functioning lines, and repair breaks and collapses as needed.
Drainage System Additions - Adding new lines and drop inlets where appropriate.

Now all we need is the weather to dry up so we can keep doing these things!

In spite of the wet conditions we're still managing to make progress in a few areas:

"Neither Snow, Rain, Cold, Nor Gloom of Day" will...Make us very happy!

More drainage and topdressing needed here.

Gus works on second drainage repair of this year.

Mainline pipe separation and bell-end deterioration (running under bunker - white pipe is bunker drain) in approach bunker #14. Separation is sealed to eliminate the sink hole that had developed.

Steve and Alicus (the latest member of our G&G Staff) begin installation of Cedar Shakes on the Half Way House Roof.

A Clear Sunny Day...Something we are anxiously awaiting!

Spring Course Prep & More

2011-04-15T22:16:00.000-05:00

Course activities at this time of the year are always very busy. Spring start up tasks such as: mowing of all turf areas with increasing frequency; bunker grooming (cleaning, leveling, smoothing); fall and winter debris remnant removal; winter tree management completion (pruning and approved removals); prairie burning; placing course furnishings; early season nutrient and plant protectant treatments; overseeding rough areas; sod patching of winter damaged areas throughout course; filling and pressurizing the irrigation system; and more, are all keeping us hopping! Additionally, we always manage to have a project or two going.

The following photo's show a few of the above tasks and projects in progress:

Fairway mowers clipping off the winter coat

Bunker Prep - Clean-up, leveling, raking

Irrigation System Pressurization - A full day process to gradually refill, purge air, and pressurize to standard operating pressure. Out of nearly 2000 sprinkler heads less than a half dozen needed repair. It's "all systems go"!

Repair of a blemish (likely from an inconsiderate deer) using hex plugs from our homegrown turf nursery. Can you tell where the plugs have been placed? I think you would agree that they match quite well.

Plug on left showing one of the benefits of deep tine aeration...enhanced root growth. Plug on right is from the damaged area with no visible roots.

The aforementioned turf nursery. Planted last fall. Most of this nursery was used last year to patch winter damaged areas in spring and flood damaged areas in late summer. Hope I don't need to use much of it at all this year!

General debris clean-up proceeding well.

One of a couple current projects: Our sod squad installing sod in various areas including tree removal and winter damaged locations

Project 2: Replacing Half Way House Roof. Here Javier and Miguel are stripping old shingles. Felt paper has been installed and we will follow with cedar shakes in lieu of asphalt shingles.

So that's a quick glimpse of our current course work. I'll keep you posted on our projects and other course activities as they progress. Let's hope for some consistently mild weather anytime now!

A New Season Begins - Greens Open

2011-03-16T23:05:00.000-05:00

In just a few days meteorologic spring, or the Vernal Equinox, will occur and a new season will be upon us. As is suppose to happen, the sun is rising higher on the horizon (actually the earth tilts on it's axis), daytime temperatures are becoming mild, and nighttime temperatures are remaining above freezing. Overall, it's a beautiful thing! And as such, with ground conditions reasonably dry, and covers removed yesterday (warm temps can accelerate too much growth under covers), I see no reason to not take advantage of the nice weather opportunity and roll, set hole locations, put flagsticks in, and open greens for play!

Covers being removed for first time in 2011

This may be a record for green opening but at least this one is a desirable record. We had a year of extreme records (or near records) last year, and a winter with near record snowfall, so we might as well keep the record streak going! Hopefully we don't have any severe weather records this summer!

If you do get a chance to play during this mild weather break, keep in mind that with this very early opening, you will still see evidence of the aeration from late last fall. In addition, the greens will not be mowed just yet, as it's likely temperatures will drop again (after all we are in Chicagoland!) and I want to keep the little extra turf cover that we now have (from the covers protecting and warming), until night time temps are consistently above freezing.

First rolling. This settles natural soil heaving that occurs in winter and smooths surface.

Photo shows enhanced green-up from covers on practice green and number nine green in the distance.

Another thing to remember in the days to come is that we are in our "Cover Shuffle" period and so greens may be recovered for a few days (all depending on temperature lows) then re-opened, and then this sequence may repeat until mild temperatures prevail. In doing this we retain the advantages of the covers (early spring green-up, root and shoot growth acceleration, aeration healing, and more) and yet control growth so as too not allow excessive shoot growth.

I have much more to comment on concerning current course conditions and varied maintenance activities in progress so look for more information to follow soon but for now...Happy Spring!

GCSAA , USGA host successful Education Conference's

2011-02-21T21:23:00.000-06:00

The Golf Course Superintendent's Assoc. of America's Education Conference continues to be a vital resource for the golf industry as 5,272 seats were filled for more than 100 seminars, Feb. 7-11 in Orlando, a 13 percent increase from 2010. "The GCSAA Education Conference continues to be the best venue for golf course superintendents to keep abreast of the latest trends in golf course management," GCSAA CEO Rhett Evans said. "I think it says a great deal about the passion our members have for education and their facilities that they travel from all corners of the nation to spend three days in seminar rooms."Content for the seminars focused on the professional development of attendees, including agronomy, business management, communication, environmental management and leadership. Numerous additional educational sessions, panel discussions, and forums that touched on such subjects as the nation's economy, diversity, media/public relations, etc., were offered as well.

Among the education offerings I attended were: a seminar titled Managing & Dealing with Winter Injury; Lessons from the Links (Judy Rankin); Magic of Teamwork (Pat Williams); and Cheers, Tears, & Fears: Hosting a Major Golf Championship. In addition to the GCSAA Conference, the USGA Green Section Conference was held during the week long activities and various season's best "Turf Tips" presentations were made. These are always educational and offered great "take home" ideas. All of these GCSAA and USGA offerings provided valuable information and ideas which I'll incorporate into our plans and programs for the golf course. The Golf Industry Show, 180,000 sq. ft. of all the latest equipment, supplies, nutrient and plant protectants, irrigation products, and essentially everything one could imagine related to golf course management, was on display for two days during the week.

The Golf Industry Show - Everything imaginable in Golf Course Management

In addition to these sessions I was fortunate to be acknowledged at the event, Celebrating Certification, along with 44 other colleagues, for achieving 25 years of Certification. "Twenty-five percent of GCSAA's Class A members have achieved the highest level of recognition through the CGCS professional designation," said Robert M. Randquist, CGCS, who was elected GCSAA's president at the annual meeting held on the last day of the conference, Feb. 11, and was also another one of the superintendents honored for 25 years of CGCS designation. "This program requires their demonstration of a higher set of competencies in golf course management through testing and practical application. Employers can feel confident they employ a career professional who has made a strong commitment to professional development."

To qualify for GCSAA's competency-based certification program, a candidate must have at least three years experience as a golf course superintendent, be employed in that capacity and meet post-secondary educational requirements and/or continuing education points. The candidate's knowledge, skills and abilities are validated through the development of a portfolio consisting of their responses to skill statements, case-study scenarios and submission of work samples; an on-site inspection of their golf facility; and a rigorous six-hour examination covering competencies relating to agronomic, business, communication, environment and leadership domains.

Maintaining certified status requires renewal every five years after the initial date of certification. To fulfill certification renewal requirements, a candidate must participate in 150 hours of continuing education and professional development. There are a total of approx. 140 superintendents with 25 years or more with the CGCS designation and I am very proud to be part of this group and feel fortunate to have participated in this program and benefited from the outstanding continuing educational offerings throughout these past years.

Portions of this post and photo courtesy of GCSAA

Skokie CC Retains Audubon Certification

2011-02-15T19:41:00.001-06:00

It's been a busy period these past couple months with: Equipment Maintenance and Refurbishment; Tree Management Activities; Snow Removal (especially clean-up of the "Blizzard of 2011"); and most recently, Attending the Golf Course Superintendents Assoc. of America's Annual Education Conference and the Golf Industry Show. I've written about a couple of these items and want to recap the latter in another, soon to be published, post, but upon my return from the GCSAA Conference, I found the following news in my mailbox and thought I would spread the good news.

It's confirmation that we have retained our Certification Status as an Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary. The following letter briefly explains the program and in the near future I will post additional information about our continuing efforts in this program, but for now, the letter below should give good insight into the program.

We became Certified in 2001 and retaining this designation requires bi-annual submission of our continuing stewardship efforts, case studies of projects we have implemented, satisfactory visits from outside environmental groups, and/or extensive survey completion. It's a good bit of effort annually and at each re-certification cycle, but it show's our commitment to continually striving to improve our stewardship of our property and, in the simplest terms, it's the right thing to do!

Remember to click on the above to enlarge and then use your browsers "back" button to return

More details will follow about this program, our efforts and projects over the past fifteen years or more, and potential future environmental projects I have in mind.

Equipment Maintenance & Refurbishing Progress

2011-01-28T22:01:00.002-06:00

As the cold and snowy conditions continue, at this point in the winter we have made good progress on both outdoor projects, our equipment maintenance and repair activities,and our course furnishings refurbishment. Over the past month and a half we've spent several days outdoors working on tree management tasks (as mentioned in previous post) but on the many bitter cold days we've all been indoors preparing all of our equipment and furnishings for the season ahead.

Our general servicing tasks for every powered equipment unit includes: oil changes (engine & hydraulic), all filters changed, drive belts/chains adjusted and/or replaced if worn, wheel bearings checked and repacked with grease, electrical wiring & lights checked, brakes serviced and pads replaced if needed, and body components checked, repaired, painted as needed, and finally waxed prior to spring use. Additionally, reel mower units are sharpened (replaced if badly worn) after bearings are checked and replaced if needed, bedknives (the stationary "blade" on a reel mower) are replaced and ground and "trued". Height adjusting rollers are checked, bearings replaced if needed, cutting drive and traction drive belts are checked and also replaced as needed. Also for many reel units (all green, tee, approach, fairway, intermediate, and range tee mowers) an additional attachment is incorporated called a "groomer". It's a spiral vertical blade arrangement used to stand the grass blades up, prior to cutting, similar to as a barber combs one's hair to stand it up before clipping. Groomers require additional bearing, housing, seal, and belt checks and often these precise and high speed rotation components require many part replacement needs.

Mike, our new ace Equipment Technician, puts the finishing touches on this tee mower, one of nearly 25 such units used on greens, tees, approaches, range greens, chipping areas, and more.

A few greensmowers (background) and fairway mower cutting units (foreground) ready for spring

Additional equipment servicing includes the traction units of all of the above cutting units, (diesel fairway units, triplex riding units and all other mower and special use powered units such as: Greens Rollers, Rotary Rough Mowers, Mid-sized Utility Vehicles, Fairway & Green Sprayers, Aerators, Topdressing Spreaders, Tractors, Skid-Steer Loaders, Pick-up Truck and Dump Trucks. There is indeed a significant amount of equipment (valued over 2 million dollars) required to maintain and improve the course and grounds and as well, a significant amount of preventive maintenance and repair required. Keeps us quite busy all year long!

One of four fairway units serviced, sharpened, and ready for action. Many larger units such as this require significant time and effort during our winter maintenance period.

While all this equipment servicing is in progress, our course furnishings are also being refurbished. Our furnishings include: tee markers, ball washers, flag poles, tee benches, trash receptacles, some tables and chairs (around half way house), flower boxes, and all of our wooden bunker rakes. Cleaning, sanding, and painting or varnishing tasks are performed on all of these items and readied for use in early spring.

Tee Bench refinishing - completely sanded and a fresh coat of varnish is applied

Wooden Bunker Rake - Over 150 are hand sanded and a weather sealer stain is applied

So hopefully the above gives a little insight into what we've been up to inside the Grounds Operation Center over the past month and a half or so. We still have plenty to do but we're making very good progress. I'll post again soon about our progress on the Tree Management Activities, mentioned in my previous post.

Hope you are enjoying your winter, wherever you may be!

Recent Tree Management Activities

2011-01-14T13:28:00.006-06:00

As the new year begins, and favorable weather conditions exist for our planned tree management activities, I'd like to provide an update on this work. Before doing so however, I want to show a couple photos of some snow removal work we performed on a couple greens on Dec. 31st. As you may recall in each of the past two years we have come out of winter experiencing turf damage (due to ice encasement) to a couple greens and our #8 fairway. Given this repeated situation we keep a watchful eye on the greens and will remove accumulations when in place for extended periods. This snow removal is necessitated by the fact that trees on the South, Southeast, and Southwest sides of greens #3 and #11, block sunlight, (which is lower on the horizon during fall, winter, and spring) preventing snow melt and potentially leading to ice accumulation and possible injury.

No. 3 Green - One of only two greens on the course, (the other was #11) which still had snow remaining after a year end thaw and rain event. The next day, Jan. 1, temps were forecast to drop well below freezing, so we cleared snow and slush to prevent otherwise certain ice accumulation.

Surface cleared - Note heavy tree growth behind. A few trees closest to green have been removed (consistent with our planned 2011 Tree Management) to improve sunlight quality throughout the lower light periods of fall - winter - spring, providing benefits such as helping plants harden off and prepare for winter dormancy, melting of snow and ice, and enhancing spring warming and green up. Summer sunlight is of course essential as well, as it drives the energy producing process of photosynthesis. Many trees still exist off property in Forest Preserve, so we will still need to keep watch on this and #11 green, but maximizing sunlight can only provide valuable turf health benefits, and improved playing conditions, year round.

No. 3 Green, early October, nearly half of green is shaded. The tree removal recently conducted will improve sunlight during this important time when turf is manufacturing and storing carbohydrates and preparing for winter stresses.

Before I continue this update on other recent and planned tree work I want to remind all Skokie members to be sure to refer to the Jan. issue of the Skokie News where an article was written by our Grounds & Greens Committee Chairman. In October last year we had a complete review (after a decade) of our Restoration process, procedure, philosophy, white paper, continued efforts, and more. We also had our Restoration Course Architect, Ron Prichard, tour the course, address the G&G Committee and provide recommendations for continued course improvements going forward. Please be sure to read our Chairman's letter as within it details the reasons behind one of the accepted recommendations, that being some tree removal.

The objectives of our current 2011 Tree Management include:

-Thinning crowded growth areas to improve quality of remaining trees.

-Thinning poor quality specimens to accentuate premier quality specimens.

-Thinning trees in certain areas where light and air movement has become limited compromising turf quality.

-Removing trees in certain areas where root competition has diminished turf quality.
-Removing trees that may interfere with a recovery shot from a hazard. (Eliminating the "double-hazard")
-Thinning trees in crowded areas where traffic is forced to confined areas, leading to thin and heavily compacted turf areas very difficult to play from.
-Removing trees that fall within our 5 "D" guide (see Tree Management Archive)

The 5-D’s that guide our tree removal actions:
• Diseased - significant infection that is untreatable or too costly to treat.
• Decayed/Dead - significant decay, or complete death, resulting in structural weakening and hazardous conditions.
• Damaged - significant structural damage from high winds and/or lightning.
• Disfigured - Unattractive shape from over crowding of adjacent trees or from damage.
• Disruptive – Affecting playability. Causing traffic concentration, excess turf loss from shade, root system impacts to turf and drainage tile systems.

A few examples of these conditions follow:

Diseased - Nearly half this apple tree is damaged by Fire blight

Decayed - This Silver Maple could have come down by itself in the next wind storm

Damaged & Disfigured - these two Silver Maples have little, if any, value and only drain funds by having to prune, trim around, manage leaf drop, and root cut/jet nearby tile lines that fill with roots diminishing drainage effectiveness.

Disruptive - Many trees behind 5th green creating ever increasing shade which will ultimately reduce putting surface quality. Several have now been removed and will be replaced by a low berm with natural grasses similar to berm visible on right side of above photo.

Disruptive - Shade and Root Competition gives little chance for turf survival.

An example of the volume of roots that can enter tile lines and compete against turf for water and nutrients.

So hopefully the above shows a sampling of what we consider prior to making any tree management / removal decisions. Other factors considered include: play strategy; cost/benefit of poor quality specimens; disease and insect control cost/benefit; (example: Do we continue to treat a poorly shaped spindly American Elm for Dutch Elm disease or an insignificant Green Ash for Emerald Ash Borer?) and enhancing vistas throughout the course. Many factors indeed, are considered into our decision process. I'll post more information and photos soon regarding our current tree management progress.

Winter Beauty

2010-12-30T16:23:00.001-06:00

With a year marked with weather extremes (and at times a rather frenzied pace!) now coming to a close, I found these following photos to be a nice, quiet, calm way to end it. They had this affect on me when I took them, and I thought you might enjoy them as well.

Best Wishes for a Healthy, Happy, Peaceful New Year!

Free Skate Style Ski Trail Open

2010-12-29T20:31:00.001-06:00

I know its been a while since I've posted and I'd like to say it's because I've been golfing or biking in some warm clime or hitting the slopes out West, but no, just been busy in the shop, dealing with snow removal, and working on a few things out on the course when weather cooperates.
I'll post again soon to update you on our course activities and our equipment maintenance and accessory refurbishment activities. Equipment maintenance is indeed our main emphasis at this time of year and our new Equipment Technician, Mike Gavinski, whom joined us just a few weeks ago, has been making great progress on some badly needed repairs and has a good start on cutting unit sharpening. I'm really pleased with Mike and with a little help from Jacob, Steve, and Ryan, I'm confident that all of our equipment will be ready to go come spring. More on this work later.

We've had a bit of snow this winter but it wasn't until recently that we had enough to permit any trail grooming activities. We do not have any specific ski trail grooming equipment, but on Monday we hooked up our fairway rollers and developed a loop around the perimeter of the course. It's a 2.7 mile loop and approximately 12 feet wide. The roller has packed the snow fairly well and grooming it a few times has made it firm enough (along with the nice 12 foot width) to skate ski. I much prefer the downhill style but I might just have to give cross country and the free skate style a try this year.

Jacob begins trail grooming process. Roller packs snow quite well.

First pass complete. Future grooming included a brush attachment which eliminated the tire marks and better smoothed the surface.

If you're so inclined to try out our trail you may want to get out soon. The forecast is calling for warmer temps and possibly rain. But should this occur and disrupt the trail, we'll be sure to get the roller back out when more snow falls.

Enjoy the trail, or off trail if you prefer, but please if you do go off trail, avoid skiing and/or snowshoeing on the greens and tees. The packed ice that can develop could lead to turf damage next spring. Thank you for staying off these areas!

Now, come to think of it, maybe I need to take a trip somewhere to better learn about the art and science of ski trail grooming!

A Whirlwind of Activities Completed

2010-11-25T12:26:00.000-06:00

It's been a week (or I should say less than a half week) of frenetic pace as we completed several "winterization" tasks. The forecast is showing temperatures to fall into the teens overnight Thanksgiving into Friday, and remain below freezing thereafter, for at least a couple days. These extended low temperatures will likely begin to freeze the soil surface and so in essence, it was time to "put the course to bed".
In the last three days we've accomplished:

Deep, Solid Tine Aeration of Greens
Rolling to Smooth (Greens)
Sand Topdressing & Brushing (Greens)
Plant Protectant Applications for Snow Mold Diseases (Greens, Tees, Fairways, & Bunker Faces)
Late-Season Nutrient Applications (Greens, Tees, Approaches & Fairways)
Covering of Greens and several Tees
Winterizing Irrigation System
Renovation of Tee Surrounds at No. 10. (near completion)

Jacob (on #2 Grn) and Rafa (on #13 Grn) performing Deep Aeration (1/2" dia. x 10" deep)

Having second tractor/aerator unit (our much older unit was down for repairs several times during process) was compliments of Lake Shore Country Club and Supt., Jeff Frentz. This was a HUGE help and we couldn't have completed all we needed to this week without, "getting by with a little help from our friends" !

Channels created will aide moisture movement off surface and provide oxygen and gas exchange during winter months, and help allow deeper root growth in spring.

Rolling followed Deep Aeration and then Sand Topdressing (shown above) followed. Applying sand now helps protect the crowns of the turf (the point where shoot growth originates) throughout winter.

Brushing, (to smooth and incorporate sand) followed Topdressing.

Plant Protectant Applications followed to guard against Snow Mold Diseases. All Greens, Tees, Approaches, Fairways, and Bunker Faces were treated.

Ryan applies Nutrients (mostly slow release for early spring availability) after Plant Protectant App. had dried. Similar nutrient applications were also applied to Tees, Approaches, Fairways, Green and Tee Surrounds, and high traffic areas in the Rough.

Final Greens task was placing and securing Greencovers.

Staples are used to secure them and they cannot be installed once the ground is frozen. Hence the urgency this week, as temps will soon be falling sharply!

Winterizing Irrigation System - Compressed air is used to "blow out" all lines, sprinkler heads, pump station equipment, and pond fill lines.

It was a little cold outside the last couple days!

Ice formation from a nearby sprinkler being activated to blow out water.

Sneaking in an improvement project before the ground freezes (and sod becomes unavailable)

Replacing contaminated sod on slope surrounding No. 10 tees.

Old tie steps and dated landscape was removed to provide a look more similar to all of our other tees. A small set of rough timber steps will be installed if deemed necessary in future.

Greens "Put to Bed" and ready for a long winter's nap!

With it being Thanksgiving today I can't help thinking about the many things I'm thankful for, but one for sure is my terrific Grounds Operation Staff. Time and time again during this challenging year, they have answered the call. Whatever the situation; from ice in the winter; to floods in the spring (and again in summer); to heat in the summer; to tournament preparations and recovery tasks; to completing myriad special projects; and now to multiple winterization tasks in a few short days, over and over again they have answered the call of duty!

I couldn't be more thankful!

Happy Thanksgiving to All!

Drainage, Drainage, & Insuring Drainage!

2010-11-19T22:44:00.000-06:00

Coined after the familiar saying in the Real Estate business, "Location, Location, Location", in the Golf Industry, when asked what three things are needed to have a great golf course, the common response is, "Drainage, Drainage, Drainage". Obviously it's an over simplified response but it does underscore the significance of moving water off the course in a rapid manner to allow turf to remain healthy and play to proceed. With the mild weather of late, we've taken full advantage, repairing a significant drain collapse, adding additional drain pipe in another area, and insuring fall, winter, and spring drainage in certain areas, through high pressure line jetting.

Earlier in the year following the heavy rain during the Western Am. Championship, we discovered a near completely collapsed drain line which helps move water off certain areas of both #3 and #13 fairways. We used our jetting equipment to open the line as best as possible but we knew then that the line would have to be replaced.

Jacob truly getting "into" his work during Western Am. rain, finding submerged (and collapsed) line so jetting could proceed

Excavating collapsed line

New pipe and vertical "clean-out" in place, back filling and compacting underway

New tile line (and others existing) will help move flood waters like these off course more rapidly

There are many areas throughout the course where additional drainage pipe is needed to intercept water flow, and move excess off the course more rapidly. One such area is between the 8th fairway and the range. In heavy rainfall events water flows down the slope in front of the range tee, flows south around the first target green and deposits on No. 8 fairway. We do have drain tile and drop inlets or basins in the fairway area, but extending the existing line and adding additional basins will bode well for future water interception and removal.

Overview of new drain line layout at #8 fairway & range

Tying in to existing 6" line, changing a restricted portion from 4" to entirely 6"

Trenches dug

Pipe prepared

Basins installed and pipe trimmed

Back-filling and tamping following gravel addition to "blanket" pipe.

Project near completion with only sod replacement and clean-up remaining

We have several other areas where additional drainage is needed and hopefully we can do more before the ground freezes, but some additional drainage "insurance" we've been working on lately has been high-pressure jetting. Equipment purchased earlier this year allows us to jet out lines, cleaning soil, debris, and roots with nozzles that "jet" water up to pressures as much as 3500 psi. This has helped us open partial blocked lines as well as find where pipe or tile line deterioration has occurred. With the miles of drain lines we have throughout the course, this unit will in short order become one of our most valuable equipment investments!

Jetting Machine in use near Range Tee

Jacob jetting a line near #9 Tee - No underwater work needed here!

One more aeration session on greens (deep tine) is planned for next week and then winter preparations follow including: winterizing the irrigation system; applying late season nutrients and disease protectant products; and before long,covering the greens. I'll post as we complete this work

Dry Weather Allows Special Course Work To Continue...

2010-11-05T17:09:00.001-05:00

Mother Nature's continued weather balancing act has been in full force this fall. After damn lousy hot and wet conditions, through much of the summer, the past two months have been an especially nice reprieve. It's been particularly dry (and a might bit windy a few days) in October, with only .9 inches of rain, and in fact the driest in 39 years, but this certainly is preferred to last October, when the month rainfall total then was 6.79 inches! What a difference a year makes! The only thing certain is that this too will balance out again at some point, perhaps in a colder and whiter winter, or a soggy spring. I hope neither is extreme, but whatever it brings we'll try to make the best of it. For now though, the favorably dry weather has not only allowed a nice extended period for fall "fast and firm" golf, but also has allowed us to continue with a number of course tasks including:

Daily leaf processing. (blowing and mulching)
Fairway Topdressing on select fairways (includes solid tine aeration).
Bunker edging (I call it rip-edging as shown below).
Drainage repair and additions.
Fairway repair (a few small remaining spots).
Winterizing tennis court irrigation system.
& Applying nutrients and plant protectants to prepare turf for winter.

Rafa & Javier performing the daily leaf processing ritual.

Only a few summer heat/moisture damaged fairway spots remain.

Same location as above photo showing our "home-grown" sod in place. Sod should blend nicely by next golf season, once rooted and well established.
Note 3 divots in same location...Imagine if everyone did this throughout the course!
(Remember you can "click" on photos to enlarge them for better viewing, then use your "back" browser button to return to post)

1-800 Call Otto, completes repair job in this area.
Between repairing ice damaged spots in spring and heat/moisture damaged spots this fall, he's become an expert in playing surface repair!

Turf areas surrounding our bunkers encroach rapidly and as much as a foot or more in some areas, over a growing season. We do not frequently edge our bunkers, preferring to allow a more natural edge to develop. Walking on these edges causes them to flatten and promotes even more rapid growth into the sand, creating a shelf which can lead to very difficult lies. Walking in the sand, rather than along the base of the grass face, helps slow this shelf development. This will be a topic I'll add to the Course Etiquette Page prior to next golf season.

Bunker Rip-Edging in progress.

Encroaching turf is "Ripped" away (and sand shaken out) to retain original bunker shape.

Ripped material is gathered and removed.

A photo "before" Rip-Edging Process

Same shot "after" Rip-Edging

Rip-Edging is an on-going process in that as long as turf is growing, it will continually be encroaching into the sand. Sand is an excellent growing media as the multiple pore spaces are ideal for root growth. We have 92 bunkers with roughly half green side and half fairway bunkers. Last year all green side bunkers were edged as well as several fairway bunkers. Our goal at present is to complete all fairway bunkers this fall and then all green side bunkers in spring prior to the golf season kick off. We're currently about half finished with fairway bunkers.

Aside from this work, we're addressing a few drainage issues, topdressing select fairways (a second time), and performing various winterization tasks. I'll post about these next week.

The Low temperatures are forecast to be fairly cool but High temperatures are expected to be near 60 over the next several days, so it's not too late to get in a few more rounds! Enjoy the weather while it lasts!

Extreme Winds Subside - Tree Damage Minimal?

2010-10-28T21:40:00.001-05:00

Unless you remained indoors these past couple days you no doubt experienced part of a wind storm system that was historic for the Midwest.

On Tuesday, over southern Oregon, the wind speed at the level of the jet stream was recorded at near 220 mph. It was this powerful jet stream energy that fueled an intense low-pressure system over the Midwest on both Tuesday and Wednesday dropping to historic levels in northern Minnesota and Chicago as well. When verified these pressure readings will likely go down as the lowest ever recorded on the mainland U.S., from a non-tropical storm.

A National Weather Service pressure gradient map from about 1 p.m. Tuesday, just a few hours before the storm reached its lowest pressure at Bigfork, MN.

Information from The Weather Channel stated:
This was a storm stronger than the infamous "Edmund Fitzgerald" storm in Nov. 1975 and an even stronger version almost exactly 23 years after that in Nov. 1998.
The central barometric pressure was also on par with the infamous Superstorm of 1993, and is lower than the last 4 hurricanes of the 2010 Atlantic hurricane season.

Our on-site weather station recorded wind gusts of 49 mph, which was surprisingly less than I thought it would be. I guess I wouldn't want to experience winds greater than that! At one point while driving my cart back to our Grounds Operations Center, to get off the course for fear of flying objects, I felt like the wind was lifting under the cart's canopy nearly making it airborne! Visions of the movie Twister came to mind but thankfully no actual twisters developed.

Today, with the storm past, we began the cleanup process and we were pleased that damage was remarkably minimal. I expected trees down but there were none. Only several large branches fell along with a littering of small branches throughout the course. It was likely the fact that many tree species have already dropped their leaves and therefore did not act as huge sails, that limited the damage.

Some of "Nature's" pruning

A large broken branch on #6

Typical small branch littering throughout course

We were indeed fortunate that the damage was less than other locations throughout the Midwest but I do feel it may be some time before the full assessment will be known. The strength of these winds could very well have cracked or weakened significant structural portions of trees that we haven't seen yet or may not see until trees leaf-out (or lack such) next spring. Time will tell and I'll keep you posted.

Greens Aeration Complete - More Topdressing in Progress

2010-10-26T13:01:00.000-05:00

After delaying and then postponing greens aeration due to beautiful weather and fast and firm playing conditions over the past several weeks, we did finally conduct our first session. For this aeration session we used small coring tines (approximately pencil sized diameter) with a very close spacing using our multi-tine coring head.

Small diameter core aeration on greens now completed

Our typical processing of these cores is to drag or brush them to loosen the desirable sand material from the core allowing it to incorporate back into the turf canopy. What remains is essentially a small mass of roots and the attached turf which is then blown into piles and removed. This year though, we collected the cores and planted them in our turf nursery to re-establish this depleted area. Between the ice damaged areas coming out of winter and the flood and heat damaged areas in late summer, most of our nursery was used in various fairway areas and replanting was necessary.

Preparing Nursery Rootzone Medium

Collecting Cores

Placing and Leveling on Nursery Rootzone Sand

Completed process showing tracked in or "dimpled" appearance of surface

The desirable outcome of this planting process (using cores) is that once established, the varieties of turf that we will have will be the same as those from which they were harvested. This allows us to replace turf, should it be damaged by ice, disease, heat, floods, lightning, equipment malfunction, vandals, or any other reason, with turf that is nearly identical in it's properties. In this manner of turf replacement both the appearance of the turf and the playability characteristics are retained compared to importing commercially available putting green or fairway type sod.

Following aeration the greens have been sand topdressed, broomed, and rolled (several times) and are reasonably smooth in spite of all the surface disruption. Our next aeration session (planned for mid Nov. will be Deep Tine Aeration using larger, solid tines. I'll post about this when we get a bit closer to beginning the work.

Greens Aeration -Postponed One Week

2010-10-12T17:21:00.000-05:00

With the unseasonably warm and dry weather we've been experiencing expected to last through this weekend, I decided we will delay our greens aeration for one more week. Our original plan was to begin yesterday, Oct.11, but with such beautiful weather, as well as our fairway aeration work still in progress, we'll now plan for this work to begin Monday, Oct. 18th.

The weather outlook shows mild and dry conditions (except for perhaps a slight chance of rain tomorrow), all week and continuing through this weekend.. Beginning next Tuesday however, it looks like cool and wet weather settles in for a few days, and thereafter temperatures remaining rather cool. We should be able to get all the greens aerated next Monday prior to the forecast wet weather.

So, the quick take home message from this blog is, take advantage of this wonderful weather, take off work and come on out for another round or two before conditions dramatically change!

As I mentioned previously, we are still in the process of core aerating (and reincorporation tasks) fairways, so you may experience some cores present or processing in progress. After today we will have approx six fairways to complete. All sand topdressed and solid tine aerated areas; fairways (Nos. 3,4,8,11,13,14) and all approaches, are now complete.

Conventional Core Aeration in progress On #17 Fwy.

Approach & Fairway; Topdressing & Aeration Activities

2010-10-08T12:24:00.028-05:00

If you've played recently you've likely seen sand application and solid tine aeration on all approaches and a few entire fairways. This work will likely be completed within the next couple days and then we will proceed with conventional aeration (core extraction) and reincorporation or processing . What's the difference? Why do we treat some fairways different than others? Why do we have to do any of this at all? Read on and hopefully many of your questions will be answered.

Why do we do any of this aeration and topdressing activity?
Mowing activities, maintenance vehicle traffic, cart traffic, walking traffic, rain, and more all have a compressing or compacting force on the soil, and aeration procedures are utilized to relieve this compaction and provide many additional benefits.

The benefits of aeration include:

Creates space for new root growth.
Improves oxygen movement into the soil, and plant and soil microbe by-product gas movement, out of the soil.
Improves water movement into the soil, capturing rainfall and reducing run-off.
Improves nutrient movement into the soil and provides ideal time to apply deficient nutrients or plant protectant products and/or other desirable soil amendments.
Severs plant parts which in turn initiates new growth thereby improving plant density.
Overall promotes a healthier, more drought tolerant turfgrass stand.

Conventional Coring and Reincorporation of sandy rootzone material on Tees

Solid Tine Aeration - (Sand was applied before aeration)

We employ both solid tine aeration, which removes no soil, (creating only an open channel in the soil), as well as conventional core aeration, where soil is extracted. Many times we will drag a flexible mat and/or a brush to pulverize these extracted cores and reincorporate the soil or sand that exists. In general we reincorporate cores on greens (unless we are using to propagate our nursery), and on tees, as the rootzone material on these areas is a desirable sandy material. On occasion after longer periods of time (years) we may remove cores completely if the organic matter percentage in the rootzone increases to undesirable levels.

Regarding the fairways, we core aerate and reincorporate (which acts as a soil topdressing) some fairways, and on others we apply sand topdressing then follow with solid tine aeration. The aeration helps incorporate the sand into the turf canopy.

Typical Conventional Core Aeration (last year-soon to begin this year). Cores will be pulverized and reincorporated into turf canopy.

Whether it's soil topdressing from reincorporated cores or sand topdressing, why do we care about topdressing?

The benefits of topdressing include:

Smooths the surfaces, filling in minor depressions.
Dilutes (with sand topdressing) and helps decompose (with soil topdressing from reincorporated cores) thatch material or the biomass of plant parts just beneath the turf surface
Improves surface firmness and ball roll qualities (sand topdressing)
Improves surface drainage over time as repeated applications build a modest layer (sand topdressing)
May help reduce excessive earthworm populations (reducing annoying casts) - (sand topdressing)
Reduces soil compaction which in turn helps root growth - (sand topdressing)

As you can see there are several important benefits to topdressing in general and sand topdressing provides a few added benefits. For 20 years now we have sand topdressed our greens, and for 10 years (since our course restoration) we have been reincorporating the desirable sandy mix on our tees and supplementing with sand topdressing. For perhaps 8 years now we have sand topdressed our approaches and now, because of the many benefits and improvements we've seen with sand topdressing, beginning last year we expanded our topdressing program to include several fairways.

Fairway Topdressing in Action

Topdressed Approach #1 awaiting Solid Tine Aeration

Why are we solid tine aerating and sand topdressing some fairways, and employing conventional core aeration and reincorporation on other fairways?
I believe all of our fairways could benefit by sand topdressing (and we wouldn't have to play through wet muddy cores again should rainfall come unexpectedly, like could happen while we conventionally aerate many fairways -I'll explain more later) but we do have large fairway acreage which would requiring purchasing a lot of sand, a commitment to continue the program annually for several years, and labor and additional equipment investment. It certainly doesn't come without cost and other issues in the future. However, many clubs have sand topdressed their fairways for many years enjoying several benefits and there are some costs that are similar regardless of aeration method. Given our large fairway acreage and desire to evaluate the program before expanding to include all fairways, we selected a few (a third of the fairways) to begin sand topdressing and solid tine aeration. We solid tine aerate sand topdressed fairways as once we begin a sanding program we do not want to bring up soil cores and reincorporate them, as a layer of sand followed by a layer of soil creates layering that can be detrimental to water movement and lead to turf decline issues. So once we begin we will no longer "pull cores" and potentially be subjected to an unexpected rainfall and the mess that would follow, hence my reference to not having to play through muddy cores again.

We have several fairways that are in low lying areas (their surfaces are fairly close to the level of our main water reservoir, the channel between holes #3 and #11) and/or are some of the slowest to completely drain and dry following heavier rain events.These fairways are #3, #4, #8, #11, #13, and #14. The next few potential candidates could be #15 and #18, but we'll see how the program progresses on the first six mentioned.

Sand Topdressed Fairway (#11) showing Solid Tine Aeration nearly complete.

Brooming, Rolling (if needed) and Watering complete the process.

I'll keep you posted as to our daily work progress (which you can also see on the status board outside the ProShop) and on this blog in future posts, but I'm certainly happy to get your feedback as well, on whatever your experience is on these sand topdressed fairways. It will take a few years before we see full benefits but you may notice a little firmer feel and perhaps a little extra ball roll before too long.

Weather Relief & Turf Recovery Progresses

2010-09-15T14:16:00.001-05:00

How do we spell relief? (No it's not ROLAIDS, like the old commercial...though we needed plenty of them this summer!) it's spelled, COOL. And to be more specific it's cool nights and cool soil temperatures, along with mild daytime temperatures and lower humidity. All of these weather factors, for the past two weeks, have finally become conducive to turf growth and recovery, and seed germination and establishment. What a difference a couple weeks make. It gives us a whole new outlook!

Over the last several weeks, in addition to bringing the rough back to a manageable length, we've performed several and repeated recovery efforts for thinned areas throughout the course including: small tine aeration; spiking; hand tamp dimpling; seeding; topdressing; applying germination enhancing nutrients, bio-stimulants (root promoting hormones), and wetting agents (to help retain moisture near the seed), and syringed daily. These efforts along with favorable weather have produced very good results and I'm sure we'll see coverage improvement with each passing day.

Thinned area on #13 green, late August

Same location showing excellent germination of seed in hand tamp dimpled areas.

Photo taken today 9/15

Most damaged area on #13 green, late August

Same area showing germination throughout. Establishment and spreading of this bentgrass should proceed well over next few weeks.

To aide establishment and complete recovery a cover is being installed each night to retain warmth when very cool overnight temperatures are forecast.

With outings, and most events behind us we will begin typical fall aeration activities very soon. Tees will be addressed first followed by fairways and then greens. The tee work has little impact on play but fairway and green aeration certainly do. At this time our scheduling will like be the last week in September for fairways and the second week in October for greens. Once again we will be using a fairly small tine size on the greens (approx. 3/8" diameter) but spaced closely. Recovery should be rapid at that time and playability should not be dramatically impacted. Topdressing will follow this procedure and we will be collecting the extracted cores to re-grow our nursery which was depleted this year from the extensive ice damage last winter. I'll blog about these activities as work commences.

Tired of photographing turf, photographer (me) catches a Belted Kingfisher enjoying the day (or maybe admiring No. 12 green!) while perched on bridge railing

Hope you find the time to get out and enjoy this beautiful weather!

Weather and Tournament Stresses & Recovery Efforts

2010-08-21T20:54:00.000-05:00

It's been ten days since the last post (Western Am. Recap) and we've now (hopefully) seen the extent of the stress caused by both extremely difficult weather conditions (high heat, humidity, and moisture the past 7-8 weeks) and an extended period (over 2 weeks) of maintaining tournament turfgrass conditions. The combination of the two, as we now know, led to turf decline and thinning in low spots and high traffic areas on several fairways, and on a few green and collar area surfaces. We certainly have some work still ahead of us for sure but every day we're making progress.

The Ugly Summer of 2010.
This is just one of the titles from dozens of recently published articles from sources such as; The Wall Street Journal; USGA, CDGA, GCSAA (Golf Course Supts. Assoc. of America), USA Today and many others.

The Ugly Summer of 2010 can be read at:
http://online.wsj.com/article/NA_WSJ_PUB:SB10001424052748704017904575409411501359450.html
Other titles include:
Golf Course Superintendents Concerned with Greens
Heat Hits Area Greens
Unusual weather puts stress on area golf courses
When it comes to the heat, Courses Fighting Nature
Need A Break: Heat plays havoc with greens
Scorched earth: Recent stretch of heat and humidity has blistered area courses
Hot weather turning putting greens to toast
(you can goggle these articles if you would like to read)

and then there is the USGA - Turf Loss Advisory article:
http://www.usga.org/course_care/regional_updates/regional_reports/midatlantic/Special-Notice---July-2010/

and, Heat Putting Strain on Golf Courses:
http://www.usga.org/news/2010/August/Heat-Straining-Golf-Courses/

and another good USGA article relating to Poa Annua - Annual Bluegrass loss, which is a major species component of our turf on greens, collars, approaches, and fairways.
http://www.usga.org/course_care/regional_updates/regional_reports/northeast/ANNUAL-Bluegrass---A-Fitting-Name,-Unfortunately---July-2010/

All of these articles relate to the weather extremes and turf decline issues throughout various parts of the country but as many of you know (and as I've mentioned before) we have a terrific local source of turf/weather information as well as advisor on turf disease and other maladies, and that is the CDGA's Director of Turf Program, Dr. Derek Settle. Derek is our "Turf -Doctor that makes house (course) calls", as well as a weekly author (along with other contributors from the CDGA) of the Scouting Report. His weekly report has detailed this ugly summer and last Fridays report mentioned some supporting statistics. A few excerpts follow but you can access the entire report and view photos at:
http://www.cdga.org/pdf/082010TurfScoutingReport.pdf

Chicago/Northern Illinois Update: Derek Settle - CDGA
Unkind! It looked as though we had completed our last test – an especially hot period with a total of six days straight of 90+ degrees (Aug. 9 to 14). Our forecast was a cool break. And so we waited. On Tuesday, Aug. 17 it happened and Chicago’s high temperatures were unable to cross 80 degrees. Amazingly, we learned 2010 had set an all-time record for a consistently warm summer – 46 days straight of daytime highs at least 80 degrees. Summer 2010 now holds number 1 with 1955 number two at 42 days. For my part I have watched this season unfold with usual diligence – life of turf is entirely dependent on weather that is sometimes unkind!
Summer 2010 is now compared to two other summers of recent Chicago memory (1988 and 1995). Hot summers seem to hit the upper Midwest about once every decade. For example, up to this point, 2010 now ranks as the 9th warmest with an average temperature of 75 degrees. Interestingly, years that experienced significant turf loss in superintendent’s memory are also highly ranked (1988 = 2nd warmest and 1995 = 5th warmest). For newer golf courses and young superintendents early in their career, this has been their most challenging season. From start to finish problems have been continuous and difficult. Unkind summer 2010, are you finished yet?

I sure hope so! If you have looked at some of the Scouting Report you'll see photos of turf damage from heat, humidity, flooding, traffic stress, disease, insects, and more from throughout the region. If you haven't yet, here's a sample of turf thinning post Western Am.

Green perimeter showing turf decline

Most, if not all courses have experienced some degree of turf decline. Those courses that have recently re-grassed with newer, more stress tolerant turf varieties; have improved rootzone profiles (such as the USGA Green Spec. Rootzone); fewer trees; elevated courses and/or excellent drainage; extensive cart path systems; and didn't have to maintain tournament conditions for two tournaments in a very short span of time, had less turf decline. Our course has a high percentage of the much more fragile turf species, poa annua; has topdressed but older, slower to drain, push-up soil profiles; lower ground elevation on many holes that hold water until the diversion ditch level drops (even with pumping and the use of our irrigation system to pump down and lower the channel which in turn helps move water off fairways faster); many trees, very few paths, and hosted our Derby and then just a week later seven days of the Western Amateur Championship.

These facts along with the long high temperature record, extended period of high overnight temperatures, high humidity, and nearly 6 inches of rain in the 14 day period which included the Western Am. rain event of 1.2 inches, make it fairly easy to understand why turf damage and decline occurred.

No. 13 Green - Turf decline due to compaction (edges of greens receive extra wear and tear), shade, traffic (walk off area to next tee), and mechanical stress from repeated mowing and rolling.

Stressed area on #4 fairway- poa annua, heavy cart and equipment traffic, additional wear and tear on perimeter areas of fairway, in combination with weather difficulties... have all contributed.

So, hopefully the above information and the links to the various articles from the USGA and Dr. Settles' Scouting Report helps explain the weather and turf stress of this summer and the reasons behind the decline of our turf quality in some areas of the course. I suppose it could all be summed up by the saying "It was a perfect storm"! We were a victim of circumstances of lousy weather and intense turf maintenance.

Recovery Efforts Underway

I know this is already a very long post (I'll wrap up quickly) but it's been a very long year... this past month! As I mentioned in my last post, we immediately began turf relief procedures on the Monday following the Western Am.by ventilating the greens (aerating with pencil sized tines to oxygenate the rootzone and relieve natural plant gas by-products), raising the mowing heights, reducing rolling, eliminating double mowing, and replacing traffic control ropes.

Ventilating - pencil sized diameter, shallow depth aeration

We have conducted the ventilation process a second time since then and we will continue to ventilate the greens periodically going forward. Root growth, compaction, oxygenation, and overall plant health and density will gradually improve. Our current, frequent low rate nutrient applications will be increased slightly as temperatures moderate. We must avoid forcing excessive growth as this will only deplete valuable energy reserves. Irrigation will be applied as needed and whenever needed to supplement plant and evaporation losses. It's probable that you'll notice softer surfaces than you have experienced to date but during this "recovery period" we do need to be maximizing plant health which doesn't always translate to maximizing playability. Additional relief efforts include multiple spiking and overseeding on green surfaces and aeration followed by "topdressing" fairway damaged areas with a sand/peat/seed mixture.

Multi-directional Spiking prior to overseeding with improved varieties and light rolling to close slits.

Aeration of a low, water damaged area on a fairway

Topdressing damaged fairway areas with sand/peat/seed mix

Smoothing and lightly incorporating mixture

With a little cooperation from Mother Nature in the form of cooler temperatures, lower humidity, and occasional but moderate rainfall (we're certainly due!); your cooperation in avoiding travel through stressed areas with carts, and avoiding walking on weak areas of greens when possible; and our G&G Dept. recovery efforts of aeration, spiking, seeding, topdressing, fertilization and irrigation; together we will recover from the decline we've recently experienced.

I hope that I'll soon be able to post photos of new seedlings in all areas where needed and other thin turf areas well on the way to complete recovery.

Western Amateur Recap

2010-08-11T19:19:00.000-05:00

I was thinking about what title to use for this first post since the Western Am. Tournament and thought about several:
Six Inches of Rain in Two Weeks Preceding Event Leaves Course Conditions Soft, or, Two Squeegee Sessions in One Day Wears Out Crew, or, Highest Average Humidity Since June 2003 Recorded on Rain Soaked Second Day of Tournament, or, Volunteers from Other Clubs Help SCC Grounds Staff Achieve Tournament Ready Conditions for a 7:30 Shotgun Start, or, Rain Soaked Mid-Tournament Ends Dry, or, SCC Volunteers & Family Provide Top Quality Divot Repair, or, Maintaining Tournament Turf Conditions During Extreme Weather Conditions Leaves Turf Stressed, or, Various Diseases Enjoy Post Tournament Petri-dish-Like Weather Conditions, or, Recovery Efforts Underway to Relieved Stressed Turf Areas, or, Long Challenging Rough Gradually Getting Tamed, or, Several Hundred Enjoy Western Finals, or, Players, Parents, Guests Highly Complementary About Course Conditions and Presentation, or, 2010 Western Amateur Tournament a Great Success!

They all could be appropriate titles and they all tell a portion of the story, (as far as the golf course, pre- tournament preparations, and now post tournament care, is concerned) behind the 2010 Western Am. Championship. There was little time for photo documentation during the event but I was able to snap a few shots with camera and phone camera, and was also provide some of the following photos courtesy of the WGA.

Entrance sign (and tee signs, and many others) being installed

Jacob and Ryan assembling scoreboard sections

Carpenter Ed making final touch-ups to Leaderboard

Greens mowing (double cut each morning, single cut each evening)

Fairway Mowing - Performed twice each day

Greens Rolling - Performed twice each day

This was the calm before the storm!

And the rains came...twice each day...no just on Weds. Not a great amount total but two heavy downpours fell on soils unable to rapidly drain from being somewhat saturated from the 5+ inches having fallen in the prior two weeks.

Some of our terrific volunteers from other clubs and suppliers. Josh and Kyle (Interns from Onwentsia Club), Matt (Asst. Supt. from North Shore CC) and Craig (from ProGro Solutions), in this photo above. These four guys worked nearly everyday and we couldn't have done it without them! Others that helped at one or more times include Scott (Supt. Onwentsia Club), Andy (Asst. Supt. Exmoor CC), and several crew members from North Shore CC.

Arthur Clesen Inc., and BTSI provided tasty meals on two days of the tournament...a nice treat!

Jacob (getting waist deep into his work- literally!) and Ryan attempt to clear a drain to help move water off #3 and #13 fairways. Our efforts revealed a collapsed line which will need to be replaced soon.

At one point we had to take a minute to go fishing!

With play resumed...I caught this familiar person wandering around. Something didn't seem quite right about this. I'm used to seeing him swinging clubs, not carrying them!

Something else not quite right... Shoeless Jay?

One of many member volunteers whom helped replace/fill divots on tees and in fairways.

Thanks so much to all of you!!!

A few spectators during semi-final match

Many spectators enjoy play at #15 Green during final match. Apologies for the lack of sharpness...Lots of coffee and little sleep for photographer this week!

In the wake of the tournament we're left with a bit more work to keep us busy...

These players do take divots! We've re-seeded already.

Rough mowing began before the final match ended. Most of the really long rough has now been mown and we will gradually (so as to not damage the turf and not leave excessive clippings) bring the heights back to a manageable length. Currently two large area rough mowers are in use every day.

Tournament turf conditioning -repeated mowing, rolling, limited fertility, low irrigation inputs - creates significant turf stress and these stresses are compounded when conducted during high heat, high humidity, and high moisture conditions (exactly what we had during the tournament). Solid tine aeration (ventilation), shown above, was conducted on Monday following the tournament, to relieve some of the compacted conditions and help re-introduce needed oxygen to the root systems.

Some areas were in fact damaged, and here Otto is replacing an area on No. 13 green with sod from our turf nursery, which has been grown from cores from all the greens and will blend quite nicely in a short period of time. You can see the small holes in the foreground from the "ventilation" process. Areas on a couple other greens that experienced thinning have been seeded and topdressed with a sand/peat mixture. We will repeat this seeding work as often as is necessary until full turf coverage occurs.

The 108th Western Amateur is, as they say, "In the Books". A hearty congratulations to victor, David Chung, and a heartfelt, "Thank You", to all those, staff, members, volunteers, and family, who contributed to this wonderful tournament.

Eli Comes to Town

2010-07-27T10:35:00.002-05:00

With the rain suspended Derby (over 3 inches fell on early Sat. morning) completed on a beautiful Sunday we are now in the home stretch of making final course preparations for the Western Amateur Championship.
Before I go any further though, I want to congratulate Derby Champions, Jim Connors IV and Ken Coquillette. They shot a fabulous 17 under par on a course that, although rain softened greens were slower than usual for the Derby, had extra challenging hole locations and, rough that was plenty longer and thicker than usual! Indeed quite a score! I'll blog a bit more about the Derby, prior course preparations, the 3" rain and our work to get the course playable to complete the Derby, and final course preparations for the Western, in a soon to be posted later blog. For now though, I want to tell you about our gazebo work now in progress.

Five years ago, after a rain shelter gazebo was destroyed by vandals, we searched for a company that could build a structure similar to the one that we had at the #12 hole pond on #3 side. Our search ended in the company Rocky Knolls Gazebos, from Rexford, Montana (Northwest corner of Montana about two miles from Canada) owned by Eli Beechy and a few family members. Eli and family are Amish and are incredible craftsman, as hardworking as you get, and just delightful folks, and at that time Eli fabricated the gazebo in Montana, had it shipped here to the club, and the two of us constructed it in the fall of 2005. We were fortunate in that they normally travel, to erect these gazebos, only in the states of Montana, Oregon, Idaho, and Washington, but they have family in Illinois and also Michigan and we were able to persuade him to stop by here and put up a gazebo for us during a planned trip visit to family. So at that time, Eli, his wife Irene, and their two sons, Nathan and Samuel traveled here by train, I picked them up at Union Station and they stayed one night at a nearby hotel. Eli and I erected the gazebo at #7 tee on a Saturday and finished it up early Sunday morning.

The original Rain Shelter Gazebo constructed in 2005 by Eli and Me

Disfigured Willow and deteriorating Gazebo before removal

Gazebo at #5 Tee prior to removal

Fast forward five years... The rain shelter gazebo at #12 pond was rapidly deteriorating and one of our other rain shelters was also in pretty bad shape. It was certainly time for them to be replaced. I contacted Eli and asked about having two more built (I was thinking he could send kits and I would construct myself) and he said and then, to my delight, asked if I would like for him to put them up as he was planning another visit to family nearby around the first week of August. The first week of August is the Western Am. and that wouldn't work for us but with a little pleading he graciously agreed to shift his plans one week so the timing would work out and the new rain shelter gazebos would be in place before the tournament. Perhaps it was because we established a relationship five years earlier, or because I did my best to accommodate Eli and family five years ago, or because ultimately we decided to have a third gazebo made, but whatever it was Eli happily adjusted his travel plans.

So, in the previous post I showed our preliminary work with removing portions of the old gazebos (and still keeping the roofs in place should they be needed during the Derby) digging footings (8 per) for piers at each location, laying out the exact pier locations and pouring concrete. With this work complete last Monday - Wednesday the concrete would be cured before Eli arrived. Yesterday the truck arrived with the all the gazebo pieces and later in the day Eli and family arrived. They drove this time (they themselves can't drive but they hired a driver, Brent, whom also assits with construction) but this trip there are a few more family members. In addition to Nathan and Samuel, they have a few more brothers and sisters, including Ruth, Paul, James, Martha, and the youngest (7 months old) is Joseph. Large families are common among the Amish as Eli has 14 brothers and sisters and Irene has 13! Eli and Irene are certainly making good progress on building their family.

Instead of staying at a hotel Eli asked if I would be willing to let them pitch a tent and stay here near the Grounds Operation Center and so without this being a problem at all, we have some visitors on site for the next couple days. Their compound is in a comfortable location on the lawn area in front of the Grounds Staff Bunkhouse. As of this morning at 9:30, Eli, Brent, Nathan (the oldest at 11 years) and Samuel, already have one gazebo nearly complete!

Here are a few photos of all that is going on at the moment:

Hand unloading Gazebo sections bright and early Monday morn.

Lots of materials, Lodge-pole Pine, bark stripped by hand

Eli and boys loading first Gazebo

Some of Beechy and Cross family enjoying shade on #14 while course closed (little guy in foreground is my grandson Clark Joseph)

Most of Beechy family awaiting dinner. Brent grilling, Eli supervising, Irene tending to children

(Amish do not take pictures or pose for photographs but Eli and Irene do not mind me taking pictures)

The youngest of the Beechy family, Joseph. ( Posing pretty well here!)

Future Gazebo builder I'm sure!

Making fast progress. Gazebo between #15 Tee /#16 Green

There is a lot of work still to do but with extra help this time around they'll be done in no time. I'll post more later on the Gazebo construction progress and much more.

Tournament Time is Here

2010-07-22T23:10:00.001-05:00

It's been way too long since I've posted but it surely hasn't been because I haven't had anything to post about. To the contrary! We've had so many things going on that I just haven't had time. But on Skokie Derby Eve., and the Western Amateur Championship about a week later, it's a great time to update you on what we've been up to for the past several weeks.
I mentioned in my last post that it hasn't been just the past several weeks that we've been getting ready for the Western, but in fact the last several months. Most recently though, we've made the final push to have the course in as fine a condition, both from a playability standpoint as well as an aesthetic standpoint.
Over the past several weeks, which have been especially challenging for turf survival with high heat and humidity at times (leading to high disease activity), and high heat, drought, and wind conditions at other times (leading to moisture stressed turf ), we've had our hands full just trying to keep turf healthy and alive much less carrying out several special projects. With a lot of hard work and many long days (definitely a sleep deprived staff), I think we've managed to do both fairly well.
I'll write more about the difficult weather year we're experiencing, the impact it's had on turf conditons, and reference or link you to some other articles regarding this, but for now the following items have been part of our preparations for both the Derby and the Western Am. It's a photo recap...hope it gives you a little insight into our world.

Asst. Superintendent Jacob applying nutrients and plant protectants

(a frequent activity these past couple months during these challenging environmental conditions)

Miguel & Javier checking sand depths and smoothing all bunkers

Robbie painting rails, posts, and wire of fence at #13 new Champ. Tee area

(planting of native grasses and vines to more thoroughly mask has also been completed)

Gus completing a drainage repair project in area between holes #1 and #10, an area which will be heavily trafficked during Western Am.

Fairway rolling on Derby eve to provide smoother, firmer surfaces to aid ball roll.

Careful though - don't let that ball roll to far off the fairway.

Here Freddy is "topping it off" - at 4 inches!

Some other tall rough you'll want to avoid! Here Nestor is finishing removal of seedling and other weeds. He and others have spent considerable time combing all tall rough areas for unwanted plants.

Otto "fluffs" same rough area after cleaning small branches and leaf debris.

With new gazebo being installed soon, it was time for this declining willow to go.

We didn't want it falling on new gazebo - or on a player!

Rafa and Nestor pause from clean-up activities. Trunk measured nearly 5 feet in diameter.

Miguel, Javier V., and Perez remove center supports so that footings can be dug while still keeping roof in tact if needed for shelter during Derby

Drilling 1 of 24 holes, 12" in diameter, approx 42" deep. This was a day and a half job for 4 of us. Compacted clay with a few rocks and roots to go through (and 90 degree temps) made this a really delightful task!

Another 3 days were spent laying out exact positioning for concrete footings (piers)...

and then pouring took place. Several of the crew were involved in this project with Steve as my main assistant. All piers are now in place and curing. Old structures will be removed Sunday after Derby and new structures will be erected next Monday, Tuesday & Wednesday.

Eli Beechy, the Amish-man from Montana will be coming in town. More later on this....

Another project (following removal of several disfigured and diseased spruce trees) was new landscape plantings at #9 pond.

New plants include Serviceberry, Chokeberry, Little Blue-stem, Indiangrass, and False Indigo

Cirilo removes a dried divot and fills with...

a green dyed sand, peat, and seed mixture

Miguel does a little "Aquatic Gardening"...thins some of the water lillies

& after a Derby eve mowing, to help gain some putting green speed...

(we'll do this a couple times in the morning too!)

The course is... Ready for the 60th Run for the Roses!

Best of Luck to you all!

Ventilating the Greens

2010-06-24T16:11:00.001-05:00

With the frequent and above normal amounts of rain over the past seven weeks, saturated soil conditions are present throughout the course. And now, with very warm temperatures upon us, the combination can rapidly lead to turf root loss and diminished quality. In spite of numerous core aeration sessions over the years and nearly 5" of sand topdressing (from 20 years of work) providing a porous surface rootzone, with the excessive amount of rain we've had recently and internal drainage lines on only a few of our newer greens, we recently started a process of Greens Ventilation.This is really just an aerification process but without removing any material and using a special tine called a cross tine. No it's not a special tine that I came up with, I wish I had, it's a special tine that is available from a tine manufacturing company shaped like two intersecting double sided knives. We use our Toro Procore aerator and adjust the depth to approx. 3 inches, and the spacing to approx. 1 1/2" on center.

Rafa beginning Ventilation process

As the tines are inserted, a cross like cut is created and these cuts result in much more area affected and open to air movement into (providing oxygen) and gases out of, the rootzone soil. A great feature of this tine is that while it affects a nice amount of underground area, the surface is minimally disrupted.

Green surface after "cross tine" ventilating, prior to rolling

Javier rolling

After rolling the green following ventilating, ball roll is minimally, if at all, impacted, yet valuable benefits of oxygenation (aiding root system support) and rootzone soil drying (aiding surface firmness, and ball roll) are gained. This procedure may be repeated in the coming weeks if our current weather pattern of frequent rainfall continues.

Putting surface after rolling...surface nearly closed but ventilation channels beneath remain

As soil temperatures rise in the summer months, root growth slows and even ceases. And of course, without roots, plants weaken and ultimately die. Moist and/or saturated rootzone soils warm and retain heat more than drier rootzone soils and so anything we can do to dry and cool the rootzone, and retain roots, is critically important. Ventilation certainly helps in this regard!

Another Stormy Kiltie Days

2010-06-22T16:34:00.000-05:00

Last year it was a flood (we played only 13 holes on the second day), about 10 years ago it was a microburst felling 42 trees, there's been other years with strong storms and downed trees, there's been some years with very high temperatures, and this year Kiltie Days once again had quite unsettled weather. Fortunately we didn't get the flooding rains of last year (we had just .75 inches) and it wasn't until most of the days matches were complete, but we did have gale force winds (over 65 mph) and the aftermath left 3 trees, the tops of 2 more, and a huge mess of smaller branches and leaves littering the course. And, there's still many broken branches up in tree canopies, and probably more that we haven't seen yet (but will when they begin to wilt and turn off colored), that will all need to be pruned in the coming days.

The subject of a long Friday night! (fore and aft the sand piles)

One of at least 5 causalities of the 65 mph winds

From the time the first storm on Friday passed (there was another overnight) until well into the dark hours of the night, our grounds staff sawed, hauled, blew, and raked the debris and had the course fairly well cleared. The overnight storm then brought down a bit more debris and so bright and early (well, not so bright...but definitely early!) Saturday morning, more blowing, raking, and mulching brought the course to a tidy condition once again. It was certainly a long week preparing for the event with multiple mowing and many other maintenance tasks before and during the practice round and throughout the event, and then addressing the wake of the storm, but I'm happy that this year's Kiltie Days proceeded with only minor disruption and that the rain totals were relatively low.

It's been a different story over the past two months as the data below shows!

Over 5.5 inches more rain than normal for the past month and a half!

It's rained 15 of the last 22 days, and we've had 3 inches more than normal in May and 2.5 inches more than normal so far in June. Unfortunately more is expected tonight. I'm thinking this 5.5 inches extra rainfall to date, might just have something to do with the rough (and all areas) being very lush, and the fairway and green surfaces being softer and slower than usual! A little drought would be just fine about now!

Seven Weeks and Counting

2010-06-16T22:35:00.005-05:00

It's been over two weeks since I last posted (which is indeed much longer than I like) but it seems like it's been so much longer with everything in full swing and many course activities in progress. Time sure flies and before we know it, Kiltie Days will pass, then it will be the 4th of July, then the Derby, and very shortly thereafter, The 108th Western Amateur Championship. A member asked me the other day "When will you start preparation's for the Western Am."? I though for a second and replied, "Well, actually we started preparing about eight months ago!"
At that time, October 09', we were modifying (rebuilding and adding) the fairway bunker complex on #18, expanding a few fairway areas to better incorporate bunkers into fairway contours, extending #17 tee, installing drainage in a few poorly drained fairway and rough areas, building the base for the new cart path (brick edge and crushed brick) at #12 Green / #13 Tee, and much more.
I told the member "eight months ago" but now that I've thought more about it, I probably could have said, "two years ago"!. It was then that we started the installation of the new irrigation system which, if it ever does get dry this year, will give us the ability to water only where needed, or where desired. For example, should the rough start to go dormant we can keep it well irrigated without adding any extra water to the fairways. We could also water the slopes and surrounds of the greens, without putting any water on the putting surfaces. Our goal as we approach the Western, should we get cooperation with the weather, would be to have fast and firm fairways, approaches, and greens and "healthy and challenging" roughs and green surrounds. Our new irrigation system features the ability to water each of these mentioned areas independent of the others. At this point I'm hoping that we get the chance to use it as opposed to the frequent rainfall we've experienced lately! This high moisture and high humidity recently has caused saturated and soft ground conditions and dense, lush and slow turf conditions. I'm really looking forward to a break from this rain forest-like weather very soon!

Our projects this spring are progressing nicely and have included:

Repair of winter damaged fairway areas(several seedings and finally sodding using our "home-grown" sod and "harvested" sod from shifting the beginning of #7 fairway) is now very near completion. This damage was the worst I've seen in my 20 years at the club and it's repair has required nearly daily efforts for the past six weeks! It's nice to be about finished
Extension of #10 Tee and landscaping behind tee complete.
Grassing of buckthorn cleared area adjacent to #9 tees is complete and seedlings are emerging. We'll soon add some established native plants, Indian grass and Little Blue-stem grasses, to supplement seeded plants.
Cart Path at #12 Green/ #13 Tee now complete.

Otto and Javier near completion of winter damaged fairway repair - they've been at it for nearly six weeks now!

A sample of winter damaged fairway turf being removed

Tee #10 sod work - now complete, including planting ornamental grasses behind tee

Tee #17 - extension now complete

New cart path complete at #12 Green / #13 Tee

Fine Fescue grass seedling emergence at #9 Tee

Plenty to do in next few weeks:

Sod any bare spots such as cart traffic areas and tree stump holes.
Renovate cart path (add brick edge, soil separator fabric, and crushed brick) along side #9 tee.
Remove deteriorated asphalt on pathway from #11 tee to #2 green, and replace with crushed brick.
Erect three new gazebos to replace deteriorated ones at #5, #12 and at #15 tee / #16 green.
Replace some of overgrown shrubs at Half Way House.
Repair and sealcoat main parking lot and lower parking areas (by lower tennis courts) and perhaps paths adjacent to putting green, #1 tee, #10 tee, and near range tee.
Water-jet several tile lines exhibiting slower drainage.
Continue to attempt to "tame" the rough, and \conduct all routine daily tasks such as hole location changing, tee servicing, mowing (greens, tees, approaches, fairways, intermediate rough), bunker raking, range tee and chipping area overseeding and set-up, plant protectant applications as needed, and much, much more.

I'll try to post more frequently on these projects, and other activities, as they progress.

A few of the eight new residents at #9 pond - Mallard Ducklings!

A Word about our Rough

2010-05-28T09:27:00.001-05:00

I've been asked this question a number of times recently, "When are you gonna cut the Rough?" I understand the reason for the question, it is quite challenging at present, and I want to mention a few things regarding this area of the course.
First of all a couple facts:

We've had environmental conditions recently that are highly conducive to rapid turf growth; plentiful moisture a couple weeks ago (remember the 3.5 inches of rain?) followed by our recent warm temperatures. The combination results in rapid turf growth everywhere.
During this period of very active growth, the rough is being mowed every day. We mow it all and then immediately start over again. It takes a few days to mow the entire rough, depending on play activity.
It is being mowed at the same height as always. No higher, no lower. Why don't we mow it lower? There are a number of reasons mowing at our current height is best such as: improved wear tolerance; less susceptibility to disease, weed, and insect pests; and our general course playability intent (it's supposed to be challenging); but perhaps most important is that the root depth and density (and overall health) is greater in higher mowed turf compared to shorter mowed turf. These benefits provide a greater likelihood of the rough being healthier and more tolerant of the stresses of heat and drought and/or humidity that may occur later in the summer.
We are not already "Growing the rough for the Western Am." It is true that we did fertilizer the rough last fall to improve the density, promote lateral spread or "fill-in" in thin areas, reduce weed encroachment (dense turf resists growth of crabgrass and may other weeds) and insure general plant health, but this is nothing new. We fertilize many areas of the rough every fall and other parts of the rough at least every couple years. We will be growing the rough longer for the Western Am. but not until much closer to the event. More information will be coming in a future blog regarding this and other tournament preparation issues.
It will soon slow it's growth rate as temperatures warm, moisture becomes less frequent (generally this happens in summer) and traffic (carts and equipment) wear it down somewhat.

Hopefully we don't have too much heat, or drought, or wear, because we do want to have healthy rough, but it is likely it will thin out as summer progresses.

One additional fact that is occurring right now and one that I feel is perhaps the greatest reason for the rough being quite tough to play out of, is the heavy seeding now in progress. Wherever one looks there is massive seed production in progress on many plants including trees and grasses alike. Cottonwood seeds, Maple and Elm samaras (commonly called whirlybirds or helicopters), and other tree seeds are littering the course daily, making putting, mowing, (even breathing...in the case of cottonwood seeds) difficult. At the same time all the grasses such as poa annua (on the greens, tees, fairways) and the bluegrass, ryegrass, and fescue (in the rough) is heavily seeding making mowing and shot-making difficult as well. It is the very tough, bristly like, fibrous seed stalk that is making the rough very difficult to hit out of. The following photos should help to illustrate my point.

Plentiful seed production from many plant species in progress

Rough prior to mowing showing numerous seedheads

Close-up of bluegrass (rough) turf. Note erect seed stalks in center. These are much "tougher", and more fibrous than wider grass blades to sides of center stalks. Tough seed stalks makes getting a club through turf canopy much more difficult.

An attractive out-of-play area adjacent to #13 Championship Tee.

Orchard Grass seedheads in foreground and Fescue in background.

As I mentioned earlier, the current lush growth will very likely moderate as temperatures warm and moisture diminishes. This will thin out the turf stand in the rough making for easier play than at the present time. In addition the seeding phase will soon end (couple of weeks) and the tough seed stalks will wither and become much less resistive to shot-making. Thanks for your patience and I do hope you find the 36 acres of short mowed fairway, which incidentally is 15-25% more than most golf courses in our area, much more often than our present very challenging, rather aggressive rough.

Course Etiquette #2 - Refraining from "Practicing" on Course

2010-05-24T22:17:00.001-05:00

It's an extremely busy time on the course and I'm anxious to blog about a number of items such as:

The Annual Skokie Bird Walk (recap from May 17th.)
A Fairway/Bunker drainage project on #13.
Tee Extension Project completion at tees #10 & #17.
Re-establishing our Nursery Green & Fairway between holes #7 & #8. (Fourth time now - we've done a lot of expansion over the last several years!)
Ongoing winter injury repair (sodding many areas now)
New Staff : Assistants Jacob & Ryan
& several course etiquette topics.

I'll eventually get to all of these items (I hope to anyway!) but after seeing what I saw this morning, while traveling the course, I felt compelled (nice way of saying I was angry or perhaps very disappointed) to write this 2nd Course Etiquette. It's really quite simple. The course should not be used as a substitute for the driving range, or stated another way, several balls should not be dropped and hit from the same location on the course creating several divots in one area. The photo below is what I saw first thing this morning.

Please Do Not "Practice" on the Course!

Imagine if every member dropped 5 balls, took 5 divots, and didn't bother replacing them! The disappointing fact is that this seems to be happening more often. It's not the same person as I've seen at least three different members.
If you should happen to see this "practicing" taking place, please ask the player to stop or let me know. It's only proper course etiquette!

When it Rains, It Pour's

2010-05-13T19:57:00.008-05:00

Although this is the slogan for the popular salt brand, Morton Salt, relates to their salts' properties (doesn't stick together in high humidity conditions) and literally does not always take place, it sure is a fitting title for today. It rained, it poured, and left much of the course underwater! The amount of rain that fell last night and into this morning was 2.5 inches. A 1 inch rain on Tuesday morning had already brought our soil conditions to near saturation and this 3.5 inches accumulated total, in only a few days, is just much more than our course, the East Diversion Ditch, and the North Branch of the Chicago River (which the Ditch and our course ultimately drains to) can handle. The following photos show the aftermath.

From foreground to background...Fwys No. 1, 10, and 8

No. 2 Approach and Green side Bunker

Bridge at No. 3 Tee - Water 3' higher than normal!

No. 13 Fairway

No. 14 Approach / Fairway

Above video showing whitewater flow over cart path / drainage swale at No. 17 Tee

No. 18 Fairway

These photos were all shot earlier today and since then many areas no longer have standing water. Many other areas however, will need more time and may not fully drain until late tomorrow. Thereafter soil conditions in fairways and roughs will still be saturated and/or soft for several days. Dry, warm, windy conditions would surely help matters. We seem to have at least one of these flooding events every year and I sure am hoping that this year we only have one! Looking forward to dry, firm, and fast conditions very soon!

If you are planning to come out tomorrow please call the Pro Shop in advance. I'll evaluate course conditions early in the morning and notify the Pro Shop regarding course playability.

Grassing Improvement Projects

2010-05-05T19:06:00.001-05:00

If you've had a chance to enjoy a round or two during the past month of record temperatures (7 degrees warmer on average, each day) you have likely seen activities adjacent to #9 tee and some odd circular brown spots on #2 tee. In both cases we are replanting with more desirable grasses.

On #2 tee we have sprayed the spots of perennial ryegrass (a weed on this bentgrass / poa annua tee) and reseeded with the more desirable, more compatible, bentgrass. Perennial ryegrass has it's place, such as on our range tee and in the roughs, but it's darker green color and more rapid leaf extension rate is unattractive when it contaminates our tees or fairways. A few of our tees have a few to several spots of ryegrass (and many of our fairways do as well) and we wanted to test a Round Up & reseeding process. Round Up (a product that completely kills plants but is deactivated upon contact with the soil) was used to kill the ryegrass and since it has no residual soil effects, we sowed the desirable bentgrass seed within a few days after treatment. With light and frequent irrigation, and now more consistently warmer temperatures, we should see seed germination within a couple weeks and we'll be on our way to a more attractive, more uniform tee surface.

Darker green Perennial ryegrass being eliminated - Bentgrass seed sowed into brown patches

Another seeding project in process is in the area to the right of #9 tee. In an earlier post I wrote about us eliminating a large grove of invasive buckthorn in this area and that our plan was to re-grass the area to Fine Fescues and native Little Blue-stem.

Tangled mess -"buckthorn patch"- before removal this winter

Buckthorn removed, remaining plants treated to eliminate

At the present time we have treated to eliminate the existing plant material and have begun to haul in a mix of stockpiled soil, composted scrap sod, aeration cores, stump shavings, and other debris that we have accumulated over time. We will "topdress" the area and cover the many buckthorn stumps, which have been treated with a product to prevent re-growth. We've used this same "composted" material in other tall grass, out-of-play, areas and it has worked well as a seed germination medium. Also, aside from this being a good seed medium, it's a great way to re-use or recycle material that otherwise would have to be discarded, and it save the very high price of having hauled and dumped off site.

Our own "composted" material ready to be spread

The hauling of material will continue over the next couple days and then smoothing, sowing seed, and covering with a seed blanket will follow. Additionally, while we have left a "band" of buckthorn along the fence, to retain it's screening effect, we will be planting several containers of a taller native grass called Indiangrass, along the fence line for added screening. The Fescues will give us cover this year but the native grasses will take a few years to establish completely. When they do finally mature this should become a much more attractive area than the former "buckthorn patch" that previously existed.
I'll keep you posted as to our progress.

April Course Update

2010-04-27T21:54:00.001-05:00

It's quite unusual for April but it's actually been a nice, relatively dry, month and with this we've made very good progress on a variety of routine tasks, special maintenance tasks, and improvement projects. With all that is happening right now, it feels more like June than April! A list of our activities includes:

Completion of deep tine fairway aeration.
Completion of overseeding of winter injured fairways.
Topdressing of greens (2x) and approaches.
Topdressing and solid tine aeration of fairways No.s 3, 11, 13, (No. 4 to be completed tomorrow)
Aeration and overseeding of thin (shaded or high traffic) areas in rough.
Establishing shorter cut walk paths, or "dew paths", in the tee descents leading from tee to fairway.
Interceptor drainage channels installed at cart path adjacent to No. 18 green.
Continued installation of brick edging and crushed brick at No. 12 green / No. 13 tee.
In process of constructing extensions of tees No. 10 and No. 17.
& Routine mowing, trimming, bunker raking, debris removal, plant protectant applications (seedhead suppression, nutrient, weed control, disease prevention) , drain and sprinkler head edging, and much more!

A glimpse of our current activities is shown in the following photos:

Javier spreading mixture of sand, peat and bentgrass seed...

into prepared (shallow, solid tine aerated ) winter damaged areas

Miguel spreading crushed brick over fabric covered, brick edged, gravel underlayment

Shaping of subgrade and layout of Championship tee #10

Topdressing approach at #13

Rafa aerating topdressed fairway #3 - process aids incorporation of sand and provides usual benefits of aeration

Jacob putting final touches of incorporation process with drag broom

Approx. 3/8 - 1/2" layer of sand from triple fall and first spring application - a good start!

Topdressing and manually brooming fairway expansion on #8 Approach

Willow at far end of range - victim of high wind last Saturday eve.

Blue Jay enjoying new temporary perch!

More details on our winter injury recovery efforts, tee construction, fairway topdressing, additional course etiquette posts, and much more will be forthcoming.

Course Etiquette #1 - Ball Mark Repair - It's Every Players Responsibility!

2010-04-12T21:00:00.005-05:00

This is the first post in a series I'm planning regarding Course Etiquette. I want to start with the ever so important - Repairing Ball Marks.

Ball marks, those indentations caused when a ball lands sharply on a green, softened by rain or high humidity, have been ruining good putts since the days of Old Tom Morris. Unrepaired ball marks take two to three weeks to properly heal, leaving behind unsightly, uneven putting surfaces. On the other hand, a repaired ball mark only takes half that time to heal.

Beginner or pro, it is your responsibility as a golfer to fix your own marks. If you're truly a steward of the game, you'll fix any others you see while your partners are putting. There's really not much to it, but there are a few guidelines you should follow when making these repairs.

Four Steps to Properly Repairing a Ball Mark

1.Select a pronged ball mark repair tool, pocket knife, or tee.

2.Insert it at the edges of the mark--not the middle of the depression.

3. Bring the edges together with a gentle twisting motion, but don't lift the center.

Try not to tear the grass.

4. Smooth the surface with your putter by lightly tamping.

You're done when it's a surface you would want to putt over!

If we all do our part and repair ball marks as soon as we make them, they'll heal quickly, the greens will look better and, more importantly, the surfaces will be smoother and give you a better chance at dropping that next putt!

Photos and portions of text in this post courtesy of the Golf Course Superintendents Association of America (GCSAA)

80 Degrees on April 1st - No April Fool's Joke!

2010-04-04T20:13:00.004-05:00

It's official. Thursday, April 1st, Chicago set a record high temperature of 83 degrees for the date, and here at Skokie CC our weather station recorded 82.85, to be exact! No fooling about it! It was truly a beautiful day, the first time the mercury has risen this high in over six months, and a day that helps us forget for the moment, the long, cold, icy winter. It was only the 12th time in over 140 years of recordings that the temperature has been this high, this early in the year. And it was just in time for the re-opening of the club! We've had the course and regular greens open for the past few weeks but with all areas of the club now back in full operation, carts are available, and the range and chipping area is open for use!

Every day we make continued progress on the course with spring clean-up, bunker preparation, placing course furnishings (ball washers, benches, etc.) as well as initiating routine daily tasks such as mowing (greens, tees, approaches, fairways, intermediate rough), and course set-up (changing hole locations and tee markers).

In addition to these items we've been busy with repair efforts on the winter damaged areas on the greens (fortunately not many) and the fairways (unfortunately a few more than we'd like). On the greens this work involved the use of a manually operated spot overseeder known as the German Tamp, then dropping bentgrass seed throughout the affected area and into the numerous, small, shallow dimples created by the Tamp, then lightly topdressing with green dyed sand (the dark color helps absorb some heat from the sun) and finally lightly brooming to smooth the sand and help seed nestle into the dimples.
On the fairways we use our motorized 4' wide aerator equipped with multiple, solid, pencil sized tines, set to (as with the greens) create numerous, shallow channels for seed to lodge, germinate, and be protected during the early seedling phase. There are numerous small areas throughout the fairways, and some relatively larger areas on #8 fairway. All winter injured areas on greens are already complete, as is #8 fairway, and we will continue to address all affected fairway areas next week.
A combination of warmer weather, and a little moisture (which we received Sat.morn.and Sun. eve), will not only help our fall applied nutrients to activate for turf availability and help existing turf spread into voids, but also will provide the necessary conditions for our seeding efforts, aiding rapid germination and seedling development.

Operating Spot Overseeder

Ready for seed, and green-dyed sand

Operating fairway aerator with multiple, solid, mini-tines

Fairway damaged area, aerated and ready for seed

In addition to the winter damage repair / overseeding work above, we're also in the process of deep tine aerating all fairways. In this process we use solid tines (no soil cores extracted)which creates deep channels (approx. 8-9") with diameters of 3/4" and 1/2". These channels help break up compacted soil, improve drainage, enhance rooting, improve oxygen and gas exchange, improve nutrient movement, and generally enhance plant health. The following video shows this operation, Verti-drain aeration, in process.

Fairway Deep Tine, Verti-drain Aeration

Deep Tine - Verti-drain Aeration channels

I'll keep you posted as to our progress with these and many more activities about to unfold. See you on the course!

Native Grass / Naturalized Grass Burn

2010-03-29T15:47:00.000-05:00

Over the past two weeks weather conditions have been conducive to our annual practice of controlled burning of our Native / Naturalized Tall Grass areas. The exact timing of when we conduct this process is always somewhat unknown as of course precipitation has a significant impact on the burn-ability of these grasses and thoroughness of the burn. Recently, though, weather has cooperated (except for a wind shift that occurred and unfortunately sent smoke in an unwanted direction!) and allowed us to nearly complete this task.

I prefer to burn in the spring each year for two primary reasons. First the dried grasses, especially the true native grasses like Little Blue-stem, Indian Grass, and Switch Grass, remain upright throughout the winter adding landscape interest during this stark season. Secondly, withholding the burn until spring, the grasses, both native and naturalized (the term we use to refer to tall grass areas of non-native fescues, orchard grass, timothy, and other species of European origin) provide protective habitat for wildlife during the long cold winter.

As listed in last years Prairie Fire post (click on Tall Grass under Blog Topics) there are several benefits to Controlled Burning:
• Reduces the large mass of dried plant material. Much more cost effective compared to mowing, raking, hauling, disposing, and much more thorough.
• Clears the plant canopy so new grasses can grow without competition.
• Improves the quality of the re-emerging plant species and aids new plant seed germination.
• Reduces tree seedlings, annual grasses, and weed encroachment.
• Prevents the accidental ignition by a discarded cigarette / cigar.
• Burned ash returns plant nutrients and organic matter to the soil aiding new growth.
• Burned black ash absorbs the suns energy and warms the soil speeding re-growth. (The very deep root systems are unaffected by the flame or heat and underground shoots re-emerge when the soil warms)
• Devoid areas provide habitat for wildlife such as the nesting Killdeer birds.

Starting a fire line on the Native Grass mound at #12

Dried Indian Grass, Little Blue-stem, & Switch Grass, burn rapidly and intensely!

Typical charred remains - ready to absorb sun's rays and begin growth anew

After a spring rain or two the ash and blackened remains will dissipate and before long new green shoots will emerge and begin to flourish.

Tree Management Activities

2010-03-27T22:25:00.005-05:00

In an earlier post this year I mentioned that our annual pruning activities were underway. (See Annual Pruning Activities - Mar. 2) Well I'm happy to now report that the aerial work is complete, nearly all of the branches have been removed from the course, and most of the remnant debris has been raked clean. Hundreds of trees were pruned throughout the course over a two week period and the result is improved canopy structure, reduced chance of hazardous/dead branch fall, reduced incidence of disease through sanitation pruning, improved light penetration for the underlying turf, and overall improved health and appearance. Our remaining task now is the chipping of the branches stockpiled at various locations around the course.

In addition to this annual pruning we also have begun to address an additional tree management activity, that of tree removal. As I mentioned in the Mar. 2nd post and last year as well (click on Tree Management under Blog Topics to see all posts) we follow a set of criteria I call the 5-D's when determining whether a tree warrants removal.

The 5-D’s that guide our tree removal actions:
• Diseased - significant infection that is untreatable or too costly to treat.
• Decayed/Dead - significant decay, or complete death, resulting in structural weakening and hazardous conditions.
• Damaged - significant structural damage from high winds and/or lightning.
• Disfigured - Unattractive shape from over crowding of adjacent trees or from damage.
• Disruptive – Affecting playability. Causing traffic concentration, excess turf loss from shade, root system impacts to turf and drainage tile systems.

Approximately 25 trees have been identified as having met one or more of the 5-D criteria, more than half of which are spruce trees in groupings at two locations. The following photos show some of the trees that have been (or will soon be) removed and the criteria reason.

Spruce (5)- behind alternate tee #12 - Severely Diseased, Disfigured, Disruptive to tee.

Austrian Pine - #7 berm rt. of tee - Approx. 2/3rds Dead

Silver Maple - Rt. rough #8 - Severe Canker Disease

Close up of Canker in above photo - causing dieback of canopy

Red Oak - Lft. rough #17 - Damaged central leader

Spruce - No. 8 Lft. of green - Diseased, Disfigured

Spruce (3) -walk path at #9 - Diseased, Damaged, Disruptive

Arborvitae and Spruce - Lft. edge #9 pond - Damaged, Diseased, Disfigured

Close up of Arborvitae & Spruce in previous photo showing extensive dieback from Disease

The above photographs are not all of the removals planned but do represent the majority and the most significant. In some cases we will replace the removed trees/shrubs, such as in the last photo at #9 pond, where we intend to replant with a combination of clump form ornamental trees (Serviceberry), shrubs (Red-twig Dogwood) and grasses (Indian grass, Little-blue stem) which will provide multiple season interest.

Greens Recovered - Naturally

2010-03-20T23:41:00.001-05:00

How was that for a tease? Three days of nice temperatures, a welcomed amount of sunshine, a chance to play to the regular greens, and then we wake up this morning to this:

Hole 14 - Saturday morning 3/20

I guess after all, it is mid-March and it is Chicagoland! Hopefully this is winters last hurrah and this recent covering is short-lived!

Flagsticks In - Spring Prep Activities

2010-03-18T22:22:00.003-05:00

The regular greens are now open and ready for play!
This morning we finished rolling all greens, mowed them, set new hole locations, and put in the freshly painted flagsticks. Let the season begin!

Greens Open!

A few players took advantage of the nice day today, and it looks like tomorrow should be nice as well, but the forecast for the weekend and early next week looks a little bleak so it's likely we will be recovering the greens soon. It takes a crew of about 8 men, approx. 4-41/2 hours, to put the covers on, so if the forecast stands we'll start recovering early tomorrow afternoon. I mentioned the reasons why we do this in the previous post but in general we don't want to have a decline in the benefits that the covers provide.

It was a very busy day today on the grounds at SCC. The photo's below show our activities:

First greens rolling complete

First greens mowing complete

All fairways rolled to prepare for mowing

Aeration of shaded, saturated, ice damaged area on #8 fairway

(fortunately this is only fairway with larger areas of injury)

Controlled burning of native & naturalized grass areas begin

More details on several of these above projects / practices will be forthcoming.

Covers Off - Greens look, well,...Green!

2010-03-17T22:06:00.001-05:00

With the snow gone, ice finally melted, and forecast temperatures mild during the day and above freezing at night, the green covers have now been removed! We now enter a period I call the "cover shuffle" which means we'll leave the covers near the greens and if the nighttime temperatures are forecast to drop below freezing, we'll put them back on. When the nighttime temperatures again reach above freezing, we'll take them back off again. This on and off covering/recovering process will continue until temperatures ultimately moderate. It's a tedious task, and we always look forward to a long stretch of days/nights where we can keep them off and let them acclimate, but I believe if we don't replace them during these temperature drops, we'll likely have a reduction of some of the benefits the covers provide.

A Green Cover being removed

Benefits of Green Covers:

Protection against desiccation (drying) in an open winter. (Not a concern this year with extended snow cover!)
Protection from animal activity such as deer and geese. Both tend to dislike covers.
Prevents debris and animal waste (deer, geese, coyote) accumulation over winter.
Allows us to perform aeration later into the fall and extend the playing quality of putting surfaces.
Provides enhanced green-up and root growth as covers accelerate soil warming.
Helps us achieve smoother, truer, ball roll in an earlier time frame.

Back of #15 Green - Nice & Green...just in time for St. Patty's Day!

We began rolling the greens today and we'll likely begin to mow them tomorrow. Also began rolling fairways to firm them and settle some of the natural frost heaving that occurs when the soil freezes. More information on all these activities will be posted shortly.

A Good Bit O' the Green

2010-03-13T18:15:00.002-06:00

St. Patrick's Day is on Wednesday next week and aside from the usual reasons to celebrate, this year (due to some very favorable developments just this week) there are plenty of additional reasons!

It's hard to believe but just a few short days ago the course was still blanketed by snow. We've had a winter with a generous helping of the fluffy white stuff, in fact I believe it's the seventh snowiest on record. With temperatures well into the 50's this week, the blanket is no more. Snow melted...Reason #1 to celebrate!

Snow cover on Monday 3/8

Snow melted by Friday 3/12

The mostly continuous snow covering this winter has really tested the efficacy and length of protection of our late fall applied plant protectants used to manage snow mold disease activity. Many areas in the untreated rough have a greater than usual presence of both Typhula and Microdochium fungi, commonly known as, Gray and Pink Snow Mold. These diseases typically cause foliar blighting but no crown or root damage so recovery will occur from these unaffected plant parts, in a reasonable length of time. Our fall applied nutrients will help accelerate recovery as soon as soil temperatures rise, at which time they will become available for plant uptake. Fortunately, the areas we apply protectants to, the greens, tees, approaches, and fairways,have little to no activity. As with the rough, the amount of disease is more than I've seen in many years (in spite of our treatments) but overall less than many other fellow Agronomists and many Plant Pathologists expected, given the lengthy period of snow cover. Less disease than expected...Reason #2 to celebrate!

Snow Mold disease fairly prevalent in untreated rough (foreground) but fortunately minimal in green, tee, and fairway areas.

Along the same lines of continuous snow coverage, a great concern of mine, and many of my colleagues, has been the lengthy covering of ice. You can review our snow and ice removal efforts in my January blog posts which, at the time, were performed at what perhaps could have been the upper limits of time that poa annua (a significant plant species component of our turf) is thought to withstand ice covering or encasement. Since those days back in late January I've been wondering if we would have ice encasement injury on #11 green, one of two greens that was rather severely damaged last year. After "flood melting" the snow off #11 green, and then warm temperatures thawing the soil enough so that we could pull the staples, we were able to turn back the cover for a good look. We're not completely "out of the woods yet" (a sudden drop to sub-freezing temperatures could happen and could result in crown hydration injury) but each passing day brings us closer to spring temperatures and beyond the threat of winter injury.

Thick (3-4") ice coverage on #11 Green in Dec. & Jan.

Breaking and removing ice on #11 Green

The result of our uncovering was a huge sigh of relief as we found very minimal, essentially typical early spring, slight turf discoloration. No apparent ice or other winter injury symptoms...Reason #3 to really Celebrate!

First uncovering of #11 Green revels little to no winter injury!

Another Green (#2) with a Good bit o' green!

The Luck o' the Irish must be with us! (Along with the luck we created for ourselves with our management practices and products we used to protect our turf this past winter!) Now let's hope the luck stays with us all summer long, and especially through the Western Amateur Championship!

Snow & Ice Washed/Melted Away

2010-03-12T08:56:00.005-06:00

It's hard to believe that just a couple days ago (Tuesday) the course was still covered with several inches of snow but today (Friday) it's nearly gone. A couple warm days and temperatures remaining consistently above freezing, as well as occasional rainfall this week has worked quite nicely toward helping with it's disappearance. Also, with the angle of the sun becoming more vertical each day, the radiant energy is now better absorbed by the snow and ground (warming and thawing it), compared to throughout the winter months when the sun is lower on the horizon and the energy is more easily refracted or bounced off, lessening it's warming effects.

Anxious to have a look at #11 (to see if our January ice removal efforts paid off) on Monday we chopped a hole in the ice, set up a water pump with a 2"hose, and "flood melted" the 3-4" snow layer.

Throughout the rest of the week Mother Nature took care of the remaining melting process on all other parts of the course!

With all the melting in progress and the added moisture from rainfall, it's quite understandable that ground conditions are extremely soft. There are in fact many places throughout the course where the soil is still frozen at lower depths. The surface has thawed throughout, but the moisture is being held in the top few inches due to the frozen layer beneath. Continued above freezing temperatures, sunshine, and even rainfall will all aid soil thawing and the eventual drainage that will follow.

Ice still present on portions of #3 fairway

Right now it is very important that we avoid any traffic (vehicular, or pedestrian) until this drainage occurs. Compaction, the compressing of soil structure and collapsing of vital pore spaces (which are essential for proper aeration, water holding capacity, and for drainage of excess water) will occur very easily under these saturated conditions. Also, with the soil easily shifted with every footprint and/or vehicle tire pass, turf roots (which are now beginning their most active growth phase) are easily sheared or torn and greatly damaged.

At this time our grounds staff are refraining from any equipment or vehicle travel, on any turf surface on the property, and even limiting foot traffic as much as possible. I know it is very tempting to walk around the course or grab a club and hit a few balls around, but please give it a little more time to completely thaw and allow excess moisture to drain. It will prevent damage and give the turf a better chance to get a good start to the new season. I'm sure it will be very soon that we'll be able to let course travel resume.
Your patience, understanding, and cooperation is very much appreciated!

A Thorough Clearing

2010-03-11T20:34:00.007-06:00

With pruning activities continuing throughout the course, one location where we have recently concentrated is the area east of #9 tee. This out of play, woody, thicket-like area, has received limited maintenance efforts over the years and upon closer evaluation it was obvious that a thorough clearing was needed.

Dense thicket of Common Buckthorn

As we inspected this area we found a grouping of older Red Oak, several smaller American Elms, a couple Ash and a couple Hawthorn, but beyond these, the remainder was only the invasive, nuisance weed species, Common Buckthorn. Several of these were fairly large shrubs/small trees but with these removed, the desirable species remaining will have less competition and will be much healthier. Additionally, with improved light penetration we can now plant fescues and other grasses which will be left natural, allowed to produce seedheads, providing a much more interesting landscape.

Clearing nearly complete. Maintenance pruning in progress

Entire area will be seeded with Fescues and Little bluestem

As I mentioned in a response to a comment in the last post, although Common Buckthorn is a non-native, invasive species and competes very aggressively (out-competes in most cases) with nearly all of our more valuable and desirable native species, we still allow it to grow along the perimeter fenced areas for the screening that it provides. As such we have retained a strip along the inside of the fence for this purpose.

Annual Pruning Activities Underway

2010-03-02T18:31:00.003-06:00

It's that time of year again when, if you happen to be out walking on the course, you may see guys dangling from trees, and/or see branches scattered about looking as though a micro-burst just ripped through it. I'm happy to say the guys dangling are well trained, professional climbers, securely fastened to ropes, and the "debris field" is the result of their pruning activities.

Annual Pruning Session Begins

Every year we have a portion of the course pruned to:

Remove dead, diseased, or storm damaged branches
Repair structural defects
Thin the canopies to promote new juvenile growth and reduce shading of turf
Shape the canopies to provide balance and improve aesthetic qualities

With nearly 2000 (not including adjacent perimeter) trees on the course it takes approx. 7-8 years to make a complete circuit. We usually have the work performed in specific sections but this year (with the Western Amateur Championship coming) we are altering this and moving around the course addressing areas most in need, and especially where improved light penetration is needed for improved turf health and vigor.

Pruned material awaiting gathering, hauling, & chipping tasks

Our tree pruning contractor performs all the aerial (climbing) pruning work and our own staff performs ground activities including, lower branch pruning, gathering and hauling pruned materials, and assisting with chipping.

Every year at this time we also determine trees that meet our criteria for removal. It's a system I call the 5 "D's". The "D's" are; Dead or Decayed, Damaged, Diseased, Disfigured, and Disruptive and there are in fact a few trees that meet one or more of these criteria. We're in the process of finalizing a thorough evaluation and I'll soon report (on this blog) trees we will likely remove.

GCSAA Conference & Golf Industry Show Review

2010-02-25T22:10:00.005-06:00

Earlier this month I attended the Golf Course Superintendent's Association of America annual Education Conference and Golf Industry Show in San Diego. It's a tough job traveling all the way across the country, sitting through hours of lectures and topics about grasses, bunkers, irrigation, trees, and such, and walking a trade show exhibiting nearly every conceivable product in the golf industry, for a full day and a half, but somebody has to do it!

Before you begin to feel sorry for me though, (I know you don't!) I do have to say that, with the exception of one day with a little rain, the weather there was beautiful and a far cry from this seemingly perpetual winter grip we've had here at Skokie CC! It was a bit tough being indoors during the days, while in seminars, forums, and on the trade show floor, but it sure was nice being able to spend time outdoors in the evenings.

Prior to the conference, I did in fact spend a few days outdoors and participated in our associations golf tournament, called the GCSAA Classic, and actually experienced what it was like to swing a golf club again! It was challenging, but thoroughly enjoyable and educational, and I managed, with the help of my partner in one event, and my teammates, in another event, to "bring home some hardware"! My partner and I finished a respectable 5th place in the two man event, and my chapter team, competing in a four man combined score event, finished low net! A couple pewter plates, which we affectionately call, pickle dishes, and a small trophy should arrive soon!

Indian Wells -Celebrity Course, Palm Desert

Being so enamored with the view, I hit my ball into the waterfall. Twice!

Playing is great, of course, but the opportunity to visit other courses, see various course conditioning methods, view course furnishings, and share ideas with other golf course managers around the country, is where the real benefit lies.

At the conference I attended a full day seminar on; Establishing and Managing Native Grasses, where I learned about some new establishment methods, possible species to incorporate, and new weed control methods. On another day I attended several short sessions such as; Budget - Stretching Ideas, Making the Most of your Water, and Ideas for Building / Modifying Equipment to do More. Another day of education was the USGA Green Section Program which, as always in year's past, was excellent. Great topics were presented such as; Promoting Fast and Firm Conditions, Communication Ideas, In-House Renovations, and a particularly enlightening presentation, The Hidden Costs of Trees.

One of Several Educational Opportunities

At the Golf Industry Show (trade show) which comprised two floors of the San Diego Convention Center every exhibitor from Ace Golf Netting to Zhenjiang Copius Chemical Co. was present. This year I met with several manufacturers about putting green mowers (which we're planning to replace), saw an innovative and cost saving battery filling system (for use on our battery powered rollers, utility vehicles, and golf carts), and visited with many of the manufacturer's of products we use every day to see their most recent additions.

The Golf Industry Show - If you can't find it here, it doesn't exist!

It was a very productive conference and show and I really look forward to being able to get out on the course and... play golf...just kidding! I'm really anxious to try out some new techniques and put some of the ideas learned, into effect. Looking forward to seeing some green grass again soon!

*Photos in this post, courtesy of Indian Wells, and GCSAA.

Dog Walkers Beware

2010-02-23T18:55:00.002-06:00

I know that the golf course is a great place for dogs to run and this is especially true this time of year when they (like all of us) may be getting a little cabin fever. I don't know what the Club's exact policy is concerning having dogs/pets on the property (I think that throughout the golf season pets are prohibited), but I suspect that the rule is relaxed in the winter, in terms of them being on the golf course, since there are no players or staff present. I do know, however, that there are concerns that I want to caution you about and two recent incidences that I want to bring to your attention.

First of all, I'm told by Glencoe Animal Control that there is a Cook County Animal Ordinance that apparently takes precedence over the fact that this is private property that states that Dogs/Pets Must Be Kept On a Leash when not on their owners private property. I don't pretend to know about all the legal implications in this matter. It would seem to me that, as a member of a private club, you could in fact be considered a partial owner, and this then should excuse you from this ordinance, but I'm not an attorney and I'm not making a judgment. For now I'll assume that the Ordinance applies.

What's most important, however, and what I really want to get across and have you tell other members about, is that your pet could be severely harmed, or worse, and you can be fined. A few incidences have recently occurred of which you should be aware.

In just the past week or so, on two different occasions, dogs were trapped in the open water areas on #13 pond. One, a Labrador, after a long struggle, had to be roped and pulled to safety, the other, a smaller Spaniel, got out on his own but not until after a traumatizing struggle and when finally out, was nearly hypothermic.

Open, aerated areas on #13 Pond - Inviting but potential very dangerous!

The open water on this pond, and others throughout the course, are aerated for several reasons but primarily to prevent fish kill due to their shallow nature. Often this water is just above the freezing point and at the edges the ice may be very thick. Also, many times there are ducks or other fowl present. The open water and the ducks may be very inviting to your pet, but the near freezing water and the thick ice can make it nearly impossible for them to get out.

Fortunately this story had happy endings for both these pets and their owners (not without a lot of stress though, for both owners and pets, and a citation for one) but it could just as easily been a tragic ending.

This should be reason enough for keeping your pets on a leash but there are other dangers on the course, and becoming more prevalent, and that is coyotes. There apparently are a couple packs present, in areas adjacent to the course, and these packs have been known to send a female coyote out to exhibit play behavior with unsuspecting dogs that may be roaming about. These females then "lure" the unsuspecting dog, perhaps your pet, into the woods where other coyotes are present, at which time they will attack and kill it. Again, I think it should be pretty clear, but for the safety of your pet and peace of mind for yourself, for the remainder of winter, Please Keep your Pet on a Leash when on the Golf Course!

Ice Melt Accomplished!

2010-01-25T21:34:00.001-06:00

With the snow removed from the greens late last week, and Mother Nature coming through with warmer temperatures and a little rain this weekend, all except two greens were completely free of ice this morning. The two that still had ice remaining were greens no. 3 and no. 11, but with a little ice breaking and shoveling work, these too are now ice free.

Cracking the remaining ice on No. 11 Green

Shoveling and loading cracked ice

Ice free surface of No. 11 Green

Time will tell whether our snow and ice removal work these last few days will reduce or eliminate turf damage. We still have more winter to come (in fact it's back already!) and there are other types of Winter Injury that are, unfortunately, still possible. In theory though, we've broken a long period of continuous ice encasement and removing this layer, one that restricts oxygen and causes carbon dioxide to accumulate, can only be beneficial. Looking forward to the warmer days of spring!