Green Expansion Project Update: Week of June 8

If you’ve played recently you likely have noticed the Green Expansion Project work (as I described in Paul’s Weekly Golf News two weeks ago) we have done over the past 10 days. It measures the equivalent of a full sized, fairly large green (over 7000 sq. ft.) so it should be noticeable and hopefully you can see where ultimately you will see many new future hole locations.  All of these areas will become green surfaces in August when we perform the re-grassing process. 

 All of the expansion areas (like above area between the green and the rough) will become putting green height with Re-grassing Project in August. In spring of 2016 a 24" collar will be allowed to grow to a higher height of cut.

Just as a reminder, these areas (and no areas) are not going to be “ripped up” or “plowed under” or “dug-up” or “blown up” when this happens. The mixture of turf species will be killed, we will perform several cultural processes such as aeration and verti-cutting (not sod stripping!) and then we will plant pure creeping bentgrass directly into the verti-cut lines and aeration holes in the dead turf which will act as an erosion blanket protecting the new seedlings as they germinate. This dead mat will also hold some moisture to aide germination. You might look at what we are doing with these expansions as us simply putting down the padding before we then put down the carpeting. We’re not going to rip the padding back up before we plant the grass carpet! By doing this now we will have surfaces that will be as similar to the greens as is possible, compared to the bluegrass surface we removed or seeding into bare soil, when we grow in the new greens. Doing this now (compared to waiting until Aug. 3^rd) allows the turf to root well (so it can withstand the aeration and verti-cutting that is needed that day and the 4^th and 5^th as we prepare for fumigation) and allows us to topdress it several time so that it becomes as close to our green surface as is possible prior to the Aug. 5-6 possibly 7^th if needed, fumigation process. 

 This is the most "blown - up" that it gets. It's just scalped grass, with some aeration holes, and some verticut lines, prior to fumigation and then (10 days later) drop seeding. Wider lines above is the XGD Drainage last fall on this Lower Practice Area green. All XGD work is now complete on all other greens where improved drainage was needed.

If you haven’t noticed the new expansions then you surely have seen the sod stripped from the front of #12 fairway and #18 fairway. This sod was harvested (recommended by our course architect and approved by the G&G Committee) and is the source of the sod used for  the new expansion areas around the greens. When we complete the necessary harvest from these areas we will then plant seed of a Kentucky Bluegrass variety. This same Kentucky Bluegrass variety will be seeded when we kill off and re-seed a perimeter swath, 6-8 feet, around all the fairways in August shortly after we re-grass all the fairways.

So far we have addressed 11 green surfaces. We first stripped the sod in the expansion areas (some was reused in other rough areas, some was undesirable mixtures of grasses and discarded) then we excavated over 100 tons of regular clay loam soil, replaced it with over 100 tons of a blended sand and organic soil (as similar as we can get to the 5-6” layer of 25 years of sand topdressing and natural organic accumulation currently on our greens) and then harvested, from #12 or #18 fairways, and laid over 7000 sq. ft onto the new expansion areas. We also lifted, removed or added mix as needed, on approx. 1500 sq ft. of current putting surface to provide smoother transitions off the greens or better surface flow of water, or to acquire extra hole locations. This work was a lot of effort and time (nearly 10 full dawn to dark days) but in the long run you will have larger greens with many new hole location possibilities and with a base or foundation as similar as possible to the existing greens.

 An area adjacent to the right greenside bunker at #14 where sand has accumulated from sand blasted out. We stripped existing green, removed accumulated sand, smoothed grade, and re-laid the green sod.

 Some greens required relocation of sprinkler heads from what was collar to what now will be putting surface. This area is on #14 just beyond the right greenside bunker. 

Same area as above on #14. Existing lifted sod and new sod being installed (from fairway 12 or 18) after irrigation heads moved, soil backfilled and compacted, rootzone mix added and compacted, and smooth graded.

We are not quite finished as we have 7 more greens to address but 5 of the 7 are very minor in the amount of expansion and no others will require appreciable soil replacement like many did on the first 11. We plan to continue to press on with this work a couple days this week but we will avoid Thurs-Sunday with Kiltie Days and then the weekend. Thank you for your understanding.

 Back right area on #3 green be excavated and flattened to provide an interesting and challenging  future tournament hole location. 

As we were out there last week doing this work I heard from many of you expressing excitement for the future green expansion areas. I too think our green surfaces will ultimately have a lot of new interest and I’m really excited about the new grass variety we will have in August. If you haven’t visited the Lower Practice Green you should do so. It’s healthy (with less disease control inputs than all other greens), attractive, smoother than any other turf surface on the course, and poa annua free. It’s what your future greens will become! Have a look. I think you will be very pleased.

Fall - 'Clippings'

 This is a copy of my 'Clippings' article that will be published in our Club's Newsletter, Skokie News, in Oct.  For those members whom follow me on Twitter or this Blog this is an earlier view of the course activities in progress or planned for this fall.

 

Autumn is upon us. It’s the time when temperatures are still warm and mild during the day (great for more golf), cooler at night, leaves begin to change colors, football kicks off, our Stanley Cup Champion Chicago Blackhawks drop the puck again, and typically a perfect time for course special maintenance work and projects. The mild days are optimum for: seeding, core planting, and/ or sodding tasks; help to speed aeration of greens, tees, and fairways; help recovery of any thinned worn turf from summer’s heat, drought or traffic; and are generally much more pleasant to work in! It’s as busy a time as any for us on the grounds as the following list shows:

Busy Fall Time…

-          Mowing is still a daily process on greens, alternated days on tees & approaches and front nine / back nine fairways, and also bunkers are raked daily, but now we usually have leaves and/or nuts to blow/remove prior to this.

-          Rough is still actively growing (and with the recent rainfall it has had a recent flush of growth) so frequent mowing remains but now many areas will need daily blowing and leave mulching.

-          Special maintenance task work increases at this time: Aeration and core re-incorporation on tees has been done and a second treatment is planned for mid – Oct. Small, solid tine aeration of greens, followed by sand topdressing was performed Sept. 23 and a larger, deeper, solid tine aeration session is planned for late Oct. Fairway work includes sand topdressing (perhaps twice this fall) followed by solid tine aeration and brushing tasks to cleanup and incorporate the sand. I’ve written about the important benefits of aeration and topdressing in past ‘Clippings’ but as a reminder they include:

Solid Tine Aeration - (Sand was applied before aeration)- No cores or plugs to remove or pulverize, or play through, or pick up mud from. Only a hole is created which achieves most of the same benefits as that of core aeration. 

 
           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.

Fairway Topdressing – Several applications are applied each year but heavier amounts are applied prior to fall solid tine aeration sessions.

     The benefits of topdressing include: 

·         Improves surface firmness and ball roll qualities (sand topdressing)

·         Improves surface drainage over time as repeated applications build a modest layer of porous rootzone material compared to existing heavy clay soil material (sand topdressing)

·         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 improving mowing quality and reducing disease activity.

·         Reduces soil compaction which in turn helps root growth and plant heath- (sand topdressing)

·         May help reduce excessive earthworm populations (reducing annoying casts) - (sand topdressing)

·         Divot recovery may be enhanced as divots may become shallower and therefore below ground roots less disturbed leading to faster divot fill-in.

·         In time cart use will be restricted less as the sand will prevent mud tracks and compaction concerns (driving on wet ground) will be reduced.

As you can see there are several important benefits to aeration and topdressing practices and I hope that you’ll agree that the inconvenience these may temporarily create are well worth the benefit to our turf quality and playability characteristics. Thank you for your understanding! We’re really striving to achieve firmer surfaces (drier, improved ball roll, better footing) in as little time as possible in spite of our heavier clay and/or organic soils (which tend to hold moisture – sometimes too much – the exact reason we are amending with sand) but fairway topdressing is a long term process and improvements will occur gradually.  We are clearly seeing benefits already and we continually look at tools and products that might help us speed these improvements. One such tool we recently tested was a high speed verti-cutting unit (verti-cutting equipment has been available for years but speed of use was limited until now) which mechanically slices through the surface organic mat, removing some of it and creating a slit which we can then quickly incorporate sand into. We tested it on a few of our fairways with higher organic matter content and we’re curious to see the response. 

Trying / testing a demo rapid Verticutter to physically remove some excessive organic matter and improve incorporation of  sand into the turf surface. Could become a good tool for aiding our program to provide faster, firmer fairway surfaces.

back to Busy Fall Time…

-          Special / On-going / New Projects increase at this time too including:

o      On-going Fairway Expansion Project on several fairways in front of and behind several bunkers as we have done on holes 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9, 11, 16, 18. Last we worked on hole 4 (rt. side 1^st bunker) and 11 (in front of and behind group of 3 cross bunkers). This year we are expanding the left side 1^st bunker on hole 4, and the area beyond the left side 1^st bunker on hole 3.

 

 Fairway Expansion work (Hole 4, 1^st Fwy Bunker Left) in progress using cores from adjacent fairway (& seed too) to open narrow portion and “tie” bunker closer to fairway.

Fairway Expansion across fwy from above photo. Planted last year using same technique which resulted in a nearly imperceptible (and very low cost) expansion.   

  

o       Bunker Face Restoration – after 14 years some bunker faces have accumulated excess sand (from activity that has blasted sand out and onto the faces) and maintaining turf quality on some of these has become very difficult due to droughty conditions that have followed. Our plan is to remove the turf, remove the excess sand (in some areas we have measured as much as 8-9” of excess sand) and plant new sod on these faces. We will plant fescue sod (similar to that which is on all other bunkers) with its characteristic thin, wiry leaves. We did this same process on the chipping green bunker last fall.

 

Bunker face - front of #15 green will be one of a few planned for restoration this fall 

o     Bentgrass Control in Rough Areas – Last year we tested a new herbicide which is showing excellent selectivity with the control of bentgrass in our mixed bluegrass/ryegrass/fescue rough. Bentgrass is the preferred turf on greens, tees, and fairways but at our rough height of 2¼ - 2½ inches it becomes gnarly, matted, diseased, and very difficult to hit a ball out of. The product Tenacity  has shown great results and we have expanded our treatments in several areas. You can’t miss where we have applied it as it turns the bentgrass white, bleaching the chlorophyll, which without will eventually cause the plants to die of starvation.  Overseeding with a bluegrass / ryegrass seed blend follows the second of 3 or more necessary treatments.

Expanded Treatments to control bentgrass in certain rough areas are underway. Bluegrass present is tolerant and a bluegrass/ryegrass seed mixture will be planted as well.

  

o      Bunker Design Modification planned for three bunkers – This fall we plan to modify the shape and size of the two approach bunkers on #16, and the one first, small, fairway bunker on the right side #7. Plans are to turn the bunkers (more consistent with our other cross bunkers) and enlarge them enough (front to back) so that more room is available to address and play a ball out of them. The right side bunker will turn more across line of play and the left side will become shorter and turned as well. There will be more fairway area to roll a ball between them, as some of existing rough will be reduced, and the distance from sand to sand between them will also be slightly increased.  Additionally, the large Bur Oak on the right side, and 2-3 smaller White Oak trees on the left, will be removed to provide a more open view of the green from the tees. 

      More information will be forthcoming as plans are finalized and our Golf Course Architect, Ron Prichard visits (late Sept.) and finalizes drawings. Construction is planned for mid-late Oct. with the bunkers ready for play in late spring 2014.

I'll keep you posted on this and all work progress. Remember you can always read nearly daily information about course activities and projects on the course, and see many more photographs, by following me on Twitter @scc1897 or check in on this Blog see my Twitter feed.