September is Finally Here

Welcome to September! Our daylight is now shortening by about two minutes a day, and the shifting angle of the sun is making its rays a little less intense. Put it all together, and we are looking forward to cooler days and some truly ideal golfing weather.

A Challenging First Week of September

Unfortunately, last week did not go entirely according to plan. We faced a few unexpected hurdles across our courses:

Hydraulic Leaks

We started the week dealing with two separate hydraulic leaks. The first occurred on a brand-new fairway mower at the Farm, where a factory fitting worked loose and left a thin line of fluid across two and a half fairways. While you might assume factory quality control ensures all fittings are properly secured, experience has taught us otherwise. Our mechanics check every fitting on new mowers before they enter service, but this leak still managed to happen. One of our most senior and experienced operators was running the machine, but the leak was so faint it was impossible to see from the driver's seat. Fortunately, a golfer riding down the fairway noticed the oil, inspected it closely, and quickly flagged down our operator.

The second leak happened at Irving Park on an herbicide sprayer. Unlike mowers that travel back and forth—allowing operators to spot issues on a previous pass, a sprayer drives around spot-spraying, making it difficult to see what is happening directly behind the machine. Because of this, the leak went a lot further than we would have preferred. Equipment leaks are never welcome, but suffering two in the same week was highly unfortunate.

Aerification on the Farm Greens

It is not uncommon for us to aerify greens this time of year using small, solid tines that golfers rarely notice. This is done to unseal the turf surface and provide a better root-growing environment during the shoulder season, much like the non-disruptive aerification we perform in the spring.

However, unlike Bentgrass, which thrives during these transitional months, Ultradwarf Bermuda roots naturally slow down their growth at this time of year, making them susceptible to disease. Over the past several years, we have struggled with a disease on the Farm greens called Take-All Root Rot. As the name implies, this fungus attacks the roots in mid-spring and late summer when warm-season grass slows down metabolically. While past spray programs were only moderately effective, we recently upgraded our protocol and had been seeing great results. Unfortunately, during the last week of August, a few symptoms began to reappear.

To get ahead of it, on the first Monday in September, I decided to mix a few small coring tines in with our solid tines. This allowed us to apply our fungicide and water it deeply into the soil, which is the most effective way to treat the issue. With temperatures forecasted near the high 90s, I anticipated the holes would close up within 7 to 10 days. Today marks day 8, and while they will not be fully healed in the next two days, progress is being made.

With the 1909 Member-Guest right around the corner, I know many of you are concerned about the quality of the greens. Please rest assured that I am confident we have enough time to get the greens to the elite level you expect for this flagship event.

Nearly Back-to-Back Storms

As many of you who live nearby know firsthand, the Irving Park course was hit by two significant storms just three weeks apart. The storm on August 9th took down five trees on the course and dropped 1.25 inches of fast, furious rain. Last week’s storm did not fell any course trees, but it brought down an enormous volume of limbs and debris and 3 additional inches of rain. Sadly, several neighborhood homeowners experienced trees falling on their homes during both events. Clean-up for both storms has been highly labor-intensive. We still have lingering repair work at Irving Park, getting us a late start as we pivot our focus toward tournament preparation.