Rain Persist into Championship Week ....Douglas Lowe, CGCS

For the Five Day Period 8/17 - 8/21

• Farm Rain Totals - 4.9 inches  /  Irving Park Totals - 3.6 inches

Unlike what was described in an earlier post concerning Member-Member week where we faced heavy rains on the prior weekend but were optimistic the courses could dry out, it is clear now that we will not dry out enough this week to get out and mow anything substantial other than greens.  While the cool weather, cloudy days and chemical applications of growth retardents have the warm season grasses growth rate slowed down the conditions going into the weekend will be far less than desirable.  Beyond the problems we currently face with tournament conditioning the long and persistent rainy periods this year have resulted in a few noticeable issues I want to briefly address.

Algae

Algae Development on Bermuda Fairway

While Algae is not all that uncommon on our green's surfaces it is rarely a problem on our higher mowed areas such as fairways.  The higher heights of cut and the more aggressive growth rate of warm season grasses usually does a good job in itself fending off the algae.  What we are seeing this year is that because areas are staying wet for so long the turf is thinning and algae is thriving.  This is nearly opposite of what we see in a normal year, which would result in the warm season grasses being at their highest level of thickness and health during the month of August. When conditions dry we will attempt to break up the algae and apply fertilizer in an effort to thicken and fill out some of these areas before the end of the growing season.

Earthworm Castings

Earthworm Castings on Zoysia Fairway

The earthworm problem is unlike I have ever seen. The soft moist soil provides ideal conditions for earthworm populations to explode.  Worm castings are the organic material that has been digested by worms.  Generally worm castings are very beneficial for the surrounding plants and the soil itself.  I have always viewed them as a nuisance that should be worked around if at all possible. This year is completely different in that the castings are so thick they completely cover the playing surface and even dull our mowers.  The staff has been working hard to go out and rake as many of the areas as possible and a few select treatments have been made to these areas to slow down their growth.

Zoysia and it's Low Tolerance for Poorly Drained Areas 

Poorly Drained Section of Zoysia on #11 Fairway

The picture to the right is an example of where we have been pushing excess water and silty thatch off the low areas in the Farm fairways.  The excess water in these areas has painted an otherwise pristine playing surface into a series of small black and browned out streaks.  When you consider everything we been through thus far this year the hardest thing to swallow has definitely been having to look at the low swales that stream through several of the Farm course fairways.  These areas were designed or contoured to funnel storm water quickly off the fairways.  While we knew these areas would need additional drainage over the next many years that time table was greatly speed up with this year's monsoon like rains.  The thick and thatchy nature of the Zoysia that makes it such a great surface to play off of is the same characteristic that retains moisture for longer periods of time.  As long as the grass has a reasonable number of drying cycles between rains it has shown it can fair very well. But there have been very few times this entire summer where the soils have completely dried.  In fact we have only watered fairways due to dry soils 5 times all year (5 growing months) using less than a million gallons of water. Compare that to a normal year where that number would be closer to 50 watering cycles and 15 million gallons of water. The good news is all the drainage we have installed this year is working great and once we get through the Club Championship we plan to continue adding new drainage to several more areas, which in fact will include the area shown above on hole #11.

Greens

#13 Green

Despite some of the problems we are dealing with on our warm season grasses our cool season greens are in very good shape for this time of the year.  Green speeds just taken off the Irving Park greens at 4:00 p.m. were right at 11 feet on the stimpmeter.  While there is little we can do to significantly improve the firmness of the surfaces due all the rains we have been able to lower mowing heights and roll as needed to get to proper tournament speeds.