Greening Up Slowly

It's April 16th and the trees have seemingly leafed out overnight and the cherry trees are in full bloom.  It seems ages from the recent ice storms and massive cleanup efforts we endured for nearly a month on the Irving Park course.  None the less, with leaves and blooms on the trees we know the courses will soon be once again green and growing.  The spring green up for our warm season grasses is different each and every year.  Green-up is mostly affected by soil temperatures.  Once temperatures are consistently in the 50's the growing mechanisms in the plant will be activated.  This time of the year soil temperatures tend to fluctuate back and forth and don't really reach a consistent number in the mid fifties or greater until May, although no two years tend to be the same.  Early morning lows today were at or below freezing and much the same is predicted for tonight.  This will lead to cooler soil temperatures and create a brief pause in whatever little bit of green-up we were witnessing.  I would expect the two courses to be completely green by no later than the second week in May.  The great news is we are seeing much less damage to our warm season grasses than was expected due to the cold winter, which will free the staff to focus on general course conditioning tasks and other planned improvement projects.

April 16 #13 Irving Park

Damage to the Edge of #13 Collar

One of the unexpected things we are seeing with this spring green-up is damage to the perimeter of our greens complexes where we sprayed a chemical to try and green up the lines between the expanding Bentgrass collars and the encroaching Bermuda/Zoysia surrounds.  This was intended to just clean up the lines between the two playing surfaces but the product appears to have moved into the Bentgrass collar itself and caused damage.  The area is also showing signs delayed green-up to the Bermuda/Zoysia areas as well, which was not unexpected but is more significant than was thought probable. We expect the warm season areas to eventually green-up but will repair damage to both the cool season collars and the warm season surrounds as soon as possible and/or appropriate.

Spring Rain

The staff at Irving Park will spend most of today pushing up bunkers and cleaning up debris left behind from over swollen streams.  Tuesday's (4/15) rain totals came in right around 2 inches with the heaviest rains coming in the early morning hours.

Rain Washed Bunker at Irving Park

New Creek Bank Erosion

Debris Left Behind From Swollen Creek on #7

Family Tees
In coordination with the Pro Shop staff we will begin placing new tee markers throughout the two courses for a shortened and more enjoyable family friendly course.  The Irving Park course will have a full 18 holes set up with two different sets of tees.  The Farm course will begin with a nine hole course.  One 18 hole set will measure around 4,000 yards and the other will come in around 3,000 yards.  The course is intended for younger children and all beginners and should make for a more playable and enjoyable course for family outings. We expect the new markers to be in place by early May so contact the Pro Shop to find out updates and more information.