Everything is Now in Full Swing

The warmer the weather gets, the closer we get to the summer solstice, the longer the days get - the longer the work list gets.  Both courses have ramped up their seasonal staffing levels to account for the additional workload we face each and every year during the busy summer months.  Basic jobs like mowing, trimming, edging, watering and raking dominate the schedule on a daily basis but in between those jobs we seem to mange to get a few repair and improvement projects completed.

A List of various and recent projects completed includes:

Mike Ross Garden

The Irving Park staff recently completed the landscaping around the new Donald Ross Terrace adjacent to the pool area.  This work included several new plantings, the installation of new brick and bluestone pavers throughout the area as well as a small area dedicated to Mike Ross.  Mike was a long time employee of the club who passed away in recent years and numerous had donated to his remembrance for when the right project came along.





Two new memorial plantings were added to the Irving Park course.  Mike Staton now has a tree planted in his remembrance on hole #4 and Betty Brantley has a tree planted on hole #3 in her remembrance.

Michael A. Staton Memorial

Betty C. Brantley Memorial

Winter Damage
The Farm staff removed 150 Hawthorns around the Farm clubhouse that were damaged from the cold temperatures this past winter and replaced them with 'Carissa' Hollies.  While the damage to our turf this winter was less than expected there are still plenty of small areas that will need to be repaired.  The Bermuda this year has been extra slow to grow-in due to the cool nighttime temperatures we continue to experience. This not only affects the grasses on our course but the regional sod farms are also having a tough time getting their grasses up to a high enough quality to where they can harvest it and have it hold together.  We expect that by the latter part of June we will be able to order high quality sod and move forward with all the much needed repairs.

'Carissa' Hollies

Winter Damaged Turf

Annuals
Nearly 3,000 annual flowers were planted around the courses in late May.

Chemical Damage
The majority of our collars on both courses experienced significant damage from a product applied in December that was designed to kill winter weeds.  The product was labeled as one that would not move once applied but it failed to live up to it's advertisement.  The product is very toxic to cool season grasses and the winter rains caused it to move into our Bentgrass collars creating a lot of damage.  The staff worked hard this spring to mitigate the damage spending nearly 600 man hours removing damaged turf and replacing it with a combination of sod and plugs.  As a small consolation to the damage the chemical manufacturer has agreed to reimburse the club for expenses related to these repairs.

Tree Work

Our expectations were once we got past the cleanup efforts related to the ice storm we would be done with the worst of the tree work for the spring.  But since then we have had numerous large trees fall at each property and have been forced to remove several additional large trees that posed a risk to the safety of the golfers.

Fallen Oak #11 IP