Beginning Repairs And Setting The Schedule

As we enter this final week of May the picture for what needs to be accomplished over the next several months is much clearer.  While the two courses have shown slight improvement, the amount of damage the original plan laid out for repairs has not changed much.  The plan is a two part equation.  The first part of the equation is to continue laying sod on each of the two courses in areas where sprigs are not practical.  The installation of sod will likely continue until the middle part of August.  The second part of the equation will involve sprigging large portions of the Irving Park fairways in addition to the Farm driving range and chipping fairway.  

On the Irving Park course we have estimated we have close to 8 acres (1/3 of the total fairways) that will require sprigs to be planted in order for them to fully recover by late summer.  Sprigging the Irving Park course will require the course to be closed for approximately 3 weeks.  Closing is necessary because the sprigged areas will require significant cultivation prior to planting and significant watering following planting.  The 3 week minimum period is necessary in order to allow for frequent daily watering and to keep all traffic off these areas while they are extremely soft to the point of being nothing more than deep muddy areas.

The repair to the Farm Practice facilities will begin the week following the Carolina Amateur. This will require a combination of sprigs and sod work and will therefore require the practice hitting facilities be closed starting July 15 and will remain closed until establishment is far enough along to allow the staff to hand pick the practice balls. The practice putting green will not be closed throughout this time frame. 

Schedule

June 15 - Close Irving Park for Sprigs

July 13 - Close Farm Driving Range and Chipping Fairway


Farm Course Update

The initial stages of work on the Farm course have centered around repairs to the thin areas of Zoysia, the practice tee and the chipping fairway.  In the first few weeks the staff worked to replace turf along the edges of the greens. Due to the fact that sod comes in from the sod farms at a high height of cut the staff made the extra effort of cutting sod off the 18th fairway to use on damaged areas around green surrounds. The sod that was removed from the fairway was then replaced with new sod from the sod farm.  Zoysia is very finicky when it comes to lowering the height of cut.  If the height is lowered too quickly it will scalp and thin out.  Therefore time must be spent to slowly lower the height in small increments. So by removing grass from an existing fairway you not only have instantly playable grass in an important playing area of the course but you also make it much easier logistically for the staff to get from sod farm height (.8 inch) to fairway height (.475 inch) by having all the high cut sod in one place. 

Once the worst areas around the greens were repaired the staff focused on course conditioning throughout the course for approximately 2 weeks in order to get the course in the best possible condition for the Men's and Women's Member-Guest.  The week after the Men's Member-Guest the staff began working on a few small drainage projects where Zoysia had declined due to excessive wetness.  This will give these areas a much better chance of survival when the new grass is eventually put back in these areas.

New Drainage

At the same time the staff also began removing the dead grass from the back 1/3 of the practice tee and a short area of the chipping fairway.  Both of these areas will be replaced with the same Zeon Zoysia that exist throughout the short cut areas of the course.  The idea on the chipping fairway is to give members an area to hit short chip shots and bump and runs off the same grass that exist around the greens on the course.  By converting the back portion of the driving range we hope to achieve a hitting surface that is consistent with the fairways on the course and is more cold hardy than the existing Bermudagrass that makes up the hitting surface of the tee. As the divots on Zoysia are slower to recover than the existing Bermudagrass this portion of the tee will be managed so as not to allow excessive wear.  The remaining front 2/3's of the tee that is covered in Ryegrass will be repaired in July once the entire range is closed for repairs.

Dead Turf on Farm Range Tee

Turf Removed for New Zoysia

Preparing for New Zoysia Approach at Chipping Green

Once the above mentioned areas are repaired the staff will begin to move out onto the course to begin sodding damaged areas in the rough.  Our goal is to repair approximately 2 acres of damaged turf by the early Part of July.  Anything left unrepaired prior to the Carolina Amatuer will be dealt with in the middle part of July or the early part of August.

Irving Park

To date we have put out approximately 20,000 sf of sod on the Irving Park course, which consist of a combination of Meyer Zoysia, Tall Fescue and Bermuda.  Areas we have made repairs to include the 13th green surround, 15th green surround, and the number 6 green surround.

#6 IP Sod Prep

#6 New Meyer Zoysia

The next areas on the list will include the green surrounds on holes 2 and 10, which is slated to go out May 28.

Damaged Grass Ready for Removal #10 

Damaged Grass Ready for Removal #10

Going Forward 

To sum it all up, it will be an extremely busy summer going forward. Every week the members should see a slight improvement over the previous week. Every week the staff will be busy laying sod or planting sprigs.  Every week extra man hours will be spent hand watering and fertilizing new sod.  But despite the extra workload placed on the staff every week the staff will be committed to making course conditions outside the damaged areas as playable as possible so that the members and their guest can enjoy their time spent on the two courses.  While we know course conditions are not what everyone expects or would like to see we would ask for your understanding as we work hard to get the courses back into their best possible condition.