Irving Park Sprigs 6-29-15 (Day 10)

We are now 10 days into the sprigging process and here is what we are seeing.  For the most part the first seven days were as good as we could have expected.  We got good quality sprigs and put them down in timely fashion.  Soil conditions were very good at planting time due to two days of heavy aerification prior to planting.  Softened soils made it easier for the sprigs to be cut into the ground and easier to water to penetrate the soil once the sprigs were cut into the ground.  The final day of planting we received .7 inches of rain and have received an addition 1.6 inches of rain since then.

Day 6 #15

Today we are beginning the drying out process ahead of schedule.  With a slightly dryer surface we are beginning to roll all the sprigged areas in an effort to improve the quality of our first mowing, which we expect to take place towards the middle part of the week.  We will begin mowing at a height of 1 inch and will lower that slightly every  3-4 days.

Day 10 #15 Being Rolled

Once the fairways are all mown we will then begin to fertilize everything with a quick release Nitrogen source, which will be thoroughly watered in immediately following the application.  This process of reducing mowing heights and weekly fertilization will continue until we are down to our standard mowing height and all the areas are fully covered.

Some areas will naturally grow-in quicker than others.  Some areas that take poorly will eventually be sodded once we determine whether or not they will fill in on their own.  We are seeing some areas that were either to thinly planted, washed during recent rains or have been too droughty to establish that will require small amounts of sod.

The simple fact we have had a good take on the sprigs thus far leads me to believe we will be able to get at least part of the course open in the three week period discussed prior to closing the course and we should have a fairly good playing surface after six weeks, which is a pretty good turn around for our region.

Sprigs Down and Establishing

Current Update 6/23/2015
After two long days of preparing damaged areas for new sprigs and two long days of planting sprigs we have finally gotten to the grow-in phase.  The team that worked on the actual planting of the sprigs was a combined effort of both the golf course maintenance staff and the golf operations staff and everyone did a phenomenal job for what can only be described as extremely hard and dirty work under very hot conditions. Speaking of hot, the weather thus far has been near ideal for sprigging with daily highs well into the nineties and a few timely rain showers.  The first two weeks of the grow-in phase will primarily consist of keeping all the sprigged areas at or near the saturation point 24/7. Each and everyday will be spent making sure all the areas are kept in a near flooded state.  This is accomplished by running small irrigation cycles every hour of the day. As we go through the process and the sprigs begin to develop new roots the frequency between cycles will be slowly decreased.  If all goes well the sprigs will develop a sufficient amount of roots by the third week of the grow-in that we will be able to begin to dry the course out to the point we can once again start mowing everything. The mowing phase of sprigging is also very difficult to watch.  As the course is saturated throughout the first two weeks of the process it is very difficult to mow areas in close proximity to the sprigged areas. With the heat, the water and all the fertilizer the unaffected (non-planted) areas near the sprigs will grow to very tall heights in between mowing cycles.  Therefore, once we do begin to mow non-sprigged areas we will have to raise mowing heights to prevent majoring scalping and there will still be certain areas that will remain wet and as such tracking from mowers is all but impossible to avoid.  We will begin mowing the actual sprigged areas, most of which are in the fairway, at a height of 1 inch.  We will begin mowing these areas sometime in the 3-4 week timezone depending on their level of root establishment. It will take another 2-4 weeks before the new growth will allow mowing heights to be returned to more suitable playing levels.  If all goes well we would expect to see a much more presentable course by the first week of August.

Sprigs Day 1

Sprigs #13 Day 5

Sprigs #1 Day 6

When Will the Course Open and What Should Members Expect to See
Just six days into the process it is still too early to set a re-opening date.  The date will be predicated on how well the sprigs are progressing and whether or not the course will be playable.  Playable for this purpose would mean that golfers can retrieve their balls from the sprigged areas and will have a reasonable area to take relief. We expect to make a decision on how and when the course will be opened by the second week of July and will communicate our decision to the membership in a prompt fashion once such a decision is made.

Greens Aerification
The abnormally hot weather has been great to try and establish nearly 9 acres of new Bermuda sprigs but the cool season Bentgrass greens have begun to show signs of stress.  As a precautionary measure we decided not to core aerify the greens at Irving Park as was originally scheduled.  Core aerification of Bentgrass greens during extremely hot spells like the one we are currently entrenched in will do more damage than good.  Removing the cores from the greens and topdressing with large amounts of sand would result in a lot of unnecessary abrasion and stress, which could hasten the onset of decline. As such, the decision was made to just solid tine aerify the greens and defer any topdressing treatments until we see a cooling off period.  As this hot spell is much earlier than normal for our region we have also raised the mowing heights on the greens at both courses, which will result in a slower green speed.  We will continue to monitor weather conditions as they relate to the greens and will make the proper adjustments if we see the current temperature trend change in either direction.

1/2 inch solid tine aerification

1/2 inch solid tine closeup

Sprig Week at Irving Park

Sprigs
The week to install sprigs on the Irving Park course has finally arrived. As of today, Monday, June 15, the course is officially closed.  Monday and Tuesday will be used to try and prepare all the damaged areas for sprig planting through cultivation and proper irrigation.  The first step was to fertilize all the damaged areas with a good starter fertilizer, which has a high phosphorus analysis that will help with initial root growth. The next step will be to aggressively aerify each of the damaged areas. Depending on soil conditions some of the areas will be aerified as much as 4 or 5 times.  Once the areas are loosened with the aerifiers they are watered to prevent them from drying out too much. The last step, just prior to sprigging will be to apply the proper rate of weed control to keep these highly cultivated areas from being over taken with summer weeds such as Crabgrass and Goosegrass. This application will take place Tuesday afternoon and will be the last item to go onto these areas before sprigs are placed on the ground.

The actual sprigs are scheduled to go out Wednesday and Thursday.  We plan to sprig approximately 1,000 bushels/acre.  All our sprigs will be placed by hand.  In addition to our Irving Park staff we will be using numerous outside golf shop staff as well as staff provided by an outside contractor.  All in all, we plan to have 35 people available on Wednesday and Thursday to spread and plant the sprigs.

Once the sprigs are spread we will go behind and cut them in with a set of disks and a roller.  Sprigs above ground can survive if kept saturated but the sprigs that do best are definitely the ones that get pinched into the soil.  The final step is to turn on the water and keep it turned on for several weeks. We will plan to back the water off these areas once the sprigs begin to show new leaf growth and set new roots.  We expect the saturated phase of the sprigging process to last a minimum of three weeks.

Damaged Area Pre-Prep

Beginning Aerification

Multiple Aerifications

Keeping Aerified Areas Moist

Hand Spreading Sprigs

Sodding
Just because we are sprigging doesn't mean we have stopped making repairs via sod installation.  We have another truckload of sod scheduled for delivery Tuesday morning to make additional repairs to the #5 and #7 green complexes at Irving Park.  We also have a truckload scheduled for delivery on Wednesday morning to the Farm course for repairs to holes 11-15.

Sod Prep #7 Irving Park

Sod Prep #5 Irving park

The Work Doesn't Stop There
While the course is closed for repairs we will remove a large Oak tree to the left of #1 white tee at Irving Park.  We have struggled for numerous years with turf quality in this area and this year the shade damage was very significant.  As we will be required to repair this area with a significant amount of sod we felt it is was prudent to remove the tree prior to making these repairs.

Dead Turf and Tree Removal Left #1 Tee Irving Park

And Lastly, how about this weather?  I guess all the Superintendents around here said a few prayers for warmer weather and it has definitely been answered.  The hot spell is definitely a welcome trend but as both our courses have Bentgrass greens 95-100 degree weather for an extended period of time in Mid-June is quite the conundrum.  But no one likes to hear people whine so we will just suck it up, keep working and do the best we can.  Such is the life of a Golf Course Employee or so it seems as of late!