July Courses Update

Summer is always a busy season for golf course maintenance and this year is no different.  Between cultural maintenance projects, improvement projects and basic maintenance the staff has a really long list of things to do every day with little time for rest.  Below are a just a few things we've been working on as of late.

Hand Watering Alert!

The full heat of summer is upon us and with that comes daily hand watering of the Bentgrass greens on the Irving Park course.  Bentgrass is a cool season grass that requires a lot of extra TLC throughout the summer months.  The later we get into the summer season the closer attention these delicate putting surfaces require.  On average we use the overhead irrigation system on the greens every 4 or 5 days to allow the greens to dry out in-between cycles.  This process helps to reduce disease pressure associated with hot, wet conditions.  On the days between these watering cycles we hand water certain areas of the green that dry out quicker than others on an almost daily basis in the morning.  The afternoon watering sessions are used to lightly water the surfaces to cool down the plant by aiding the plant's natural respiration defense mechanism.  On most days we are able to do these afternoon cooling cycles in and around play with little disruption to the golfers.  But, there are always those days when the volume of play and the wilt factor are both high and the staff has little choice but to disrupt play with their cool downs.  Golfers are known to be an impatient group of people and conflict can result.  If you find yourself on the course on one of these days please respect the safety of the staff by waiting until they are finish with their cooling down process.  The staff are trained to stay out of the golfers way but sometimes that simply is not possible.  In the end, they are just working hard in an effort to keep the greens alive and healthy and waiting will have little effect on when you finish your round, because if it is busy enough for our staff to interrupt you then most likely you will catch back up to the group in front of you on the very next hole. 

Syringing Bent

14 Spillway Pipe Repair

The spillway pipe repair project is a little over half way through and the high risks part of the project has been completed.  The old pipe has been slip lined with a new pipe.  Grout has been pump in between the old and new pipe to ensure there is no seepage that could result in erosion issues undeath the dam structure.  The new concrete riser structures are currently in the process of being installed and the last part of the project will be the earthwork to repair the damage done to the dam itself from the project and the earlier erosion related to the faulty pipe.  Weather permitting, we hope to conclude this project by July 28 when we will begin pumping water from our wells and hope for natural rainfall to begin to slowly refill the pond.  We do not expect the pond will be completely refilled until sometime late fall-early winter, unless we run into a really wet period.

Excavating down to original pipe

    

Installing Riser

Tee Box Renovation on IP #1

With the large Oak tree no longer shading this area we felt it was a good time to renovate the existing tee and take advantage of the missing tree to add some additional tee space.  The old tee was poorly constructed with a very uneven and shallow layer of mix, so 60 yards of new mix were brought in to increase the depth of the growing media and to help shape out the new teeing area.  The tee was sodded with Zeon Zoysia and should be ready for play next weekend (7/18).

New Soil Brought in for New Teeing Area

New Mix Added to Entire Teeing Area

#1 Sodded

Cultural Maintenance

The Farm course was aerified in late June this year and the recovery period has been going very well despite the drought as of late.  Tees, fairways, greens and closely mown green surrounds were all on the hit list in what is most likely the most grueling week of the year for the staff.  New drainage was recently added to #2 fairway with additional drainage planned for holes 16 and 18.

The Irving Park course fairways were recently vertically mown in an effort to remove some of the surface thatch and the grain that comes with closely mown Bermuda.  We also used this time to solid tine or vent the Bentgrass greens, which are doing well for this time of the year, but the toughest growing season comes over the next 6-8 weeks, so stayed tuned as we continue to work hard to keep them alive and healthy and rolling consistently.

Busting Plugs - By Far the Worst Job Ever

Aerifying Farm Fairways

Verticutting IP Fairways

New French drainage #2 Farm

Farm Hole #11 Dogleg

Brooks and the staff recently completed a nice improvement project on the eleventh hole of the Farm.  The left corner at the dogleg had been in very rough condition for some time now.  Trees, poor soil, erosion and a lack of irrigation all made this area nearly impossible to grow healthy turf.  Last fall several trees were removed from this area to allow for increased sunlight, which was the first important step in renovating this area.  The next steps included adding addition irrigation, storm swales to redirect water and a lot of new topsoil were all added to the area.  The final touch was installing a large amount of Zoysiagrass to the area.  This was one of the last out of the way, but in-play areas, on the course that has been on our list for several years but has now been checked off.

#11 New Soil & Irrigation

#11 Sodded