Spring Officially Arrives this Weekend and with it comes Another Weekend With Wet Playing Conditions

 

Storm storms passed through the area Thursday night but it could have been worse.  Tornadic winds were reported in the southern part of the county, so despite all our Irving Park bunkers completely washing we are very grateful we didn't arrive to a course with trees and limbs scattered across the property.  Unfortunately the guys will be working extra hard today trying to get the bunkers playable for the weekend and it looks like with another 1.5 inches of rain carts will be on the path once again, but what's new.

 Speaking of bunkers, the staff devoted a lot of time this winter adding new sand to the bunkers on both courses.  Over 200 tons of new sand was added to bunkers throughout both courses in an effort to get the sand levels back to the proper depth.  Nearly two thirds of the sand was devoted to the Irving Park course where the washing nature of these bunkers has resulted in not only lost sand but a sand that is heavily contaminated with fines that erode off the washed out clay bunker faces. The new sand will greatly improve the playability of these bunkers.

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  #2 IP Fairway Bunker with New Sand

Greens Aerification

The Irving Park greens were aerified on March 1&2.  Our early spring aerification is the slowest one to recover due to the cool soil temperatures that exist for this time of the year.  While we experienced a very nice period of weather last week we are still not expecting the greens to be fully recovered until the last week of March.

Once we get into a prolonged warmer period that results in consistent new warm season grass growth we will also needle tine the Ultradwarf greens on the Farm course in an effort to unseal the surface of these greens after a long winter.  The effects of a needle tine aerification only last a few days and are barely noticeable to the average golfer.  We expect this will occur sometime in early April if weather patterns are near normal for the next few weeks. 

 Bermudagrass Transition

 While the winter has been exceedingly wet the temperatures have been near normal and as such we are currently expecting a good spring transition on all our warm season grasses.  Due to their wet nature and the warm week we experienced last week the Irving Park fairways are already trying to break out of dormancy.  The temperatures are expected to drop below freezing this weekend (31 degrees), so begins the back and forth nature of Bermudagrass transitions in our region.  We do expect tonight's below freezing temperatures to knock the new growth back a little, but ultimately temperatures that hoover right around freezing will not hurt the Bermuda or Zoysia.

 

#1 IP Fairway Breaking Dormancy Mid-March

 

 Irving Park Pool, Clubhouse and Fitness Renovation

As everyone knows by now the IP renovation project is now in motion.  The project will have multiple effects with golf on the IP campus:

• The practice area, including the practice green, will be closed throughout the duration of the project
• Golfers playing 17 and 18 will need to be aware of construction traffic crossing these holes. 

• Golfers finishing on #18 will need to return to the clubhouse by crossing 18 fairway and proceeding to the left of the green.  From there they will need to proceed toward #16 and return to the clubhouse via Granville Rd or #16 tee if play is slow and no one is playing the hole.  The cart path at #16 tee is not wide enough to handle two-way traffic.  We do expect worn, damaged and muddy areas to develop along this avenue over the next year and will work to repair these areas in a timely fashion.

• The staging area for the project encompasses the majority of the range and significant time was spent lowering sprinkler heads, removing sprinkler heads, relocating irrigation controllers to allow for the gravel surface and/or the expansion of the clubhouse footprint.  The board is currently reviewing the extent of changes necessary to restore this area once the project concludes in the spring 2022.