Poor Conditions

Even though warm weather is coming we are still not ready for play.  Significant ice is still present on greens, tees and fairways.  Once warmer weather arrives, the ice will melt and will take some time for it to soak into the ground.  The golf course will probably not open until after this weekend.

Before and After 16th Green Area

Putting The Greens To Bed

A heavy topdressing was applied to the greens on Friday to prepare them for the winter months.  The greens will remain open until snow cover but the sand is critical to protect the plants from foot traffic and cold winds.  We will most likely apply more sand come late January if weather and ground conditions permit.  

Graden Demo on 18th Green

The photos show the sand injector graden on top.  The machine removes thatch and fills the slit at the same time.  The second picture shows what it looks like right after we cleaned it.  The bottom picture shows the same green about 3 weeks later (Dec. 1) and the slits are already recovering.  This would be a great investment to purchase 2 of these machines as it will allow us to firm up our surfaces even more.

New Irrigation Added to the Right of #8

The right rough had no irrigation except for the fairway heads and now we added spray heads all along the right side of the hole to help keep the rough healthy during dry spells.

Start to Finish #2

2nd Green Before and After

Getting Closer on #2

With the drainage and mix installed today, the mix compacted and all amendments added, we are ready to start sodding.  Unfortunately we are taking the sod from the barn hole to do the expansion so that will be the end of this green.  We will rebuild this green come spring of 17.

More Progress on #2

We removed a portion of the 2nd green on Monday, lowered the grade and put the sod back.  Now the new 2800 sq ft expansion will tie into this new elevation.

2nd Hole Progress

As of Thursday we did make significant progress on the 2nd hole with the removal of the front bunker, the removal of all excess fill and the reconstruction of a new front bunker.  With the rain forecasted for Friday we were holding off any work until Monday.

2nd Hole Green Renovation

Work has officially began on the 2nd hole.  We will be expanding the green on the right side about 30 feet forward to make the hole more receptive.  We will also be reconstructing the front right bunker.  Will update with more pictures as we make progress.

Alternate Fairway Complete

The new alternate fairway is completed on the 16th hole.  Some minor ditch work and some more tree work are all that remain for the 16th hole work.  We will then move on to the par 3 hole tees this winter.

Prepping for the Mens Closing Tournament

Under the lights we are prepping for the Mens Closing tournament this past weekend.  Here we are lightly syringing the greens to knock the frost down ahead of the mowers.  Even with the frost, we were able to get all bunkers raked, course set up done and greens double cut and rolled by 8:50.
Good job by my staff.

Heron Issues

This is the black tee on 15.  Those dead spots are caused by the heron going to the bathroom on the tee.  You dont notice it because not many people play the black tees, but our 13th, 14th, 7th and sometimes 11th green get numerous spots on them just like these.  We probably have plugged out well over 100 spots this season and it keeps happening.  The dogs chase them but they return at night.  We will do our best to alleviate the problem but right now it is a losing battle.

Mounding on Range

We are continuing the large mound to the right of the new driving range.  As dirt is available we will stockpile and shape and seed to close in the new range for privacy and safety reasons.  We are hoping to have it done by the end of the year.

New Alternate Fairway Progress

Sod has started going down on the alternate fairway on 16.  We should have the fairway finished by early next week.  We ask that you do not walk over new sod as you go to the 17th tee.  The hole will be ready to open next spring.

Drain Added to New Short Game Area

A wet area emerged this past week in the new short game area so we decided to install a drain to dry out the area.  This should help dry it out.

Old 7 Coming Along

The cart path is in and the rock wall is completed in front of the green.  The hole is coming along.  We will finish sodding on Monday.

Gearing Up to Attack Old 7

Since the new greens were constructed and seeded back in May, we have been nibbling away at the new alternate 16th green and the new par 3 hole we have created.  The new greens are now being mown at .095, so they will be able to get down to our normal greens heights by the end of the year.  We are now preparing to install bridges, create the new alternate fairway, install the new cart path and seed the large fescue area behind the greens.  We have been on hold since we cannot do much until the current cart path that goes from 16 green to 17 tees is removed and we can get carts around the area.  Over the next few weeks you will notice significant progress.

Great Progress

Several weeks ago we decided to let the Annual Bluegrass Weevil eat the poa on our old tees and our fairways.  While at first I was getting nervous by the amount of damage I was seeing, I figured it would be short lived.  Here is the cleanup pass in front of the 16th fairway.  This was really thinned out 2 weeks ago and while nobody will every play from here, look at how much bentgrass is taking over the absent poa.  Between our growth regulator program and the ABW our fairways have made huge improvements over the past few years, almost to the point where we can allow this to happen more and more without effecting playability.

Club Championship Weekend #1 Finished

The top photo shows morning prep for the club championship this past weekend.  High humidity on Friday and Saturday hampered green speeds a bit even though we were mowing 3 times each day and rolling.

Sunday the temperature broke in the late morning and the course started playing how we intended it with green speeds in the mid 13s and soil moisture levels at or below 10.  Today the greens get a rest and get a nice hydroject application along with a nice nutrient and growth regulator spray.

By Wednesday we begin the preparation again for this coming weekend, with mowing heights going down further and mowing and rolling frequencies going up.

With this beautiful weather upon us, we wont have to push things to hard to achieve the tournament conditions we want.

Importance of Native Areas Video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FxAvtf2T-Dc&index=8&list=PLnU5qUEfww3cOAU8iTQTUpF5S4UqhXJka

An brief informative video on the importance of native areas on the golf course and how they may differ from course to course and hole by hole based on soil types etc.

How To Properly Repair Your Ball Mark Video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=myOTf1wuZoA&index=59&list=PLnU5qUEfww3cOAU8iTQTUpF5S4UqhXJka

A quick video refresher on the importance of repairing your ball marks properly.

Still Going!

A special thanks to my staff member Juan G for staying until 8:30 tonight to get 18 greens done with the hydroject.  Tomorrow he has 3 left to do.

Irrigation Upgrade

We are adding supplemental spray irrigation heads around the 16th green.  Now, the current surround heads throw about 65 feet to the cart path but nothing throws back in.  Now with these sprays we will have much better coverage.  We should consider this on many other holes moving forward.

Seeding Some Roughs

We are taking 2 holes as samples to overseed and aerify to see if we can improve the quality of the rough.  A lot of our roughs are comprised of bent, poa, rye, blue, fescue and all grasses play and grow differently.  We will see how this works out moving forward.

Hydroject App to Greens

We are hydrojecting greens today to get any imperfections out from aerification before Labor Day tourney this week and club championship next weekend.

Damaged Tree Over Cart Barn Being Removed Today

Just Another Monday at Arcola

Between numerous unrepaired ball marks, more than 75 fairway divots that were not replaced and donuts on fairways, not a bad day to get things done when not having an outing.

Natural Poa Reduction

When scouting the course this weekend, I noticed this patch of poa was heading south on our first fairway.  My initial reaction was the fungus anthracnose, since we just aerified, topdressed and brushed it last Tuesday.  When I dug it up, I found a few annual bluegrass weevil pupae.  The insect feeds mainly on poa and since this patch is surrounded by bentgrass, I am not concerned.  Now that the fairway aerification is completed, tomorrow we are scheduled to start up our Trimmit growth regulator program that will stunt the poa and allow the bent to creep over it and this is a great head start seeing that the insects are doing the work for me.  I have not noticed any other areas this bad on the course, a few minor spots that most people will not notice.  The bugs are done eating right now so whatever damage you see should not get any worse.  In another week or two nobody will even see this spot and instead of spending thousands of dollars, this is a case where this is beneficial to us.

Final Stage of Our Aerification

The greens, tees, fairways and approaches are all aerified and today we are topdressing the fairways as the last step of our major aerification before the fall.  Monday we do the new range tees and start looking at fescue areas that need to be improved.

Greens Aerification Almost Done

Despite the heat, today was a very productive day.  The greens were deep tined and aerified aggressively.  Tomorrow we will complete our dryject process.   While I was a little hesitant at first to begin this process considering the high heat and humidity the grass has been subject to the past few weeks, I felt the greens were healthy enough to withstand the abuse.  We made some timely sprays on Thursday and Friday to precondition them to stress and we will follow up tomorrow with additional nutrient sprays to keep the turf growing and allow it to start recovering.  The greens will probably take a good 10 days to heal but by September we should be back to normal.

The Right Turf

I saw this riding the course yesterday and had to take a picture of it.  The picture is of the driving range field near a new target green we built.  The right side of the picture shows the existing grass that is on the range and the left side of the picture shows the new bluegrass sod we laid around the green.  The old turf (mainly bentgrass and poa and rye) is inundated with the fungus dollar spot and is thinned out.  The left side is untouched.  The range field receives no fungicide treatments during the year so this goes to show you how important it is to have the right grass for the right application.  A lot of our roughs on the course are comprised of bentgrass and poa as well and need several fungicide applications throughout the summer months, which is very expensive.

Sorry Poa

We have been aggressively treating our fairways with a growth regulator to allow the bentgrass to take over the poa, especially this time of the year.  While the poa is just showing signs of greening up again this week, we hit it again today with another batch of growth regulators.  This should keep it looking yellow for at least another 3 weeks.  We are also applying fertilizers with the spray to help push the bentgrass while the poa stays suppressed.  If you notice the high populations of the poa are in the cleanup pass of the fairway.

Before After of 18th Tee Relocation

Seems like yesterday we were building the new 18th tees during the drought last summer.

View of New Future Par 3

The new green we constructed this spring is starting to fill in nicely.  This will become a par 3 on the back nine rotation.  This will be a great short par 3, playing anywhere from 100 yards to 150 from the black tees with a meandering creek in front and a 5000 sq ft green.  Once we construct the new tees and do some tree work, this will really take shape.  This is the view from the proposed new tees which will have some nice oaks framing the tee shot.

Post Invitational Work

Now that the Invitational is over, it is back to our normal routine.  Greens were topdressed Sunday before the rain, vented yesterday, mowing heights were slightly raised and greens were not mowed on Sunday or Monday to give them a much needed rest after the intense maintenance last week.  Mowing today for the first time, I decided to check green speeds after not mowing for 2 days, venting yesterday and fertilizing on Saturday evening and we were still rolling 12.2.  I will say the stimpmeter will now be put away as I have never been a big believer in checking speeds daily.  This past week was the first time in my almost 7 years here that I pulled the stimp out of the closet.  We push our greens daily and green speeds vary with weather conditions, plus most golfers cannot gauge what 9,10 or 12 mean.