Boundary Plantings

 

We are doing a sample planting of some Eastern Red Cedar plugs along the property line on the 5th hole.  These native plants require no maintenance and will fill in nicely along the fence line over the next few years.  If successful, we will identify other areas around the course we would like to use native plants to screen.

Tree Moving

 

A timely moving of a red oak from #1 to #18.  Cool weather and right before the rain, East Coast was able to move the oak without a hint that they were here.  Now that we were able to safely plant the oak, the declining ash behind it can be removed without changing much strategy on the hole.  This ash is inundated with Emerald Ash Borers and will be dead within the next 12 months.  The tree will be cabled for 2022 until it can root in and cables will be removed right before the US Am event here in August.

Drill and Fill

A rare beautiful day in March to do cultivation practices to greens but we will take it.  This process has not been done at Arcola since 2009 and this is beneficial to drill into the subsurface that aeration and deep tine aeration cannot reach.  With XGD in more than 70% of our greens, it is beneficial to do this process now that water has somewhere to go.  Even with 4 machines, it will take us a good day and a half to finish.  We first went on the greens with Ninja tines to remove poa plugs to spread on our bentgrass greens, we then followed with the drill and fill and then aerated on top with 5/8" solid tines.  Dryject will be done on March 29 and that will be the end of major disruption to the greens this spring.  A good amount of sand will be incorporated into our soil profile this spring.

Adding More Poa to 11 Green

 

Better late than never, but we started this process last August of spreading poa plugs from our old greens onto our bentgrass greens (11, Practice Green and Range Practice Green) so over time these greens will perform like the rest of our greens on the course.  We all know that 11 can only take a fraction of the abuse we put on our other greens which is why we want to work our poa into it.  This will obviously take years to make a big difference but we have already seen a significant difference in poa populations in less than 1 year.  

Good Head Start For the Season

 

We are trying to take advantage of the snow free days this winter and get a head start on getting key cultural practices done while play is at a minimum.  Fairways will be topdressed and aerated before the season even gets going.  Once completed, we will then go in and aggressively verticut them after, as long as the turf does not get damaged.  This sets us up nicely heading into a very busy season.

Tree Work Completed

 Steve, Starling and Roberto tag teamed another successful tree pruning month in January.  In all, they were able to prune almost 100 trees throughout the course.  Every hole has now been pruned over the last 2 seasons and we will assess each fall if more pruning is required moving forward.  A big improvement in the overall appearance of the golf course.  Great job!

Bagroom Parking Enhancement

 

Many of you know the bottleneck issues by the bag room, especially on busy days such as tournaments or outings.  Before, only about 8 carts could be parked here and when they were there, no other carts could be in the area without creating a traffic jam for members and employees trying to get through the area.  We removed the hedge and created a retaining wall along 9 cart path to expand the area outward to be able to safely park 20+ carts without creating any traffic issues, even during busy days.  We had to get creative to re attach all the irrigation around the clubhouse that currently runs under the new asphalt roadways.   A big improvement that took a little creativity and some help from DTS.  Once the landscaping and paving is completed, this will be a great improvement.

Emerald Ash Borers

 

The emerald ash borer has been plaguing the east coast for the past 10+ years.  They burrow into and eventually kill the American Ash tree.  Unfortunately, a good part of these trees along our property line on #7 are ashes and are in decline.  Best now to start planning on replanting this area as more than 60% of these trees are ash.  We have 3 remaining ashes out on the course and currently 2 of them are experiencing thinning with the most important one between 8 and 15 greens not affected yet.  It is a matter of time before they are all gone.

The Problems With Bunker Liners

 

The picture shows what happens during the winter months with the freezing and thawing of the ground.  The orange tops you see are the bunker liner staples that have heaved up out of the ground this past winter.  Even though the staples are serrated, they still get pushed out of the ground.  Individuals will now have to go around to each bunker with a rubber mallet and hammer them back in.  This is the main reason that the life expectancy of a liner is only 10 years at most.