Wow, TBT 1990s on #4

 

Amazing how far golf has come.  Arcola was a wooded golf course back in the day and now it is unrecognizable.  How did prior superintendents provide great conditions with lack of sunlight and air movement?   Many would say mowing heights were higher back then which may be true, but it is all relative.  Expectations were as high as they are now but to some degree technology has changed so much that turf managers can push the envelope further with a lot more tools at our disposal.

Successful Tweak

 

Some minor water accumulated after the last gully washer mainly runoff from the faces.  Within an hour after it rained no pumping was necessary and looks like we were able to divert the water away from the bunker.

Minor Tweak to Solve a Major Problem

 

When the fairway bunker on 18 was built a lot of surface runoff entered the bunker, creating drainage and maintenance issues.  The staff raised up the area on the far side of the bunker to divert water away from the bunker.  We are hoping this minor tweak was enough to prevent issues in the future.  We will be moving on to 17 next.

Much Needed Drainage

 

The walk on area to the left of 11 green is finally being addressed.  With constant shade and heavy soils this area becomes problematic to walk through even if it hasnt rained recently.  This should take care of the problem once and for all.

11 Green Trials and Tribulations

 

We know the 11th green has never behaved like our poa greens since it was built in 2011.  It cannot be pushed to the extremes our other greens can without thinning out.  When we aerated greens in August, we decided to start incorporating poa plugs as our topdressing to begin to switch from bent to poa.  The cleanup of aeration cores this year took way longer than years past, having the crew finishing in the pitch dark.  We immediately saw extensive mechanical damage from continuously driving over the plugs numerous times and the sweeper having to enter and exit the same way due to hazards on all sides of the green.  While it was ugly for quite a few weeks, the green is almost back to normal and the poa is starting to fill in significantly throughout.  We will do another aeration in the end of October, this time going solid tines on 11 green and incorporating 1/4" aeration cores from our poa greens.  We will also do our 2 practice greens so they too perform like our poa greens.  While this was a difficult month to get 11 to recover, we now have a good plan in place moving forward.

Deja Vu All Over Again

 This will be the second time we are sodding the tent area located by the 10th tees this season.  While the pad has done everything it was intended to do, we are often sodding this area after the tents removal.  The pad serves as a perfect spot for a tent that can allow us to host large functions and when it is not up it serves as a tee area and sitting area for the members.  By the time we get the sod knitted and perfect, the tent will probably be going back up next spring.   Artificial turf or a more permanent pavilion structure could lessen the need for this.

Skyline View Recaptured

 

Back in 2011 we lost a bunch of trees in a storm behind 4 green.  When doing the cleanup we realized that if we removed the remaining poor trees we could open up dramatic views.  Over the past 8-9 years, a lot of weed trees have regrown behind our fence and the property owner allowed us to remove them all and we planted trees that would provide screening but not block this view.