Making the Turn

     So all this talk of rain and poor weather conditions has to end...doesn't it?  The future forecast looks like we are finally going to get some warm weather.  With warm weather comes growing grass!  The golf course is in excellent condition all things considered and it is about to get a whole lot better.  All of our aerification practices are complete and now it's time for things to heal.  The fairways look amazing and all holes have filled in.  Tee aerification was delayed multiple days but we were able to finally knock it out last Thursday (May 4th).  Greens aerification was completed in one day and the finished product is outstanding.  Aerfication helps with compaction and allows gas exchange while providing the roots an easier channel to grow longer and stronger.  With the help of a contracted company we are able to use a dryject machine that uses high pressure to force sand into the greens to a depth of roughly 6''.  We then followed up with our own aerifiers using 3/8'' solid tines set to a depth of roughly 4.5-5''.  The greens were then topdressed  with more sand to fill in our own holes followed by a verticut, and then brushed to get the sand into the holes.  The picture to the right shows #10 green four days post aerification.

   

 Other going ons throughout the course included wrapping up some major projects.  The lake bank rehabilitation will be completed on Friday (May 12th).  The lake bank had been eroding through the years and had started to take a turn for the worse.  We were able to use our excavator and reshape the pond bank, remove some woody material, and re-sodded the edge with tall fescue.  We also incorporated some fine fescue at both the north and south end of the lake bank to match the fescue throughout the property.  The new look of this lake bank will be a more attractive site to the golfers, especially from the tees.  It is now visible, thus making the golfer think a little bit more about pulling their tee shot left.

     One more area I would like to point out is the gold tee on 17.  Do you remember the little sliver of tee space tucked into the buckthorn on 17?  It is now an actual tee complex matching the rest of the golf course.  We shortened the blue tee a bit and built a whole new gold tee.  The project turned out really good and we are extremely happy with the look.  Moving the gold tee forward just a little bit will help out immensely.  We will be able to maintain the turf and not have the issues like we did with the old tee.

      Coming in the following weeks we will be adding a bit more drainage to high traffic and consistently wet areas in fairways (#12 and #14).  The areas that have been killed off between #8/#12 and #12/#17 will be rototilled, and then seeded with fine fescue.  These areas will mimic native areas such as between #2/#7.  Once the project season wraps up (before Memorial Day) our focus shifts to mowing the grass and getting our heights of cut to our season goal.  It has been a great start to the season and we look forward to providing the membership with the best playing conditions in Chicago.  As always, please be courteous to the players behind you and fix your ballmarks, replace divots, and rake the bunkers.