Drainage Repairs

When it is too wet to mow fairways, one of our favorite pastimes is finding and fixing old drain lines.  There are very few in the fairways so we have been finding the ones that are there and testing them.

We just found the old lines on the 4th fairway.  The good news is that the 4 inch line going to the creek works!  The bad news is that the rest of the system is thin 2 inch spiral corrugated tube that is not flowing.  It is crushed in many places.  There is a good reason 4 inch is the standard size.

In a situation like this we will get the system working as well as it can and install a catch basin here.  At least the 4 inch line heading off toward the top of the picture will take water and the pea gravel around the 2 inch lines is collecting some water.  In the future, reinstalling 4 inch lines in this area would help dry it out more quickly after heavy rain.  At least now we have a better idea what is here to work with.

Week of July 4th Brings Wind Storm and Heat Wave

The week of July 4th, 2012, is not one we are going to forget any time soon.  It started with 1.5 inches of rain and a violent wind storm on Sunday afternoon.  Power was knocked out in the area for at least a day -- many days for some residents.  To add insult to injury, a heat wave set in making the work of clean-up crews uncomfortable and potentially dangerous.  At Sugar Creek, the crew quickly went from storm clean-up on Monday and Tuesday to trying to cool extremely hot turf the rest of the week.

The wind storm on July 1st left the course covered in debris.  Most of the greens looked like this: 

5 Green - July 1, 2012

The storm brought down many large limbs that had to be cut up and chipped.  4 fairway in particular was covered in limbs from the large Cottonwoods on that hole. 

4 Fairway - July 1, 2012

On the 9th tee, the wind knocked over a Norway Spruce.  Spruce are shallow rooted in clay soil and can be pushed over in heavy winds.  We were successful in standing this tree back up, but it may still decline from the loss of roots on one side. 

Norway Spruce on 9th tee

This poor Bald Cypress had its top taken off.  It has a vertical branch that looks like it will turn into a new leader.  It will have a "unique" shape but will survive. 

Bald Cypress on 6th fairway

The rain came down so hard that it washed out all of the sandtraps.  Events like these are why our sand has become mixed with debris and clay from the top edge of the trap.  I was just reading an article that stated: "Principle one is that no surface water should enter the trap.  Of all principles in sand trap construction, this one is paramount" (Daniel, Golf Superintendent).  The designers and builders of our sand traps must not have read that article.  To be fair, I'm sure they were aware of the surface water issue but sometimes visual impact, construction cost, and placement of the hazard are put before playability, maintenance cost, life span, and reality. 

July 1, 2012

The grounds crew had the course playable by Monday morning at 6:30 am using a combination of mowers, blowers, chainsaws, tractors, rakes, and pitchforks.  Tree work continued into Tuesday, but then it was time to turn our attention to the extreme heat on July 4th, 5th, and 6th.  Around 3pm each day, I measured 2 inch soil temperatures over 100 degrees in our historically weakest areas.  The underlying soil in these areas was still moist from the 1.5 inches of rain on Sunday so lack of water was not the issue.  Cool season grass roots simply cease to function at these temperatures.  All we could do is syringe these areas carefully to cool them down.  Syringing lowered the canopy temperatures in these areas to 94 degrees temporarily.  Not great, but an improvement over 100. 

You know the turf is under extreme stress when your footprints stick in previously very healthy turf: 

Stressed turf - July 6, 2012

 Below Gary is syringing, or misting, stressed portions of fairway.  Last week, we were hand watering dry soil and drought stressed turf with high flow nozzles meant to re-wet dry soil.  This week, we are using misting nozzles to cool the turf through evaporation and perhaps get the plant to take in small amounts of water during this cooler period.  The cooling effect lasts only a short period of time.  Significant effects are gone after 15 minutes but this can be enough to get some turf through the stress period. 

Gary syringing #1 fairway

This picture was taken on July 6th at 1pm in the shade!  I would expect this temperature when solar radiation was added to the mix, but I was surprised to see temperatures over 100 degrees in healthy turf with some shade during mid-day. 

One thing is for sure: Next week will be just as busy at Sugar Creek.  With cooler weather, we can take steps to speed up the recovery process on tees and fairways through cautious solid tine aerification and irrigation practices.  We have to be careful not to do more harm than good in our attempts to help the turf recover. 

We are definitely thankful for this forecast.  Especially the night time lows in the 60's.  Looks like a beautiful week for golf -- and turf recovery:

Extreme Heat and Golf Carts

Many area courses are restricting cart traffic during extreme heat.  A few photos from this morning show why.  On days of extreme heat, grass plants are so stressed that simply driving over them causes death.  This type of damage usually occurs during the middle of the day when conditions are the most uncomfortable for people and plants. 

If your local golf course is restricting cart use, please understand they are trying to save the course for the rest of the year.  Tire tracks like this take a long time to heal:

July 6

July 6

In these areas, I measured soil temperatures at a 2 inch depth close to 100 degrees on July 4 and 5.  Healthier areas of fairway were 94 degrees.  Soil composition and characteristics very widely on our fairways so it is impossible to tell without a probe where the hot spots are.

In most areas, the course is holding up to the heat but areas are starting to run out of energy reserves and root mass.  100 degree soil temperatures literally cooks the cells of cool season grass plants.  Our fairways are the most sensitive due to how they were built and the soil they were built on.  They also contain a fairly high percentage of Poa annua or annual bluegrass.  In most areas the soil is heavy clay mixed with pulverised concrete and asphalt.  As you can imagine, they tend to heat up fast.

July 6

The grounds crew is very busy trying to keep as much turf alive as possible through this period of record high temperatures.  You may also see hand watering or irrigation heads running to cool the turf.  The purpose of this "syringing" is to cool the plants through evaporation -- not to wet the soil.  This practice works only in certain circumstances and must be employed carefully.  During these hot periods, too much water is just as bad as too little. 

See more posts about heat stress and turf.

Frost Delays

Reposted from April 2010:

Since we have a frost delay today, I thought I would post some information on frost and frost delays.  No one likes frost delays - maintenance workers especially - but they are necessary for the health of the course.  Golf course employees ask for your understanding during frost delays.  We don't like them either.

Here are some key points from the Golf Course Superintendent Association:

• Frost is basically frozen dew that has crystallized on the grass, making it hard and brittle. A grass blade is actually 90 percent water, therefore it also freezes.

• Walking on frost-covered greens causes the plant to break and cell walls to rupture, thereby losing its ability to function normally.

• When damaged, the putting surface weakens and becomes more susceptible to disease and weeds.

• One foursome can leave several hundred footprints on each green, causing extensive damage.

• A short delay while the frost melts can preserve the quality of the greens and prevent needless repairs.

You can find a more detailed article on frost formation and effects in this article - "The Big Chill"

The following is a video from the USGA:

A Week after Aerification : Update

For the last few days, a low pressure system has been swirling over Chicagoland.  At Sugar Creek, we have had around 3 inches of rain in total.  Not all at once, though, but in six hour soakers spaced about 12 hours apart.  Wonderful!  Believe it or not, these are very busy weeks for a maintenance crew -- in a different way than usual.  We have not been able to mow fairways, but we have been able to mow everythings else very slowly.  Sand traps have been a constant battle.  In weather like this, we pump them just to give us a shot at drying them faster after it stops raining.  Since you never know when will be the last shower for the week, sometimes we pump them only to have them fill up again.  That's just the chance you take.

On a positive note, the greens have healed quickly from aerification last week.  After one week's time, they now look like this:

1 Week after Aerification

Close-up of #1 Green

They will be putting nicely once they get a chance to dry out a little.

Flooded bunkers have been common this week:

This is Gary's third time pumping traps this week.  You can also see him pulling weeds while he waits for the double sump pump arrangement to do its job.  Great job, Gary!

Gary's daily ritual : Pumping and weeding!

The last problem areas are filling in with slit seeding and aerification:

5 Tee slit seeding

The 5th tee has always been challenging to grow.  It is affected by morning shade, hard subsoil, and heavy use.  Being a short hole, divots are often very large and numerous.  We ask that players refrain from practicing, or taking multiple shots, on this tee for obvious reasons:

Divots on 5 tee

Divots taken during the course of regular play are necessary, but these divots were not between the tee blocks and are probably from just one golfer "practicing".  Ouch.

Looks like we may have one more sprinkle before a nice dry week!

July Weather Since 1990

One of the interesting parts of working in the golf world is dealing with weather.  It is important to understand weather variations over time when planning future projects and evaluating the success of past projects.  The last two summers have been hot and stormy, so I was curious: How "normal" is this weather?  When was the last summer with high heat and lots of rain?  The chart below summarizes July weather in Chicagoland since 1990.

(Click chart for full size view)

There are lots of ways to measure heat and precipitation, but I looked at the National Weather Service's departure from average figures for July. Out of curiousity, I also added in the number of days with rains over .5" -- big rains, in other words. 

The pattern confirms what I have heard from other Superintendents in the area.  Besides 2010, the last July we saw this extreme combination of high heat and heavy rain was . . . 1995.  Many people remember 1995 for its 100 degree days, but July also saw a lot of storms in this area.  We have had other unpleasant months over the years, but 1995, 2010, and 2011 really stick out for their combination of hot and wet -- one of the toughest situations for golf courses.

Notes on the chart:  Clicking on the chart will open a larger version.  Most of the data came from the National Weather Service.  I made a couple adjustments based on local measurements.  For instance, O'Hare measured over 11 inches July 2011 but we luckily missed a few of those inches.  It is important to note that this chart is only meant to summarize weather in July, not the entire summer.  There are many other factors in turfgrass health and golf playability, but July weather is very significant in our area.  I will take a look at August and its effects later this year.

Pictures from June 2011

While looking over recent pictures, I noticed that we golf course superintendents tend to take a lot of pictures of problem areas or projects in progress.  I take about 10 times more pictures meant to inform (not so pretty) than pictures meant to impress (pretty ones).  Superintendents are fascinated by pictures of turf disorders, projects involving mud and machines, and rare phenomenon.  We can't help it.  It's our job to deal with the behind-the-scenes stuff that makes golf courses tick.  I realized the other day that if you looked at this blog, you might think that Sugar Creek is always 1) flooded, or 2) under construction.  Definitely not true!  The majority of the time it is a beautiful place with lots of golfers enjoying themselves.  I decided to lead with the good stuff this post!

A collection of pretty pictures can be found here : Slideshow

So far, June has been an eventful month at Sugar Creek. We have had many beautiful days for golf. We've also had a tiny flood -- just a little one, no big deal! 

9 Green and Clubhouse on a nice day

2 Green and Clubhouse

4 Tee

June wouldn't be complete without one flood picture.  Let's hope it's the only one!  Thuderstorms gave us over 3 inches with the inevitable result:

4 Fairway

The crew has been very busy working on the sandtraps, mulching landscape beds, preparing the course, and all the other tasks that are part of our in season routine.  The course is in very nice shape thanks to the efforts of our dedicated staff. 

One of our major accomplishments over the past few months was the replacement of our main irrigation pump and the renovation of the pumphouse plumbing.  Thanks to the previous experience of our handy mechanic, we were able to do the work in-house and meticulously go over these pieces of equipment.  I am now 99% sure this plumbing will hold on any given night.  Last year, it was down to about 50/50.  We got it up and running just in time for some dry weather, which all too quickly turned into wet weather. 

Below you can see our beautiful new Berkeley pump and reassembled plumbing.  The pumphouse is really the heart of any golf course.  This pumphouse supplies the rest of the course with life at about 600 gallons per minute:

40hp centrifugal pump

Rebuilt valves and plumbing

We used the new pump for 2 nights before the recent rainy spell hit.  Who knows when we will need it again!  No one is really looking forward to the forecast at the moment:

I'm thinking this has to be a mistake.  The meteorologists are having a good laugh right now.  OK guys, you can change it to the real forecast any time now!

Added June 19, 2011:  I knew the forecast had to be wrong.  It has turned out to be a beautiful Father's Day weekend in our area.  Slight chance of a sprinkle later Sunday but I'm betting on it missing us.

#1 Cart Path Drainage Project Update

In March, the maintenance crew added a new drain under the cart path on #1 to prevent flooding and ice related problems along the path.  Almost every year, ice kills a portion of this turf.  Seed was not growing fast enough for us due to our cool, wet April so we decided to sod the area to completely restore it. 

Here are some before and after pictures:

Before

Before

After

This area could still benefit from the addition of some sub-surface drain lines but the new catch basin will greatly reduce the amount of water hung up on the high side of the path.  Something tells me this will not be the last drainage project done in this area, but it is greatly improved. 

Spring Green-up

Spring is coming slowly but surely!  We have had a cooler March than last year, but April is here.  In 2010, we had some unusually warm days early on.  April 1 and 2, 2010, were over 80 degrees!  We haven't had any really warm days yet, but temps are climbing gradually and turf is starting to respond.

Here is a pair of photos that illustrate how different each year can be:

March 31st 2011 - Starting to warm up

April 2nd 2010 - 80 degrees and green already

April in 2010 was unusually warm early on, so we're not complaining.  We're just looking forward to those 70 degree and sunny days that are on their way.

Frost Season 2011

Did it snow?  No.  Just frost.

With the start of the 2011 season comes the usual early season frost delays.  While I know many golfers are looking forward to playing their first round today, there will be a lengthy frost delay.

Click here for more information and a video about frost delays.

When we have to delay play due to frost at Sugar Creek, we place signs around the putting green and clubhouse to alert golfers of the condition.

In order to prevent damage to the turf, play is delayed until the first two greens are frost free.  Playing on frosted turf results in damage to the plants in the shape of footprints. 

Click here for pictures of frost damage.

If you watched golf this winter, you may remember the Phoenix Open in Scottsdale, Arizona this February won by Mark Wilson .  Frost delays forced the PGA tournament to finish on Monday instead of Sunday.  The frost delays were unusual for Arizona, but we are very familiar with them in the Chicago area.  The winner of the tournament, Mark Wilson, is from Wisconsin and lives in Illinois.  Could his familiarity with cold mornings and frost delays have given him an edge over others in the field?

Dealing with frost delays takes a lot of patience from golfers and staff.  As always, we appreciate the understanding of golfers while we wait for the frost to lift.

Soil Temperatures Since 2005

Over the winter, I had the opportunity to gather and analyze some climate data from the past decade.  One chart in particular I thought interesting enough to share with the golf and turf community.  The following chart summarizes average soil temperature at a 4-inch depth from 2005-2010.  It confirms what superintendents and golfers already know: 2009 was an unusually favorable year for cool-season turf, and 2010 unusually unfavorable.  

Click on image for a larger view

The peaks of the trendlines are about 5 degrees apart.  That is a huge difference, especially considering that our major turf species prefer soil temperatures well under 70 degrees.  A trend of average soil temperature over 75 degrees is a difficult summer, especially for Poa annua.

I fully admit that I produced this chart to put my mind at ease!  2010 was my second year as a superintendent and I needed some scientific confirmation:  Yes, there was something very different about 2010 -- and it doesn't happen every year.  The take-away message of 2010 for me:  Superintendents have to work to make improvements during those "easier" years to get as much turf as possible through those tough years.

Thawing and Freezing

Since the snow has mostly melted, we have been assessing the health of our turf coming out of winter.  Last year, I wrote about the factors that influence turf health coming out of winter in Good or Bad Winter for Turf and A Long, Difficult Winter for Turf.  As it turned out, we had to do a lot seeding and sodding last April to repair ice damage in the fairways.  After a tough summer in 2010, it would be nice to have favorable conditions for turf growth this spring.

Like most golf courses, we have a few areas that tend to weaken or die over the winter.  About every other year, the 7th fairway exhibits significant ice damage.  My theory is that this ice damage is caused by crown hydration of mostly Poa annua during freeze/thaw cycles.  During our last thaw after the first of the year, the grass plants appeared healthy.  While it is difficult to assess health during the winter, ice damaged plants often take on a mushy, soupy texture due to their ruptured cell walls.  This month's freezing and thawing are starting to concern golf course superintendents, but I am still hoping we will have less damage than last year when the ice didn't melt until the middle of March.

On February 28th, the fairways were covered in ice after a heavy rain.  Luckily most of the ice has melted and drained overnight.

Here are two spots we are watching closely:

Draining areas on 7 fairway

Melting ice on 6 fairway

In 2010, we tried to improve the drainage in these areas and re-seeded them with creeping bentgrass.  Because bentgrass has a greater tolerance for ice cover and cold temperatures than Poa annua, we are hoping to see less ice damage this year in the places where the bentgrass took.  More improvements will need to be made to drain these areas more quickly, but planting a hardier species should help these areas survive the winter in the meantime.

Besides these areas, the turf is looking good after a snowy February.  Our newly planted tees are looking healthy and the greens are free of snow mold.

2010: The Year in Pictures

Recent Projects: September 2010

The past few weeks have been ideal for completing many of our planned renovations and improvements.  Rainfall and temperatures have been moderate except for a couple above average days.  The sun has been shining more often.  It's been a nice month!

The renovated 5 tee continues to grow in despite a brief setback due to seedling blight on a hot day.  In general, it is looking good:

5 tee - September 27, 2010



Small patches of "damping off" of seedlings

After 5 tee, the crew began work on the forward tee on the 1st hole.  Renovating this tee required the excavation of a small drainage swale to prevent water from flowing onto the tee from the hill and cartpath.  The soil was also modified and regraded.  With these modifications, this tee should not experience the same level of scald and water damage that it did this year.

Here is the tee a day before seeding:

1st tee renovation in progress

In addition to tee renovations, the crew has been busy slit-seeding fairway spots in an effort to replace our lost annual bluegrass with bentgrass.  We have already had some success with slit-seeding this year and are hoping for even better results this round due to lower soil temperatures and, hopefully, no flooding!

Walk behind slit seeder in action

Rain, Rain, Go Away

As everyone in the Chicagoland area knows, we've had a lot of rain recently.  According to our rain gauge readings, we've had somewhere around 15 inches since July 23rd, including 7.5 inches on July 23-24 and another 5 inches in the past two days.  Finally, it looks like we will have a chance to dry out!

The crew is out pumping and reconstructing the traps again:

Despite all the rain, golfers are still out having fun.  This brave golfer shows off her mud splattered legs and shoes as a badge of honor:

At least the next few days look dry, so it should dry out soon!

Turf Notes: Pythium Blight

In general, golf course superintendents don't like to see white, cottony stuff in the morning.  It usually indicates some sort of fungal pathogen.  There is one form of white, cottony we really don't like to see: Pythium Blight.  This fast acting disease loves heat and water.  We can blame the recent rain for its presence today.  According to Purdue University's Richard Latin: "Late afternoon rain during these hot, humid periods further favor disease development and may be responsible for rapid spread of the pathogen."  He's absolutely right.  Yesterday, it rained all morning and in the late afternoon.

I haven't seen this disease for 3 years.  I was hoping to never see it again, but nature had other plans.  I offer the following pictures for identification and educational purposes to anyone interested in turf out there:

Pythium in the morning

Pythium Blight

Pythium, aka Grease Spot

Pythium Blight - Close-up

Update on the Flood

The ground is drying out fast after the flood last weekend.  We were lucky the water went down fairly quickly.  The maintenance crew has now fixed all the sand traps and mowed almost all the rough.  The course is starting to look like normal.

Loads of debris were removed after the flood, but we still keep finding things where they are not supposed to be.  One of the most unpleasant jobs of flood cleanup:  Fish duty!  (See photo below)

Don't worry.  They have been removed!