Golf Course is Open

 

The golf course is open for walking only. 10/17/17

Course Closed

#14 Fairway 

The golf course is closed again today due to the rain events between Saturday and Sunday.  The golf course received just under five inches of rain. Over the last two days the water has drained considerably. We hope to be open for walking only tomorrow.

#3 Fairway after the water level has gone down

Greens Aerification

Sand Topdressing the Greens 

 Fall greens aerification was completed earlier this week, the entire process was a success. Your maintenance staff got started on Sunday after noon, getting six holes completed before dark. Then on Monday with the golf course closed we completed the remaining thirteen greens. Starting on Sunday night insures that we are completely done by Tuesday and that the golf course can reopen. 

Core Aerification in process 

Core aerifing the greens is one of those necessary evils that helps maintain and continue to protect our investment in the greens. Aerification helps remove unwanted organic matter that can cause the greens to be soft and retain water, replacing that organic matter with sand helps improve firmness and drainage. 

The finished Product  

The finished product looks like the picture above with thousands of neatly filled holes. We will be out rolling the greens periodically to help with smoothness and to help push the holes together while the grass continues to grow. We are hoping that with good weather we should be healed in approximately two weeks.

 

We will be keeping the greens watered to make sure those aerification holes don't dry out. Soft aerified greens are very receptive to golf shots, we are asking that everyone does their part and fixes ball marks.  

Have a good week, we will see you out there 

Respectfully, 

Nick Marfise 

Golf Course Superintendent 

Seeding Process

#3 Fairway 

The last couple of weeks the maintenance staff has been hard at work getting the fairways seeded after the flood related damage from July. On July 12th we received three inches of rain, and yet the golf course handled that amount of water just fine. It was the days that preceded that created the inevitable damage. The intense rains that took place north of us in Wisconsin and Northern Illinois made the rivers and flood plains rise, causing back-flow up our drains and onto our property. Areas of the golf course remained saturated and underwater for more then four days. Grass needs air and oxygen to stay alive and after long periods underwater it begins to decline. 

#14 Fairway 

The damage that you see here is a result of that flooding creating a rather unappealing and undesirable playing surface. The decision was made to seed these damaged areas. Many have asked why we are not sodding in this occasion. Although sod sounds like a quick fix, sod is a much more expensive alternative then seed, and sod takes time to mow and groom down to a desired height for a fairway. Sod would be more aesthicically pleasing but would still be considered unplayable for several weeks. Seed takes time to germinate, but learns to grow and adapt to its surroundings. With good weather from start to finish we could have the seeded areas back and playable again in approximately six weeks. 

A newly germinated area

These newly germinated areas are quite fragile the seedlings have a very short root system and it doesn't take much force to ruin these seedlings. Although it is inconvenient we have roped several areas on the course off to eliminate as much traffic as possible. We certainly don't want golf carts driving through these areas, and would prefer if walkers and pull carts stay off as well.

Fairway irrigation keeping seeded areas moist 

All seed and germinating seed needs to stay either wet or moist, do not be surprised to see irrigation heads running during your round of golf. We hope not to inconvenience anyone, but on warm dry days it is important that we continue to protect the clubs investment. 

A picture of "Goose-grass" 

Several members and golfers have inquired about the weeds, Crabgrass, and Goose-grass that are currently on the golf course. After the flood we decided not to spray for weeds because we did not want to put anything onto the grass or in the ground that would prevent seed from growing. Now that we are seeding and the seed is germinating the best course of action is to wait to spray these weeds until it is safe for the the newly established grass. 

We hope this information helps we will continue to keep you updated 

Respectfully 

Nick Marfise 

Golf Course Superintendent 

More Rain

#3 Fairway 

The current weather pattern over the last couple of weeks has undoubtedly begun to get a bit tiresome. Although it is out of our control we apologize for delivering unwanted news.

#5 Fairway 

Today will be the second day this week that we have needed to close due to the rain, and standing casual water on the golf course. We have received almost 3" of rain since Wednesday evening. The difficult part is that as every storm passes through the course has not had time to completely dry from the last storm.

• Since April, we have received just over 16 inches of rain in 2017
• In June we had  4" 
• In July to date we have had 6" 

Flood Damage 

The full scope of damage related to the storm that took place on July 12th, remains to be seen. There are definitely areas that we are going to have to work on and fix, but the total assessment of damage has not really set in yet. Several areas were under water for three days or more.

View of #14 this past week, the brown areas were under water the longest

Respectfully, 

Golf Course Superintendent 

Nick Marfise 

Yesterdays Rain Event

Yesterday was quite the day for much of northern Illinois and southern Wisconsin. Towns only a few minutes north of us received in some cases 5 inches of rain or more. We fared pretty well considering what it could have been.

#3 Fairway 

Wednesdays storm brought us a lot of wind and a total of 2.7" of rain. Needless to say the golf course was flooded in many of our usual places. Most bunkers have standing water and are washed, while other areas on the course are really soggy and holding standing water still today.

A good portion of the water has begun to go down and we see the southern portion of the course beginning to look better.

Water has drained down on #9 Approach

Reverse angle of the picture shown above, #3 Fairway as the water has gone down.

The north and north east corners of the property near hole #'s 6, 14, and 15 will take some time to drain. Yesterday after the initial rain we were not flooded, but now that the water from the northern part of the state is flowing south, the river has come up over its banks and up through our drains onto the golf course, backing up the drainage in these areas to almost a stand still.

#6 Fairway/native area... notice the red hazard stake...

#6 Fairway as you approach the green

#14 Tee 

#14 First portion of the Fairway

#14 Approach in front of the green

While we wait for mother nature to help us drain and dry out, staff is hard at work cleaning the debris from the storm. Cutting up a few trees and branches that fell, as well as raking up all the small sticks and twigs that were blown all over.  

Large Oak Tree Branch #12

The golf course will remain closed until further notice, thank you for your patience.

Golf Course Superintendent
Nick Marfise

Warm weather means progress

Windy day overlooking #3 Fairway

With what seems like the first week with sustained and consistent weather we have gotten some really nice productivity out of our Kentucky Bluegrass fairways.We are seeing several areas in the fairways begin to mature, and the areas that are thin, are showing signs of new growth.

Seedlings beginning to mature

For the first part of the spring the fairways were not mowed very frequently. This was due to the fact that the grass was not growing enough and did not need to be mowed, also excessive mechanical stress can hinder the growth of new grass and we trying to be safe and cautious.There were times on the course that you may have seen lies similar to this, where your ball landed next to a "bunch" of grass and the areas around that patch appear to be thin.

A golfers lie next to a patch of KBG

Once the grass gets mowed more frequently, it transfers its energy to grow more laterally and the grass begins to nit and fill in.

#13 Fairway

We will be continuing to push lateral growth in order to get golf ball lies tighter. Part of the way in which we will do this is through aerification. Aerification practices help alleviate compaction, by alleviating compaction it frees up soil space for the grass to grow into the aerification holes and the loosened up soil.

Tractor aerifying #8 Fairway

Close up of aerification holes

We are looking forward to some more warm weather and continued growth. If the weather cooperates and stays warm we should see these fairways fill in over the next few weeks.   

Respectfully, 

Nick Marfise 

Golf Course Superintendent 

First Substantial Rain

Standing water between holes #1 and #9

This weekends storm was the first substantial rain event since the bunker liners were installed on the front nine green side bunkers. We received a whopping 4.75" of rain over the last two days. With soggy turf and standing water in the fairways, our new bunkers came out of the storm relatively unscathed. 

Renovated bunker on #1

After significant rain events the newly constructed bunkers need to simply be raked after the sand was compacted with all of the rain, but that minimal raking is something that we do everyday during the course of the year anyways, with our daily golf course setup.

# 6 Green side bunker

Other holes on the course such as #6 and #9 green side bunkers use to hold water after large rain events. Since we fixed the subsurface drainage problems and installed the Capillary Concrete liners the standing water,post rain event have gone away. 

#9 Green side bunker

The other bunkers on the course did not fair very well, with washouts in almost all of the fairway bunkers and most if not all of the green side bunkers on the back nine, our staff will have plenty to keep us busy the rest of the week. 

Washed bunkers #16 Green 

The good news is that the washed green side bunkers will shortly be a thing of the past, staff has begun getting the back nine green side bunkers ready for liners. Hole #18 and #10 have already had the old sand pulled out of them. Our goal is to have the back nine completed by June 1st. 

Sand removed from the green side bunker on #10

Respectfully, 

Nick Marfise 

Golf Course Superintendent

The Bunker Liners Are In

View of #1 Green with completed bunkers

The liners for the front nine green side bunkers have been installed. It took a total of two days, Thursday and Friday of last week. Staff moved seven concrete trucks or 61 cubic yards of material into place to cover the 8200 sq ft of bunkers that were prepped and ready. 

Capillary Concrete getting loaded into a work vehicle 

The Capillary Concrete is delivered in a concrete truck, but is not as wet or muddy as you may imagine traditional concrete to be. This product is more like a sticky wet gravel with the consistency of melted chocolate. 

The material is loaded into work vehicles and then transported to the bunkers. It is dumped into the bottom of the bunker, and then staff shovels, rakes, and rolls the product into place. 

Once the install is complete the bunkers cure over night under plastic. By the next morning the bunkers are firm enough to  walk on. You are then capable of getting the bunkers filled with sand the next day. 

Completed bunker #3

The bunker sand was delivered this week, and we spent part of the day beginning to get the bunkers filled with sand. Weather pending our goal is to get the front nine bunkers filled with sand and completed as soon as possible. 

Use of our materiel handler helps conveyor the sand into place

Staff uses the sand-pro to push and level the sand 

Respectfully, 

Golf Course Superintendent 

Nick Marfise 

Opening Day!

#4 Green and approach area

Due to the rainy and possibly snowy forecast we will not be opening the golf course tomorrow. We are going to set our sites on the weekend. By that time, the golf course will have dried down some,with the warmer weather predicted.  Once again, the golf course will be open starting Saturday for walking only.

#4 Fairway 

March Maintenance Update

Sunrise on the course 

Spring is here and that means that the golf course will be opening soon. We wanted to give everyone a brief overview of what has been happening since last fall.

The dark army green Kentucky Bluegrass is what we want to have on our golf course

This past fall the golf course fairways and approaches were re-seeded with Kentucky Bluegrass. During the seeding process the  first attempt at killing off  the unwanted grass  or "Poa annua" was completed. At this time we feel we have made significant progress in this attempt and are very satisfied with the percentage of control over the Poa annua.

#15 Roll off after Poa annua treatments

The desired Kentucky Bluegrass was placed in the ground back in the fall so that it would begin to grow this spring. It is in fact beginning to grow, but it is still in the ground. At this time we need warmer weather, so that the soil gets up to and average of 55 degrees. Once the soil warms up the grass seeds will germinate and grow more rapidly.

Seed covers help keep the soil warm were and incubate the seed where we need it to grow

It is going to take some time before we have lush thick fairways. Our plan is to push the growth with different variety's of fertilizer and we will continue to need some good warm dry weather, By the middle of the summer we are confident that we will once again have a quality golfing product.

#5 Fairway in  the summer of 2016, Poa annua treatments were made in fall of 2015

Also this spring you will be happy to know that the green side bunker project was approved and we are in full swing in getting this project completed. The goals of the project are to take the old sand out of the bunkers, fix any problems in the bottoms of the bunkers, install a permeable hard linear, and then finish the bunkers off with new sand.

A rented excavator is helping get the sand out of the bunkers 

Some hand work is needed to do the detail work inside the bunkers

As of right now, when the golf course opens, we are currently working on the front nine green side bunkers. All of the sand has been taken out, and we have been fixing any minor issues with the drainage system. We hope to have the front nine done by the middle of April, once the front nine is completely finished, we will begin working on the back nine.

The emptied bunkers are then edged back to their original edge

All bunkers are covered in plastic to protect them from the elements, until we are ready for liners 

While the golf course fairways and bunkers are some of our type priorities this spring we have also been focused on several other projects and areas of the golf course. We have been diligently working on the clubhouse landscaping. The club house landscaping has been in a need for a bit of reorganizing, we have been removing old plants and dead trees as well as making better use of perennial plants. 

Mulch going down in front of the clubhouse 

Relocation of perennial plants as made better use of space and plant material

Removals of unwanted trees and weeds has made for a more cleaner look in the parking lot. 

We have also completed the drainage project on hole #14 this spring. An additional 700 feet of drainage was installed in the fairway and approach areas. This additional drainage will help alleviate surface wetness and make for better play-ability on this golf hole. Our plan is to get these areas sodded as soon as possible 

The finished drain lines

Middle of fairway next to the bunker

Golf Course Superintendent 

Nick Marfise