April snow, greens update

#10 Tee.  April 15, 2014

Although, it doesn't look like it on the course right now, it was great to finally get some warm weather over the weekend.  The fairways, tees, and greens are now pretty much fully greened up, and I now we have a much more definite view of which areas of turf are going to recover on their own, and which areas require seed.  

#5 Green after greening up

Last week, along with opening the course, we began our recovery process.  The three greens that we are currently covering, seven, eight, and nine, have been slit seeded with new varieties of bentgrass.  They were each seeded in three different directions so that the new turf will be able to fill in quickly once it germinates.  We are hoping to see some grass growing by the beginning of next week.  The covers not only help to get the grass to grow faster, they are allowing us to seed earlier than we normally would be able to get the seed to germinate.  The other thin areas on uncovered greens and the dead areas on fairways will be seeded when temperatures are higher.  

Slit seeding #8 Green

Close up picture of the slits the seeder makes.  The seed is
dropped into the slits, and then the slits are rolled shut.

Last Friday, we also sprayed green pigment on the greens to help the ground absorb some heat from the sun.  I wasn't sure if it would really be effective or not, but after seeing that the greens were the only turf not covered with snow, I have to think that it has some effect on soil temperature, and we will take any help we can get!

No snow on green pigment sprayed greens.

Covers also did their job absorbing the sun's heat.

For the time being, the holes with covered greens will continue to be played to temporary greens until we see what kind of success we have with our seeding.  Eight and Nine are still looking very thin and weak, but Seven is already looking much better just from being covered, and I believe that we will be able to open it much sooner than the others.

#7 after only five days under cover

Along with getting the course opened up and the greens seeded last week, we were also busy with many other tasks on the course.  Fairways and tees got their first mowing, we finished cleaning up all the sticks and debris that accumulates over the winter, and we started up the irrigation system.  We were hoping for another busy and productive week this week, but mother nature had other ideas for us....

#6 Fairway getting its first cut of the year

Finally - Course Opening April 9th!

It's been a long winter, but hopefully it will soon be a memory.  The course will open for the season on Wednesday, April 9, the latest opening that anyone around remembers.  Right now, the forecast is calling for nice weather towards the end of next week, so clear your calendars and get ready to come out and take some swings in the fresh air!  Yesterday we received 1.75 inches of rain and it's right now it's raining lightly and the course is extremely wet, so the status of carts on opening day will be determined when the day gets closer.

It will be great to get the course open, but the course didn't get through this brutal winter unscathed.  As is the case at many Chicago area courses, some areas of Poa Annua on greens and fairways were killed by the turf being buried under ice for over 60 days.  Our problems began on January 13th when we received nearly an inch of rain on snow covered, frozen ground.  Because of the frozen ground the water wasn't able to soak into the ground and left puddles that left many areas of the course encased in ice when temperatures went below zero soon after the rain.

Hole cut through the ice to take samples of the turf below

In normal winters, this probably wouldn't have been much of a concern because we usually have a thaw or two during the year that rids the course of ice, this year was obviously different.  Poa is thought to be able to survive at least 45 days under ice before damage begins to occur so when we started to approach that amount of time we began to worry.  (On the other hand, bentgrass can survive at least 120 days under ice.)  Throughout the February and March we brought samples of turf inside to monitor conditions and in some cases we didn't like what we saw, others appeared to be fine.  To help remove the ice from some of the worst greens we even removed snow ahead of warm ups.

#8 Green with snow removed, before all the ice melted.

So now that all the snow is gone, we have a better idea of what level of damage we are seeing across the course.  Overall, I believe that the course held up to the ice quite well.  For a course that is as old as it is, we are fortunate to have a high percentage of bentgrass on the fairways and tees, and even many of the greens have large populations of bentgrass.  Of the greens, #9 and #7 took the most damage, but most of the greens have some small areas that were damaged.  

Moving forward we will be working this spring to repair any turf that doesn't come back.  The first thing that we will be doing is placing covers on the worst greens to help warm up soil temperatures and get the turf to come out of dormancy faster.  Next week we will be seeding bentgrass into #7, #8, and #9 and leaving them covered to promote faster seed growth and recovery.  Those greens will remain covered for a few weeks and will require temporary greens to start the season, depending on the weather, the temporary greens may be necessary until the middle of May.  All the other small areas on greens that were damaged will be open and in play, and once the weather warms up to the point where seed will germinate and thrive, those areas will also be seeded.  

Fairway areas that were damaged will be treated on a case by case basis.  Most of the areas are fairly small and will be sodded, but some of the larger areas will be seeded and marked as ground under repair until they are ready for play and cart traffic.  

On a positive note, things are already looking better after yesterdays rain.  Some sun and warmer temperatures this weekend will go a long way in getting the recovery process started.  Stay tuned to the blog for updates on the work that we are doing to get things back to normal as quickly as possible.