Late Summer Post -

The cup changers "tools of the trade". At Rolling Meadows cups are moved 3 to 5 times per week depending on events and the time of year.

It is hard to believe fall is only 9 days away. From my perspective it has been a interesting season so far. The cold wet spring followed by a cool summer with ample moisture made the entire summer feel like May. Rain was common and with the exception of ten days in July when we gave the irrigation system a workout and stopped mowing the non-irrigated rough, the rest of the year was mow the course, turn around and mow it again.

Electricity costs will be down because the pumphouse was not used very often but gas and diesel costs associated with mowing are up a equal amount. In August we watered fairways once and spent most of the month praying the rain would stop so the course would firm up and be more enjoyable and mowable. A couple days each week it was too wet to mow without doing damage and the other days we played catch-up mowing all we could around the players.  

The wet and humidity along with cooler than normal temperatures allowed the turf disease dollar spot to flourish throughout the course. Usually a disease of closely mown greens tees and fairways this year it infected the roughs. It is cost prohibitive to treat the roughs due to the acreage and recovery will happen naturally when the weather conditions change. In the rough dollar spot is mainly a aesthetic problem but on greens and fairways it can reduce playability.


Above is a small area of untreated fairway (check plot) we do use to see how bad the disease would be if we did not treat with fungicides. You can see the result is not good aesthetically or for playability as a ball can sink in the lesions.

This picture shows a fairway treated with a fungicide according to the label should last 21 days on day 22. The lesions are smaller and do not affect playability. When disease pressure is low a 21 day product may last 21 to 28 days or longer. When pressure is high it may last 14 to 21 days. In this case disease pressure was high and we applied a new treatment the next day to stop the current lesions from growing and prevent any new lesions.

 

As I wrote this spring the bridge collapsed on hole 19 and with no other options to get players from hole 19 to 20 we had to act quickly. The new culvert on hole 19 has been well received and cuts off quite a bit of distance for walking golfers as they go to 20 tee.

 

The second culvert was installed in summer to replace the walking bridge of Rays Creek on hole 17 and allow a more natural flow for golfers while reducing the visibility and ball flight problems caused by the railings from the walking bridge. We still have to remove the supports from the walking bridge but for the most part the bridge replacement project is finished.

 

The plaque for Rays Creek was moved from the bridge railing to this rock placed near the culvert crossing. Ray Puddy was a long time county board member and chairman of the Parks and Recreation  committee as well as a avid golfer.

 

 

The drainage swale project on hole 2 is complete and we will start on the final grading and seeding of the new red tee soon. The swale will allow rain water to enter the pond system faster without flooding holes 2 and 9.  

 

My next post will be on the greens aerification process. Hopefully we will have great weather to do this unpleasant job and the process and greens healing will be quick.