2018 is a year most golf course managers would like to forget.  The course is holding its own but it has been tough.  This hot humid weather is not what the doctor ordered and the course is showing the stress.

This is cart traffic damage to the second fairway on Thursday. Turf roots have shrunk due to the enormous amount of rain we received.  This is why carts are restricted to the paths until the plant can fully recover.  This area will take several weeks to heal if growing conditions improve.

Heavy rain on August 2nd at the 15th green.

Thinning of the turf five days later.

If you think it is not difficult growing grass check this out. This is damage to the practice green from not enough water in the root zone!  The soil was like powder underneath and caught us off guard.

Our native soil lacks of quality topsoil and has a high clay content.  Adding to this is many of our fine turf areas are sitting on a large rocky base.  This makes growing quality turf almost impossible when we get into the summer grunge.

Preemergent herbicides have been pretty successful but not perfect.  Man is that goosegrass plant ugly.

Too much water has these new dogwoods in decline.

It's been a great environment if you're a mushroom.

How about the job our guys did getting the bunkers back in shape?  Here Tano, Francisco, and Eric compact the bunker faces on 15 fairway bunkers.  That is hard work.

There are some victories occurring.  Here new bent stolons fill in an area on the eighth green aided by our growth regulator use.

Even with the bad weather most of our fairways are performing well.  By the way I happen to believe the course looks its best in the morning.

Changes are happening and summer is gradually fading.  Here purple martins rest in preparation for a long trip south on August 2nd.

On August 4th they are gone not returning till next April and the start of a new spring.

It Don't Come Easy, You Know It Don't Come Easy..... What a week.  Talk about extremes. Ten days ago we were out of water and now we won't dry out.  Hats off to our crew for their exemplary work through some trying conditions which we are not through with.  In the last ten days we have received 13.5 inches of rain-12.1 inches since Saturday.  Fortunately we are not very hot or we would have some sick turf.

A beautiful sunrise on Friday after the week long deluge.

Tuesday morning.  Four inches of rain in about an hour.

Tuesday- Number five.

The sixteenth hole on Tuesday morning.  The water has already receded about a foot.

Large cluster of hardwoods uprooted Tuesday.

A view from the other side.

A tough week for our bunkers.

It was also a rough week for our garden.  Here tomatoes are wilting from saturated soils.

We have expanded our herb and vegetable garden and expect it to only improve in the years to come.

Another view.

New informational signs have arrived.  The tenth tee sign will be mounted this week.

Julio landscaping around the old sign relocated to the driving range.

Murphy's Law-Right at quitting time on Friday this sinkhole appeared but fortunately all members and staff are accounted for.

Josh and Tab-Bridge Engineers!

Most everyone loves Gill and she loves them back.  Here Joanne Milazzo and Betty Church enjoy her company.

Allison has a new helper on the beverage cart!

Too much rain followed by too much heat spells trouble for cool season turf.  The course weathered the bad stretch of weather quite well but did suffer a few dings.  The story of this season so far is the amount of rainfall we experienced in May and June.  This has caused shallow roots throughout the course and an extended period of hot and humid weather could really hurt.  We will carefully monitor the turf and do preventive measures as necessary.

July 4th.  When the course is stressed the most and this happens- 14 Green. 

Drain lines are the first indication that the heat is on.

More heat stress in nine fairway.  Pull cart leaving blue tracks intersecting prior golf cart damage.  There is a reason we restrict carts when the turf is under this kind of pressure.

It's funny but before we turned hot and dry we were hot and wet(humid).  Here is a poor attempt at repairing a ball mark that is one of the consequences of too much moisture.

Here a solution to lack of oxygen in the root zone-core aeration to the putting green after too much rain and foot traffic. 

There has been some excellent practice on our range and chipping fairway.  The turf will rapidly fill in laterally in several weeks.

Unfortunately some are not getting the memo.  This will heal by November!

The wildflower bed on the third hole continues to excel.  Besides bees many birds are enjoying this area especially red wing blackbirds.

Several more perennials have begun flowering.  Here is purple coneflower.

Here's another-this is evening primrose I think?

We have two more sites we have proposed to add wildflowers.  The first is below the 16th tee between the creek and the cart path.

The second is on the right side of the 12th hole.  Adding wildflowers increases habitat for all kinds of wildlife as well as reducing labor once established!

You've probably seen me monitoring our bluebird houses on the course.  Generally three species take residence in these houses.  The top nest is that of an English sparrow which are an invasive species and immediately removed.  The middle nest is an eastern bluebird and the bottom nest is tree swallow which are both desirable birds.  So far we are having a pretty good season fledging good birds.

Plenty has happened since my last post.  It finally stopped raining for one thing and then it got hot!  The crew continues to get it done.  Once again we are a little behind due to the wet spring but rapidly completing little projects.  Now its time for our Member Guest Competitions.  Good luck to all and lets hope the weather cooperates.  Oh by the way it started raining again.

Late May/ early June started out like this.  We had just repaired the bunkers and it happened again-only worse.

Your greens crew did a bang up job regrassing the driving range tee.  Here it is ready for sod.

Sod installation in progress.  We are using a hybrid developed for cold tolerance-but we know how that goes.

Josh mowing it for the first time seven days after installation.  The grass tee will open on Thursday June 21st only two weeks after sodding.  We will be cautious the first two weeks and allow limited play on it.  Range hours are as follows: open daily 7am-8pm except on Tuesday till 6:30pm.  The range opens at 7:30am on Wednesday for mowing.

Solid tine aeration has begun every two weeks throughout the summer.

Tournament preparation.  Grooming greens in two directions to help true them up.

Greens after grooming two weeks before competitions.

Topdressing approaches to firm the entry areas to the greens.

Double cutting greens on Tuesday followed by rolling-we are almost there.

Speaking of tournaments Springfield hosted the inaugural United States Senior Women's qualifier on June 6th.  These two ladies flew all the way from Sweden to try and qualify and Sofia Whitmore pictured on the right was medalist and will be playing at the Chicago Golf Club in July!