Sportsman's Country Club - Golf in Northbrook, IL

Course Maintenance

Scheduled Maintenance Alerts

Information coming soon!

Routine/Daily Maintenance Programs

7/23/09
Weather conditions play an important part in the health of the turf. Excessive rain this spring/summer is forcing golf maintenance to vent the greens using slicing tines. This is the use of a flat blade that penetrates the green surface leaving a small slit at the surface. This channel that extends down to the root zone allows oxygen to penetrate the soil while allowing carbon dioxide to be released to the atmosphere. This exchange of gases is necessary for a healthy root system. A healthy root system will keep the turf alive during high temperatures and humidity return. This procedure will continue to be done on a monthly basis.

The grounds staff is continuing the work to widen the 16^th tee.

They have finished the fine grading of the tee bank and this is ready for bluegrass sod. An 80% sand, 20% peat will be added to the teeing surface for the root zone mix, prior to installing bentgrass sod. This will give us an additional 1000 square feet of teeing area when finished.

The golf course has been fairly disease free this summer. Our main disease "Dollar Spot" is classified more as a cosmetic disease that rarely causes death to the turf. Greens and tees are sprayed on a preventative basis every 2 weeks while fairways are stretched to 4 weeks or more. Generally the cooler and drier the air is the less disease you will see.

The cool weather has presented another problem of excessive shoot growth. This is especially difficult when trying to maintain quick putting green speed. Growth regulators are sprayed on greens every two weeks to retard turf growth. On fairways, growth regulators reduce the clumping of grass while mowing. This gives a better appearance to the turf. The turf also uses less water due to decreased respiration and shifts energy to the production of roots.

8/5/09
Dollar Spot Fungus has reached the threshold that requires a curative application of a labeled fungicide. Currently staff is spraying fairways and tees to control the disease. Dollar Spot is favored by temperatures between 60 and 90 degrees. There are cultural practices that can reduce desiccation but under severe pressure, fungicides need to be applied. A typical fairway application of a fungicide will cost $5,000.00 for 3 to 4 weeks of protection. Dollar Spot is spread with mowers and traffic of any kind. Heavy dew in the morning also aids in infection. A major portion of dew is guttation water, a fluid rich in carbohydrates that exude from the tip of the grass blade. This provides the food for the fungus to grow and spread to adjacent leaf blades. Removing the dew( guttation water) by dragging a hose down the fairway is one way of suppressing infection.

Staff has treated the filamentous algae that has developed in the ponds. The algae is supplied with nutrients from the water. Controlling the algae just recycles the nutrient to the pond and is not a long term solution. Removing the sediment rich organic matter at the bottom of the pond will have a long term affect on control. Many of the sterile grass carp that help reduce the amount of algae died over the winter due to thick ice formation that depleted the oxygen in the water. We will need to replenish the population this fall.

Staff spent the majority of last week preparing for the club championship. Rolling and mowing at 1/10^th of an inch lead to pretty fast greens during the championship. Both weekend days the greens were double cut and rolled. Watering during the week was done by hand so just the isolated dry areas on greens received water. The greens can hold up to this kind of stress for short periods at a time to achieve faster greens.

9/11/09

At Sportsman's Country Club, we realize that the fall is the best time of the year to play golf! Get out here and tee it up a few times before Mother Nature decides to end the golf season. AND ... the courses are in great shape and they'll stay that way, because ... we are not aerifying the greens! Aerification is the process of punching holes in the greens (and other turf areas) to relieve soil compaction. A necessary process, but it's very messy and severely impacts play.

In order to not impact these great fall days, Sportsman's changed the greens aerification schedule to occur in the early spring ... it was done back in April 2009, and will not need to be done again until next Spring.

So make a tee time at Sportsman's and take advantage of the great weather and these fantastic course conditions, while your friends at those other places are upset with their golf balls hitting every hole except the one that counts!