Why are the Lakes Green?

Every year at this time, many members ask why are the lakes green?  Mike Ogorek wrote up a report for me for the blog.

This is a natural fall time happening on lakes with a good weed population.  As temperatures drop at night, the top water of the lake cools.  Since cold water is heavier than warm water, at some point the heavier cold water falls to the bottom.  This is what happens when a "Lake Turns Over".  The shock of the cold water kills a lot of the weeds which turns the water green.  The water should clear up within the next 2 to 3 weeks.

Mike also gave me some information on the weeds in our pond.  He spoke with PHD from Central Michigan University about our ponds several years ago.  He reported that we have mostly Pond Weed.  We have the type that has a short like cycle(3-6 weeks).  He recommended that we leave it as is because the habitat is good for fishing.  The cloudy green in the Spring is a type of algae and not dying weeds.  It aids in controlling weed growth.  The weed bed we have is great for fish spawning.

Work continues on the natural pipeline inspection.  Monday, they drained the line of any gas.  Wednesday, they plan on cutting into the pipe and use a scope to check the line all the way back to Torrence.  If all is OK, they will back fill and dig up the other pipe that runs parallel.

The tee shot from #14 men's may change next year.  This group of cotton woods died this summer.  The crew will cut them down in early November on a frost morning.  We've been loosing a couple of cotton woods in the ditch line each year.

Work is being done to test the 2 natural gas pipelines that run parallel with the power lines that cut across the golf course.  This is done every 6 or 7 years.  The pipeline is about 70 years old.  Hopefully, the pipe is in good shape so no repairs will be needed.

Except for a little rain on Sunday, the club championship was completed.  Congratulations to Mike Kotich and Melissa Kerr.  We got green speeds back to normal since the hot spell.  Cool weather is in the forecast for the next 10 days.  We held up much better than most courses in the area.  We missed most of the rain the decimated much of Chicago.  August is actually very dry.  We have received only .85 inches of rain with the average being about 4 for the month.  We could use some rain to keep the course looking nice.

Remember, September is aerification time.  We plan on doing it the last 2 weeks of September.  We will do the back first and then the front.  We need to finish before October because I start losing workers.  The sooner we finish, the sooner they heal up.

If you haven't noticed, the days are getting shorter.  We are having a hard time getting the course ready for 8:00 shot guns.  The sun rises at 6:00, and it takes a minimum of 2.5 hours to do the basics ahead of play.  It would be a great help it you could have 8:30 shot guns in August and 9:00 in September.

Dollar Spot and Brown Patch

Dollar Spot

Brown Patch

I was hoping to make it until Wednesday before spraying again.  I made an application this morning to stop Brown Patch and Dollar Spot that appeared.  The hot spots at Lansing CC are #9 and the putting green.  I would say that they have micro climits the favor disease.  Poor light and air circulation encourage disease.  Links style courses with few trees tend to have less disease.  This year, disease pressure has been greater than normal.  Preventative sprays that last 14 days are only making it 10 days.  For budget purposes, I leave room for a couple sprays like this.  If we go back to normal temps the rest of the year, it would really help the situation.  These spots should heal up in the next couple of weeks.  If they don't, I'll add some seed at aerifing time.

Friday Rain and Weekend

We got only .25 overnight.  It was much heavier to the North and South.  The course really greened up this last week.  The forecast is dry and warm for the weekend and up until Tuesday.  That should make for a great weekend.  We kept only #14 to cart paths only, and hopefully will open it back up on Saturday.  We will catch up on some mowing on Saturday and Sunday.  I let the crew go home early on Thurday with the rain.  They are tired from the heat and took advantage of the afternoon off.

We started work on a project behind the practice tee.  Plans are for a putting green or chipping green.  It should be seeding by the end of the month.  I hope it would be ready for play next spring.

Plans for Greens aerifation are mid September followed by Tees and Small Fairways.  We will be doing this in house to save money this year.  I can't wait any longer because I need to cut staff October 1.  Also, the earlier I start, the more time we have until the first frost.  Frost really slows the process down.  The average first frost is around October 10.

Rain Update for Thurday 7/28

We only had .5 inches of rain last night.  Our total for the month is 3.2 inches which is below average.  Most of Chicago is at record levels.

We got the Tony Lema sign ready last week.  I missed the dedication, but I heard it was a nice ceremony.

The hot humid weather is taking its toll on some of our turf.  This picture shows poa under stress on #1 collar.  We hand watered these areas and backed off on mowing the last couple of weeks to help our greens, tees and fairways.

Friday Rain

We got .7 inches of rain on Friday.  After taking a few days off of mowing we started up again.  Greens speeds should be better.  The rain was kind of unexpected. Scott and I had weather.com on at 7 am with all rain up on the border.  At 10:45 it came.  The front dropped about 50 miles and the cool air hit the warm humid air.  We needed the rain and it should soak in nicely.  Jose started raking the bunkers after lunch and we should finish on Saturday for the Copper Muggers.

100 degrees

We hit 100 again today.  That's 2 in a row.  A couple of years ago we only had 5 days in the 90's all summer.  90 on Friday will seem cool.  We skipped mowing greens, tees and fairways again today.  We instead rolled the greens.  I had Dave raise the height of cut on greens for Friday and the weekends.  I'm affraid we'll damage turf if we stay at the lower cut.  We'll go back to normal when it gets cooler.  After being wet in April, May and June, we now have drought contions.  The forecast is for rain on Friday and Saturday, but only 50%.  We could really use .5 inches.  The course is holding up, but another week of this could really hurt the rough.  It might stay brown for the rest of the season.