What's all the Buzz about??

Last week we enlisted the help of beekeeper Tim Childress to help remove the beehive from the walnut just right of #8 tee.  We initially sealed off the entrance to the hive with some screening to contain the bees while Tim put together his plan of attack.  Knowing that Tim would have to gain access to the hollow tree through the side of the tree, we removed the top portion of the tree to allow for safe access into the hollow cavity and hive. Finally Tim arrived to do what he does best... remove the hive.  When all was said and done, the bees were removed and the hive gone.  The amount of honey in the hive was minimal (but tasted great!) and the queen was gone.  The worker bees in the hive were apparantly more focused on tending to the brood of eggs than making honey.  Tim estimated the hive contained around 60,000 bees and rated the hive in the "small to medium" size range.  Below are some pictures of the day...

The entrance to the hive was sealed off with screen and expanding foam.

Tim Childress began the day by sucking out bees with a shop vac.

Tim gaining access to the hive through the side of the tree.

A look into the tree and hive.

Beginning hive removal.  No gloves were used!!

A small piece of the hive.

After removal was complete, we discovered an upstairs resident. 
This mallard hen was just above the hive in another cavity in the tree.
Unfortunately her nest was removed by another animal (maybe our hawk) later
that night.  The rest of the tree was removed the following day.

No, it's NOT nice weather!

The recent warmth has put another damper on our tree work.  Just getting around the golf course when the temperatures are in the mid 50's and 60's is difficult to do without creating some sort of damage.  When it is warm like this we are relegated to our shop yard (which has no shortage of work needing to be done) as opposed to doing more harm than good on the golf course.  Today we opted to process some of the logs that we have brought in over the last week and begin quartering the big logs into sizes that are easier to handle.  If you are looking for some firewood for next winter, let me know. 

Another wild temperature swing is in the forcast for later this week, dropping from a high of 66 degrees on Tuesday to a low of only 3 degrees on Thursday.  This should refreeze the ground and allow us to get our equipment back on the course, but will also likely cause damage to any plants that have been fooled into growth due to the recent warmth.

My hope is that between now and April 1st we can enjoy a more normal weather pattern with plenty of cold and some snow thrown in for good measure!



Tracks left from just driving across the golf course.  Impossible to
do any work without causing significant damage to the ground.



Alan and Ben C. process logs from last week's removals.  Free
firewood for anyone interested!

You never know what you'll find...

While cutting up a pine tree from between #15 and #16 fairways, we ran across a golf ball that had obviously been lost some years ago.

Based on the rings on the tree, we estimate it was lost sometime between 1988 and 1992!  If you are missing a Hogan 1 with a logo on it, let me know (although we "damaged" it a bit with the chainsaw)!

You just never know what you'll find on a golf course...

Go Figure...

It figures that on what the Mayan's have predicted is the last day of our existance, winter finally arrived at CCC!  Last night Winter Storm "Draco" impacted the Midwest causing travel woes and general headaches for millions of folks trying to get from point "A" to point "B".  Here in Champaign we only saw an inch or so of snow, but howling winds that made it seem like much more.  I was finally able to get the plow out and push some snow around, which is good therepy for this Minnesota native!

Assuming the Mayans were wrong about the world ending today, and I think they were, the cold weather that Draco has ushered in will prove to be a benefit to our winter productivity on the golf course.  We have some large sweetgum logs to bring in yet and have plans for more tree work that will be easier if the ground is frozen.

As far as the Doomsday is concerned, odds are you are reading this sometime after December 21st, 2012.  If you are, then we made it!  Having read several articles on this date and what it means, it seems that today truely is special.  Today, the winter solstice, the Earth is in perfect alignment with the exact center of the Milky Way, where scientists have recently discovered a black hole.  Some believe that this alignment will cause a polar shift in the Earth's mantle, causing apocalyptic world wide catastrophies.  This alignment, along with many other celestial events was predicted by the Mayans thousands of years ago.  According to their Long Count calander, today marks the end of the 12th Baktun, a period consisting of 144,000 days. This date is specifically identified as 12.19.19.19.19.  It also marks the beginning of the 13th Baktun, also known as "13.0.0.0.0" which ironically "restarts" the Mayan calander.  It is sort of akin to the odometer on your car "flipping" back to all zeros.  There is research that shows that the Mayans actually looked at today as not the end of the world, but a period of cleansing and rebirth.  A new beginning. To me this is a better outlook than one of doom and death!

Ironically this day falls at the end of a work week preceeding a long Christmas weekend, the holiest of all Christian holidays.  It falls during a time in our country where clarity, cleansing, and "a new beginning" may be needed more than ever before, with Hurricane Sandy, the shooting in Newtown CT, and the impending Fiscal Cliff that has so many Americans losing hope that 2013 will be better than 2012. This day falls on a day that preceeds four to five days that will likely be spent with family and friends, away from the stress and monotony of our daily work lives, and hopefully in some state of relaxation.  I challenge you to take this time to heed the Mayans advice and look inward.  Cleanse, strive for clarity, and search for a new beginning.  Spend the Christmas holiday weekend reconnecting with family members and friends who you have lost touch with, taking stock in the things we have and the people we love.  Enjoy this time of rebirth.

With any luck the world will not end, but will get better.  All of us will return to work with renewed vigor and a more positive outlook on life.  Life will carry on and the 13th Baktun will prove to be prosperous!

Here's hoping you have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Christmas Lights and Trees

If you have been by the club lately at night you have surely notice the place is glowing under the light of nearly 80,000 mini lights.  The remnants of our summer staff along with our full timers spent close to three weeks putting up the lights and it shows!

On the course we have begun our tree work for the winter.  We have removed several trees already including a Sweetgum that had developed a pretty severe split (see picture) and was becoming quite dangerous.  Because the ground is still soft, we are not able to get our chipping equipment out on the course so we will "stage" branches in anticipation of upcoming frozen ground conditions. We will continue tree work throughout the winter, prioritizing dangerous trees, and will hopefully be able to make a positive impact on course aesthetics and turf conditions next season.

Split in a Sweetgum right of #11 fairway

Lucy supervised the removal of the Sweetgum.  Just one
less place for the squirrels to hide!

2012: A Summer to Remember

Ask anyone who spent any time outdoors this summer and they will tell you that 2012 was brutal. We should have known, as March brought with it temperatures in the low 90’s and was relatively dry. Despite a cool snap in April, summer was here and it was set to challenge golf course personnel in ways we have not been challenged since 1988, some even say the dust bowl. We broke records all summer with the high heat and lack of rain, and the efforts put forth by the CCC Grounds Staff were monumental. Below are some “interesting facts” about the summer of 2012…




- Starting in March, it was confirmed that Illinois had just come off the third warmest winter on record.

- Also in March, Central Illinois was added to the US Drought Monitor as being “abnormally dry”.

- March became the warmest March on record with an average temperature of 54.7 degrees. A full 14.1 degrees above normal!

- After a relatively cool April, May became the 5th warmest on record. A warm May finished off the warmest spring on record. Year-to-date, 2012 had become the warmest January to May on record.

- By the end of June, Champaign County was in a moderate drought and was verging on a severe drought according to the US Drought Monitor. At this point 89% of the state was in some sort of drought.

- July went into the record books as being the 2nd hottest and 4th driest on record. Only the dust bowl years eclipsed these records. The US Drought Monitor indicated that 71% of the state (including Champaign County) was in a D3 or “extreme” drought. Crop loss reports began piling up.

- During the month of July, we used just over 7.5 million gallons of water to keep CCC alive. One third of this amount or 2.5 million gallons were used through hand watering with hoses. On many occasions we had six staff members at a time hand watering dry areas to keep them alive. This proved to be a game changer in our quest to keep CCC green.

- The month of August finally gave us “normal” conditions with the average temperature 0.1 degree below normal and rainfall at 95% of normal.

- September actually was slightly below normal for temperatures and above normal for precipitation. Discussions of the drought subsiding were common and turf recovery went into high gear.



Despite broken records, a historical drought, and a summer that started in March, we survived. Water was king this summer and courses that didn’t use it enough or who ran short suffered miserably. I feel fortunate that we have ample water available to us however we will always be vigilant on how much we use. We saw first hand this July that, while we have plenty of water available, it is not free! Our approach to hand water as much as we did not only helped save our turf, but saved a considerable amount of water in the process. I spoke to many superintendents during the summer about irrigation practices and found that many courses in our area were using upwards of 500,000 gallons of water each night to keep up with the drought. We never topped 250,000 gallons per night at CCC.



In retrospect, 2012 was a good year. On the heels of two seasons of turf loss we made it through a very difficult summer in good shape. The difference? We were in control of the water for the entire season! A member told me this summer “this place loves to be dry!” and I would have to say that he was spot on with that statement. Our major turf loss comes during times of too much water and high temperatures. Our course cannot shed water fast enough, remains saturated for long periods of time, and suffers through wet stretches. When we are in control of the water, we see far healthier turf!



Looking ahead, no one knows what 2013 will bring. My hope is that it will bring moderate temperatures with occasional light rain… only at night… and only when we need it.

Frustrating...

Three weeks ago we were having a record breaking spring with all phenological things springing to life two to three weeks ahead of schedule.  As such, we decided to aerate our greens two weeks early and take advantage of the weather that had become the norm for the past couple weeks.  Aerification went well and we were able to use our new ProCore 648 aerator, which performed perfectly.  Hole quality was incredible and we pulled very healthy 1/2" cores.  After topdressing and cleaning them up, the greens were set for a quick recovery and satisfied golfers...

Then it got cold!  Since aerification we have been thrust back to "normal" spring temperatures which included four nights of frosty or near frosty temperatures immediately following aerification.  This cold snap effectively halted the growth of our greens and along with it the recovery from aerification. 

Today marks the beginning of a warming trend that has already spurred growth on our greens, which we have noticed through a remarkable increase in our clipping yield when we mow.  I am hopeful that within the next week we will see nearly full closure of our aerification holes and putting will become smooth and true.  As it is in the golf course maintenance industry, we are so often at the mercy of Mother Nature!  Frustrating at times, but the forecast looks good for recovery to begin!

Looking down on a green you can see holes that are beginning to disappear.

This picture shows a patch of a more cold tolerant variety of bent that has
already healed.