February

WINTER IS HERE.

While the days are getting longer, the winter weather is finally upon us. After a mild start to a winter that provided for an extended golf season into December and even January, February is shaping up to be a more traditional "off season" month.

Even though Eagle Brook is snow and ice covered, work on the course continues. A considerable amount of progress has been made on our tree pruning initiative as is evidenced by the large stacks of cut limbs found on all front 9 holes. Work has now begun on the back 9 as well as the line of trees bordering the driving range. We are pleased with the results so far and are eager to hear feedback from members and our returning seasonal staff. Improved sight lines and shot making opportunities from positions in the rough along fairways and around greens should please members but from a staff perspective we anticipate a more mixed reaction; much less ducking under low hanging branches on mowers and string trimming, which is a good thing, but who's going to pick up all these branches?!

Winter is also a time for continuing education and connecting with industry peers and there's no better opportunity to do both than by attending the annual Golf Industry Show (GIS) produced by the Golf Course Superintendents Association of America (GCSAA). This year's GIS was hosted in Orlando, which gave us Chicago area attendees a nice change of scenery from what was reportedly one of the cloudiest January's on record. The educational opportunities are tremendous with management practice case studies presented by fellow superintendents as well as presentations from research scientists on new and improved chemistry to prevent disease and supply nutrients to our turfgrass playing surfaces. Of course it wouldn't be a show without a trade show and vendors are lined up to deliver the newest innovations in design and technology. Equipment manufactures such as Toro, John Deere, and many more spare little expense in presenting attendees their product lines from automated mowers, pictured below, to phone app controlled irrigation systems.

Greens Mower

Fairway Mower

That's about it for now. As always, if you have any questions or comments for us here at the Eagle Brook Turf Center, please reply or simply stop on by.