Chicago District Golf Association

The Chicago District Golf Association (CDGA) is a non-profit organization that represents member clubs and individual golfers from Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin, and Michigan. It was founded on March 18, 1914 with the purpose to promote amateur golf in the mid-west. This establishment holds over 90,000 members and has 400 member clubs making it one of the largest/oldest golf associations in the U.S. This association is made up of directors known as “Blue Coats” and they spend a huge amount of time each year, giving services and time to people. CDGA services and the benefits that come with the association are to the member clubs and individual golfers at the facilities. It’s run by 17 personnel and is held at the Midwest Golf House Complex in Lemont, Ill. The CDGA handles thousand of studies through the year from personal visits, email when dealing with rulings, tournament set-up, information on places to play, and greens keeping practices. The CDGA have other additional services and Turfgrass experts on staff, led by Dr. Derek Settle.
CDGA Services include:
• Handicap Program
• Course Rating & Measuring Program
• Tournament Program
• Sunshine Through Golf Foundation
• Three-hole Sunshine Course
• Chicago District Golfer Magazine
• Education Program
• Turfgrass Research Program
• Scorecard E-Newsletter
• Keeper of Records
The Chicago District Golf Association is a great networking experience for anyone in the turf industry. It provides adequate information and can help turf managers with their career pursuit. I look forward to gaining networking connections from Chicago through the six months I’m there on my internship at Medinah Country Club.

Importance of Organic Matter

Why use organic matter in greens instead of to using straight sand? Using straight sand, can be difficult for a grow in, because it cannot hold nutrients well and the water drains too fast for the grass to utilize it. The carbon structure of organic matter is made of a ring structure that is harder to break down by microbes. It has great surface area, a high amount of negative charge, and it holds water very well. It can result in a poor growing environment when you have too much organic matter because your percolation rate may decrease. What can you do to remove or control the buildup of organic matter is to pulling cores or dilute with an aggressive topdressing program.
In top soil, organic matter helps many factors of the growing medium. These include:

• Increased CEC
• Increased aggregate formation(structure)
• Energy for microbe development
• Heat absorption due to its dark color
• Micronutrients can be present.

Organic matter is a source of carbon, but addition, organic matter will affect the carbon to nitrogen ratio; the ideal ration being 30:1. So when carbon starts to decrease, the available nitrogen levels start to increase again. Nitrogen is important because microbes need it to survive and to break down the OM.
Raw clippings from grass cuttings are a source of organic matter. The clippings consist of 75% water and 25% dry mater. The dry matter contains carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen. The ash alone contains the nitrogen, phosphorous, potassium, and sulfur. Many other factors that the raw material holds include 60% carbohydrates, and other complex molecules including 10% protein and 5% fats.
By using organic matter, the percolation rate on your greens might decrease and increase your water-holding capacity. By having too much organic matter this may cause compaction to your greens. The golf course then may aerify their greens or be concentrated with top-dressing.

Norway Spruce

The Norway spruce belongs to the family Pinaceae. Spruces are symmetrical and are conical trees. In this family alone there are about forty different specimens. This report will explain the growth, culture, diseases and insects the plant may get, some propagation techniques and the landscape uses it has to offer.

The Norway spruce can grow from forty to sixty feet high and have a spread of twenty five to thirty feet. The zone it can survive in between three to eight. The bark on the Norway when it is young is thin, but can become thin with gray brown flaking scales on the bark off older trees. It’s pyramidal with pendulous branches. The fruit are cylindrical cones can get to a purple or green color when young. Foliage around the medium grade of the tree and the leaf color it offers is bright green to a purplish color when maturing. A culture it has to live in order for it to survive is moist, sandy, acidic, well drained soils but can survive in most soils around the specific zones. This plant prefers the cold climate and should be pruned in the spring. Examples of select diseases and insects that affect spruces include red spider, spruce gall aphid, bud worm, and borers. The Norway Spruce are often used as windbreaks and are used a lot for large scale landscaping such as parks, golf courses, highways, and public buildings. One of the benefits of propagating Spruces is that the seeds germinate without pretreatment and can be directly sown in to the grown. Root pruning is optional and should be performed between from November to January.

The Norway spruce can be beneficial for decorative purposes and for weather preventative cases such as wind-breakers. Planter’s can benefit from this because they are not pretreated and can be directly sown in the grown and root pruning is optional so there is less maintenance.

This report mentions important facts about the plant that landscapers can use to their advantage. They will also learn some background information about the plant including where it came from and what zones it can be found in and survivein.