It’s late May, and your turf doesn’t look like it had a favorable winter. It’s June, and some of your fairways have those “crop circle” patches.It’s only mid-summer, but your greens already look like it’s late August. A look at several of your strategic 80-year oaks is giving you bad vibes. What about that native area your super has been nursing and it just looks like a big field of weeds?
Who ya gonna call?
You may not know it, but your club’s membership in the Chicago District Golf Association has a doctor on call. Specifically, Dr. Derek Settle, a turf research specialist headquartered at the CDGA’s o ices at Midwest Golf House in Lemont. Dr. Settle is ready to help with any agronomy questions or problems at your club or your course.
Dr. Settle, Senior Director of Turfgrass Research, and his associate Shehbaz Singh, MS, Director of Turfgrass Research, made 69 visits to CDGA member courses in 2024 to diagnose and suggest approaches to resolve everything from simple infestations of annual bluegrass weevils to more complex issues like a root rot of creeping bentgrass called take-all patch.
The CDGA’s turf research program dates to 1985. Its first director was Dr. Randy Kane, who quickly became known as “the family doctor” for his emergency house calls to virtually every CDGA course. Dr. Kane was recently inducted into the Illinois Golf Hall of Fame, and it was noted that he believed “every shade of green should not be underestimated.”
When he’s not visiting clubs and courses, Dr. Settle does his work at the CDGA’s Bob Berry Sunshine Course, located behind Midwest Golf House. The course consists of three holes with several teeing areas for each hole, different types of bunkers, a practice green and a number of test areas located throughout the course. These areas afford the CDGA Turfgrass Program the opportunity to do detailed studies on a variety of topics. These include new and old strains of fairway, tee and green grasses, bunker sand, irrigation systems, divot hole recovery, soil compaction, root problems, forbs and flowers, the impact of trees and roots, and even bee colonies. All of this is done taking into account the varying growing conditions around the CDGA’s more than 400 member clubs. Results of special research projects – which sometimes stretch over a year or more – are distributed to member clubs and courses.
About those personal visits by Dr Settle and Shehbaz Singh. Your course’s first line of defense for the turf problems it will inevitably experience is, of course, your superintendent, who is an expert and knows your club’s grounds well. There are times, though, when nematodes or anthracnose or… something…may have gotten an upper hand. Or, maybe it would just be comforting to have a second opinion. A visit from your CDGA turf research guys is only a phone call away. And the good news is these visits cost your club or course nothing!
The CDGA is the only Allied Golf Association of the USGA with a turfgrass program like this. Everyone should use it!
Dwight Erskine is the CDGA’s vice president at large and a member of the CDGA Green Committee. He has been a CDGA Blue Coat since 2015.