Worst to First at Butler National GC

XGD Project Manager Matt Magarian recently stopped by Butler National Golf Club in Chicagoland to review the performance of our fairway drainage installation here that we completed late last fall. Superintendent Mike Sauls gave us a glowing report that we hadn’t heard on our fairway drainage installs, but have heard on several of our subsurface internal greens drainage: “the ninth fairway has gone from our worst fairway to our best since the XGD System was installed”.

After reviewing this low lying fairway with Mike Sauls late last summer, it is a classic case of a great fit for our unique subsurface drainage process. The club had issues maintaining a fine stand of turf across the fairway especially after the heavy rains of last summer. There were also times when portions of the entire fairway were under flood waters. While XGD cannot help you out in a flood situation, we can start lowering the gravitational groundwater table as soon as the flood waters recede giving the saturated turf a fighting chance to recover immediately. This wasn’t the case on this fairway last summer as significant turf was lost  after the flood as the water table was literally choking the turf plant. After a flood that won’t be the case anymore at Butler National anymore, as we have given them a fighting chance to provide their members with consistent fairway conditions across the board.

Our fairway installation process is a nice fit at most classic old clubs that don’t want to regrade their flat fairways. In these situations, the high groundwater table is the real problem, not the surface grading and that is where we can come in and help turn your worst fairways or greens in to to your best.

Cheers, Poor Old Dirt & Grass Farmer