Winter

The winter weather has set in. I do have some bunker work that I would like to get done, but the bunkers have been frozen most of the day.....and they will stay frozen for a while.

We may get into some drainage work next week. We have to install an extension on a drain to the right of 11 green. We also have to install a big French drain in the low area in 15 fairway. It's just hard to get out there and complete this stuff when the course stays this wet.

Rain!

It is really wet out there. A lot of the bunkers are washed out and it's too wet to get any machines to the bunkers. Hopefully it starts to dry out soon and we can get to them.

Brent Graham, CGCS
Director of Golf Maintenance
Two Rivers Country Club
1950 Two Rivers Rd.
Williamsburg, VA 23185
Cell: 757-592-0840
Office: 757-258-4606
Bgraham@tworiversclub.com
Governorsland.com

Paint

We finished another application of pigment on the fairways this week. This time I added just a hint of paint to see if it will help hold color a little longer.

I'm not thrilled about the color....looks a little more blue than green, but I think it still works. It looked a lot better the first time because the grass wasn't completely dormant. I still have had a lot of positive feedback. It helps give some definition between fairways and rough.

The pigment runs about $1200 per application. If we were to paint it would be about $20k. The paint would hold up throughout the winter and have a more green color, but I figure we might need about 5 applications of pigment through the winter. $6K is a lot better than $20k.

Leaves and wet ground

With this recent nice weather and a little bit of wind, the course should be dry enough to get the blowers out on the course tomorrow. It's starting to dry down enough to do some work after 1.6" of rain.

We need to get them out there. Leaves are everywhere.


Brent Graham, CGCS
Director of Golf Maintenance
Two Rivers Country Club
1950 Two Rivers Rd.
Williamsburg, VA 23185
Cell: 757-592-0840
Office: 757-258-4606
Bgraham@tworiversclub.com
Governorsland.com

Blowing and Course Conditions

We blew out all the bunkers yesterday then raked them.  Today we focused on mowing greens, course set-up, and blowing leaves.  This time of year leaf cleanup can become very slow.  Right now it’s too wet to get the big blowers on the course.  With what looks like a rain-out on the horizon tomorrow, it could be some time before we can get the big blowers back on the course.  That also applies to carts.  This time of year there is no actively growing grass to suck up some the moisture and with our pottery clay soils, the water doesn’t go anywhere very fast. 

 

In the past, as soon as the Bermuda would go dormant, carts would be restricted to cart paths until spring.  Last year was the first year we tried to get carts out on a nice day when it was dry enough.  We will do the same this year, but it’s probably not going to be that often because of how wet the course stays in the winter.  It’s important to limit cart traffic on dormant grass.  If you don’t, it really delays greenup and spring turf conditions aren’t all that great before the turf really starts actively growing.  We did see some negative effects in the spring with greenup from running the carts in the grass so much last winter, but I think it’s important to let people off the cart paths in the winter when possible.  Hopefully it will keep people playing golf longer and allow members to get the most out of their golf membership.

 

The greens are looking and playing good.  They are not growing much at all this time of year.  We’re fertilizing them today before the rain hits tomorrow.  This will give them a little bit of a bump going into what looks like some warmer weather next week.  It’s a lot easier to keep them rolling good when temps stay above freezing at night.  We can’t mow them unless they are thawed and frost free….you have to be careful not to put any equipment on them when they are thawing. 

 

Brent Graham, CGCS

Director of Golf Maintenance

Two Rivers Country Club

1950 Two Rivers Rd.

Williamsburg, VA 23185

Office: 757-258-4606

Bgraham@tworiversclub.com

Governorsland.com

 

Leaf season

This is one of the most expensive things we do all year. Every day we are using about 40 gallons of diesel fuel and about 35 man hours just on leaves.