Turf Covers

We installed the turf covers on 5, 7,8,13,14 greens. The covers will help keep the soil temps up through the cold weather. This will help prevent the new bentgrass from hardening off and loosing ground through the cold weather.

We may have to remove and then replace the covers depending on the temps. This will be no easy task - the covers are about 400-500 lbs each that act as a sail with just about any wind.

Spraying greens

Sprayed greens on Friday with some Fungicide and foliar fertilizer. The fungicide was primarily for pink snow mold. I am going to put on some of the turf covers over the greens with the cold weather we have moving in after Christmas. Without fungicide protection the covers can encourage disease development.

Bridge 18.

Started this bridge last week and they are moving along nicely. Each bridge has about 300 lbs of nails alone.

Bunkers

Still working on fairway bunkers. We should be done about the 2nd week of January.

How will we know when they are ready?

Pictured is a profile sample of one of the new greens. We have root growth down to the 6-8" range which is normal for a new green. These roots thrive in the new greens because there is plenty of oxygen and pore space for the roots to grow. No compaction and limited organic matter is the perfect environment for new root generation.

Long roots does not mean ready for golfers. Right now if you pull apart this profile sample it is loose and does not hold together very well. When we start to develop that important mat in the root mass that will hold together that profile, we will be getting closer to opening. That mat is important to give the grass a chance at surviving once the traffic from golfers gets on the greens. They will look full and beautiful and you may be wondering after looking at some of these perfect looking greens - why can't we play on them? This mat is the primary defense for the plant to withstand traffic and abuse.

Right now with the way they are looking and the weather we have been having for the first part of the winter, I am confident at this point that we are on target for that May 1st target date. Hopefully the weather will continue to cooperate through the remainder of the winter and into the spring.

Carts

Normally this time of the year we would be cart path only. This year we are able to delay that because of the very small amount of play we have been getting on the golf course. The carts beat down the dormant Bermuda because it isn't actively growing. This cart traffic will heavily stunt the Bermuda in the spring and will delay green-up.

We will probably be going to cart path only after the next rain we get.

Greens

The greens are looking good. Some of the interior greens that had some shade issues and were a little thin 3 weeks ago are really starting to thicken up - all this warm weather along with some well timed foliar fertilizer applications has really helped.

New beds

Working on improving some of the landscape beds around the clubhouse and the golf course. This is a picture of some added plant material near 18 tee. We are also installing a new bed by the new practice tee.

New bed #1

Removing some of the old, overgrown junipers on #1 and replacing with new plants for an improved look on the first hole, especially from the road.

Protecting Turf around greens

I am having the guys take pieces of lattice to turn the mowers on. This helps to decrease the amount of wear on the dormant turf outside the greens. It is a little labor intensive and time consuming, but I think it will pay off with the increased quality of the surround cut in the spring.

Greens.

Mowing greens this week they were looking pretty good. The greens that are out in the open with plenty of sunlight and air movement are doing really well. The greens that are in shade on some of the interior greens are a little further behind, but looking much better. Thinks are on schedule.

Range

Painted the target greens on the range yesterday. I wanted to get a good rate down where the color would really stand out from the tee. Now that I have an idea of what we need, I have ordered more paint to paint in a fairway through the middle of the range.

We have one section of the mat to finish on the West end then we will be ready to open as soon as the range is dry enough. It has to be a little drier than normal after a rain to open because of all the new sod.

Mowing greens

Mowed greens on Monday after a couple really nice, warm days. It's amazing how much the greens filled in with just a couple warm days. This is a good sign for spring. Once that nice weather and warm temps hit in the spring the greens should really start maturing nicely.

Spraying greens

We sprayed greens on Friday with a fungicide and some foliar fertilizer before all the warm weather hit over the weekend. I wanted to give them a head start into the weekend to take advantage of some good growing weather.

PG2

If you haven't done so lately, get up to PG2 and hit a couple of putts. It is rolling about 12.5 right not. Very fast and very smooth. Something to look forward to.

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

Driving Range Progress

We are nearing completion on the range. Almost everything is sodded and the only thing left is to install the matting. The rain from the hurricane set us back about a week but thankfully resulted in no damage.

Wind Damage on greens

The wind from Hurricane Sandy blew some small ruts in the greens in spots where the grass had not completely grown together. It basically blew the greens mix out in some spots. We are going around and topdressing these areas before they grow over.





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

Another pic 8

8 green water

The Tide is rising pretty high around 8 green.

River holes

The river is starting to come up. It is in the waste bunker now. Hopefully it does not come up much higher and stays out of the newly finished greenside bunkers.

Range sod

Here is a picture of the range on Sunday. The sod is almost complete. Hopefully it all holds up through the storm.

A few of the greens are coming in much slower than the rest of the greens.  Greens like #5, 7, 8, 12, and 14 are a little behind the rest due to the early shade that is getting on these greens.  Sunlight this time of year on new greens is extremely important to help the greens mature.  

 

We removed t a lot of trees behind 14 and trimed up some other trees, and I have seen a beneficial affect on this green just within the last week or so since the tree work was done.

 

We will continue to do some selective thinning to decrease the amount of shade on these greens. 

 

 

 

 

Range pic 2

Range

Starting sod work on the range today. There is one crew working on final prep and one working on laying the big roll sod. Each roll is about 400 sqft. We laid a tractor trailer load today and will do 2 each day, tomorrow through Friday. We should have the majority of the sod done by the beginning of next week. The cart path should be in by Monday. After all this is done we will have to install all the matting and the tee station.

We should have the range back open sometime in the first week of November.

Trees 14

We are doing a lot of tree work on 14 green to get that green more sunlight and air movement. This work has made a huge difference and I think it will help our slowest developing green to mature faster.

We have removed a bunch of Sweet Gum trees and one very large red oak. Should make a world of difference.

Greens

The greens look good for the most part. 5, 13, and 14 are a little less developed than the rest of the greens but still ok. The greens have really slowed down with the cool weather but it looks like there is some more warmer weather coming.

Mowing greens

We are mowing greens for the second time today. I lowered them to .210" for the second mow. The greens are growing fast thanks to the warm, humid weather we have been having.

I will be working the height down the next couple weeks to get the greens "trained" on growing horizontally instead of just vertically.

10 fairway

Working on fixing the sub-base.

Fairway bunker #10

We started working on the fairway bunker on 10 in-house before most of our staff leaves for the year. I want to try to get the holes with only one fairway bunker completed so we can have entire holes that are finished with bunkers.

Ryder Cup

The greens at Medinah #3 (host of the Ryder Cup this week) are primarily 007 - the same grass planted on our new greens. They planted a mix of 007 and 1119 (a cultivar used more in the Midwest and west). The greens you see on tv will be very similar to ours once they are grown in. Notice the uniformity in color and absence of grain that you often see when the pros are playing on A1/A4.

Irrigation system

Working on another leak at 1 tee. We have been having a lot of leaks on the golf course of late. Almost all of it has been in the smaller 2" glue fittings. These leaks are starting to show up because of the age of our piping and the recent use of the system to water greens. We didn't have too many leaks this summer because we really weren't using the system because of construction and all the rain. Once we seeded and really started using it a lot they have been popping up.

Rip rap 14

Working on improving some of the rock areas on 14 with some of the leftover rip rap from the range.

Range

The drainage , irrigation, and rough shaping has been completed on the range. The rest of the shaping on the range should be completed in the next week or so.

Rough

The rough is looking a little "rough" right now. It is dry and this is the time of year when the Bermuda gets long and leggy, it tends to scalp every time you mow it. I have not been watering rough in order to save our good water for the greens. I don't want to have to turn the well on and contaminate all the good water we have in Horne's lake with sodium. Even though the 007 is more tolerant of the salt when compared to our old grass, it is still very young. It wouldn't have a good effect on the seedlings. This is like how infants are more susceptible to harmed by things than adults. Once the grass grows out of its infancy stage it will be able to handle stresses.

Drainage PT1

The drainage is going in on the range tee as we speak. We will finish the drainage, install all the irrigation and then prep for sod. The range tee is the most labor intensive part of the range project and the rest of the range will be done quickly after the tee is done.

Irrigation at the club

The lightning strike at the tree near the putting green at the club did a number on the pipe in the ground. This is a picture of a 2" pipe that just got blown apart. We are working at making all the needed repairs.

Topdressing greens

We topdressed all the new greens yesterday. This will help the grass fill in and begin to smooth out any minor imperfections.

Range

The range is coming along good. We are working on the tee top first so we can get the new cart path in and the tee sodded ASAP.

Greens

The greens are coming in good and have had 3 mowings on them already. The only questionable area is on the front of 14. This area has washed out a few times and is slow to develop for that reason. This might be the one area that we will have to plug from the nursery - not a big deal.

Greens

Greens are coming in great.