Irrigation system

This is one example of why I dread starting up the irrigation system every spring. This is a mainline break on 8 that's going to be a bear to replace. The system has been up since Thursday and this blowout occurred at around 9:00 this morning.

Really?

It's the 24th of March in Williamsburg, VA................and it's snowing. Our winter continues.

Rolling greens

We mowed then rolled greens yesterday. They are starting to look pretty good. Surprisingly we got quite a bit of grass off of them even with the cold weather. The long term forecast still does not look good. It looks like it may not warm up at all until April. March has pretty much been a waste of a month - no growing weather at all.

Weather

I'm starting to get a little concerned about our weather this spring. Every time it looks like we might get into some warmer weather, it goes back down into the high 40's-low 50's with lows around freezing. This weather hasn't allowed the greens to grow and normally we would be mowing greens everyday by this time. I think we are still ok for our May 5th opening party, but as this terrible weather continues, I get more and more nervous.

It has to warn up soon.........right?

Very Depressing

Here are some pictures of the course last year at this time.  As you can see we were way ahead of where we are now.  The Bermuda has not even thought about turning green yet.  The Pic of 18 and the front lawn with the Ryegrass going nuts was taken March 9,2012 – all the rest of the pictures were taken within a week to today’s date last year.

Rain

This is what the golf course looks like after only 0.5" of rain now. The soil is completely saturated and has been for some time. The cool temps have prevented the bermudagrass from greening up and that dormant grass doesn't suck up any of the water.

Weather

We really need to get out of these very low temps at night. This morning it was 28. Once we get into some night time temps in the mid to high 40's the greens will really start going.

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

We got another 0.6" of rain yesterday.  The course is once again extremely wet.  We are trying to lay some sod at the range and #9 staging area, do some chipper work on #12 and start on some of the irrigation leaks.  Hopefully spring will show up soon with some warmer night time temps.  We really have not got any growth on the greens the past few weeks - March is usually a good month for growing greens....not this March though.

Plugging greens

Working on plugging out a few small areas on greens. Getting ready to get them 100% solid.

Drain Lines

You can see how dry the drain lines are that we have recently installed. After 1.2" of rain the ground just above the drains is dry. With our heavy clay soils the water does not wick very fast into the drains.

Drain Lines

You can see how dry the drain lines are that we have recently installed. After 1.2" of rain the ground just above the drains is dry. With our heavy clay soils the water does not wick very fast into the drains.

More rain

We got 0.75" last night. This will continue to delay all the cleanup we still need to do on the golf course. Hopefully the weather will start to turn soon.

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