Nutsedge

With all this wet weather we were having the Nutsedge is really staring to take off. We have to try to get out a few tanks of herbicide a week - it very difficult to spray that much acreage in front of golfers in just a few days.

If you have it coming up in your yard we sell Q4 at the shop to take out most weeds.

Aeration

All the aeration and topdressing was completed yesterday. We used a solid tine and a medium topdressing. They should be healed up in a few days. We will mow for the first time tomorrow.

This is a picture of nutrients going down. I like to take advantage of holes in the greens - it helps to get the fert particles down to the soil. We are putting down Calcium, Magnesium, and Potassium.

Course conditions

The course has recovered well from all the rain we had on Thursday. The Bermuda is starting to look really good and the different mowing patterns are defined nicely (rough, to step cut, to fwys). 

The greens are really starting to mature and get really tight. We are getting rid of some of the fatter leaf blades and they are standing upright and becoming more consistent on speed. Last 2 days they have been rolling right at 11'. 

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

Irrigation

We fixed 6 heads that were not working on 18 fairway and this was the last one. Not Fun

Good picture with the storm in the background. We love our irrigation system...!!

Old habits die hard

Here is a pic of 2 green after the shotgun today. It is really important to pick up your feet when walking on the greens.

Target Greens on Range

All of the Zoysia grass on the range will be re-sodded next week.

I wanted to wait and see how they did after some heat and humidity (which we have had) to see if they would come back.

The other Zoysia we did around PG1 was also a little slow coming out but has been coming back nicely. Zoysia is much more sensitive to cold weather when it is new. As you can see the bermuda grass around the greens and throughout the middle of the range has finally started to show some life. I think the difference is that by the time we finished the range it was getting pretty late into the fall - PG1 was sodded much earlier and the Zoysia had a chance to root. It looks like the excessively long winter desiccated that new sod - our winter winds have this effect.

Our new range is coming along much slower than I would have liked but I guess that's to be expected with the poor spring we have had through April.

Rough

This wet weather has really put us behind on mowing - especially rough. I'm glad that we got the growth regulator down on all the short grass last week. This has helped is from getting too behind on tees, fwys, and approaches.

One good thing about the wet, humid weather is that the rough has really started to green up.

Practice Tees

I am trying something new on the practice tees. We topdressed with a fine compost instead of sand. Over time these tees get really sandy and take longer and longer to recover. The compost should increase the organic matter on these tees and allow us to hopefully decrease the amount of fertilizer that we need to put on these tees to get them to recover.

Fairways

We started spraying fairways for the first time this spring with some growth regulator, wetting agent and a little fertilizer. The wetting agent helps to save water and also keeps the fairways more consistent. The growth regulator is a very important tool to help keep the fairways from getting too shaggy in between mowings, helps to decrease mowing labor, and promotes lateral growth instead of vertical growth. This growth regulator tends to discolor the fairways after the first application of the year - later we get into the year the less discoloration we get.

I have to let the growth regulator dry before watering in the other products. This is a pic of 8 fwy a little discolored - I started watering fwys yesterday evening to limit the amount of discoloration.

Verticutting

We started verticutting greens today in front of the mowers. This helps stand all the leaf blades up and tighten up the greens. The ball roll is actually a little slower a day or two after verticutting then mowing because it tends to bring that leafy material to the top of the canopy.

Weather

Freezing cold out this morning. I'm really not complaining...I'll take the cool weather as long as I can.

The greens love this kind of weather but the rough does not. The Rough is starting to come around but with these unusually cool temps it is slow to get going. We are starting to have some weeds pop through in the rough because the Bermuda really isn't competing right now. It looks like the rest of the week should start to warm up and get things moving.

Roots

This is a pic taken while changing cups Sunday. These greens will never have longer roots than what we have now. As greens age the compaction, organic matter buildup, etc fight against this amount or root mass.

Kingsmill

I am volunteering at Kingsmill tonight helping the guys on the maintenance crew prep the course. Many people have no earthly idea how much time and resources go into maintaining a course during a professional tournament.

A normal golf course will mow greens every morning and may roll greens twice a week. Fairways and tees may get mown 2-3 times a week. At TRCC we are mowing greens every day, rolling everyday, and typically mow tees and fairways 3-4 times. During a pro (women or men) tournament they mow the greens twice in the morning, roll twice in the morning, then mow twice again that same day in the evening along with another rolling. All the grass with the exception of rough is mown every day.

It takes a good number of volunteers, borrowed equipment from local vendors and an insane amount of hours to pull off the the conditions that you see in tv.

Finishing touches

We are putting the final touches on the golf course. This is a bed on the left side of 3 that we cleaned up and put down pine straw yesterday evening.

We have a little more mowing to finish before Sunday but should be ready. The rain screwed up my mowing plans this week but I think we are pretty much caught up.

Course conditions.

The course is pretty wet right now. We have most of the detail work done on the course now, but we still have a low of mowing to do. We are a little behind because of the rain the last couple of days, but we should be able to catch up the remainder of the week and this coming weekend.

The greens are a little slower that I expected them to be. The wet weather has not helped at all and I don't want to push them too much this early in their life. I would like to get them to 10-10.5 for opening and right now we are about a 9.

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