Weepers weepers everywhere

Yet another weeper. This one just popped up on 8. The foot valves on these heads are what cause them to weep. Once the 25 year old valves are replaced in these heads, it usually takes care of the problem. Sounds easy enough....but there are over 1000 heads on the course and to change out these valves you have to isolate the entire hole, drain all the water, replace the valve, then pressure the hole back up. If your flying and on a hole where all the valves are working, you can change one in about 30 minutes.

Fairways

The fairways look better than they ever have this time of year. The verticutting that we did this year is really paying off. Usually they get puffy and scalped this time of year but the verticutting has really helped to tighten them up.

Plugging away

We are still working on plugging some of the worst spots on greens. In the last week we have put out around 800 plugs. I'm trying to use as much as the nursery as we can so we can blow it up and start over this fall.

Irrigation

Had a head stick on all last night by 2 green. This irrigation system has been a real hassle this year. I'm sure you have seen us fixing one of our many leaks or have seen some heads that have been weeping. It's a nonstop job running around fixing these leaks. I like to keep up with all the leaks...energy is money when that pump kicks on every couple minutes to keep the system pressurized. It does get really difficult to keep up this time of year when we have so much to do every morning.

As you can see...Duff doesn't mind when the heads stick on.

Growth regulator.

Sprayed a growth regulator this morning to start the process of speeding up the greens. This chemical also keeps the plant from using all its energy to grow top growth.

Seeding/topdressing

We were working an doing a second application of seed, organic, and sand on all of the thin areas on the outside of the greens.

These areas are receiving constant attention and the work has been showing. These outsides are really coming along on most of the greens.

They are still a little bumpy. I have been hesitant to roll the greens because the rollers can be especially harsh on the edges. I'm trying to limit the wear on these areas so we can get all the thin areas grown in. I will be mowing and rolling tomorrow to try and smooth them out. A light topdressing on Monday will also help the cause.

Edges of greens.

As you can see from this pic it is impossible to distinguish the difference between the green and the collar at this time. We are mowing the old collar and the cleanup laps on the greens at a much higher height and less frequent than normal. This gives the edges of the greens a chance to recover and doesn't wear out the new seed that is starting to germinate. We will be transitioning this cut back to normal in the next few weeks, once these weak areas start to fill in. When we do transition this cut back, there will be no bentgrass collar. We will be mowing the green right up to the Bermuda apron. The Bermuda surround will now be the collar.

Early mornings.

Nice sunrise over #1.

Approaches

The approaches were topdressed with this rocky sand on Tuesday. I used this sand because the stuff we usually use was unavailable and my other options were a little too expensive for approaches. This course sand will be really good for the approaches once it gets worked in. The course material provides better drainage and increased firmness. It should be gone in another 4-5 days.

Flowers

Lynda does a great job with all the flowers and plants on the course and the clubhouse.

Spraying

We are spraying greens this morning with a few different products. This is a soil spray that gets the fungicide down in to the soil, along with the nutrients that we have in the tank. This is accomplished by watering in the spray immediately after application.

Walk spraying the greens is extremely labor intensive. We do this to prevent putting tire tracks on the greens. This also eliminates any wear from a heavy sprayer - we have to do everything we can to help eliminate additional traffic on new greens.

Topdressing

The greens are going to be a little rough for the next couple of days. The sand hasn't dried down enough to drag it in yet. Once we are able to drag we will roll again to start smoothing everything out.

Not looking good

Trying to finish the 1000 things we have to do today and this is what the radar looks like.

We can do some of the aeration in the rain but most of it we can't. Application of all the nutrients and topdressing needs to be dry put down. If we can't finish the front 9 today we'll have to completely close tomorrow. I'm glad we started last night!

So.....How they doing? Well here it is.

I have been getting this question quite often in the past month or so.  Believe me when I say….good.  I know it’s hard to understand after looking at some of the outsides of some of these greens, but I ask you to focus your inspection to the center of the greens.  The majority of each green is in fantastic shape, with the exception of these outsides and to an untrained eye, those outsides really jump out at you.  Just look at this picture of 13 I took this evening – and that’s one of the worst greens out there.  Look past the first 6’……..great shape and really healthy.

There are a few reasons that these new greens struggle with maintaining good collars and cleanup laps their first year of existence.  The first and most important is no thatch.  Most people think of thatch as a bad thing, and it is something that most courses battle to keep in check, but it is still really important especially on new greens.  This thatch acts as a shock absorber for wear and traffic.  Without any thatch there is no cushion to absorb the traffic – kind of like driving a car without any shocks – you’re going to feel every bump.  Without having this protection the highest traffic areas (which are the edges of the greens because of feet, mowers, rollers, etc) tend to struggle towards the end of the summer.  There are a few other reasons why these areas struggle on new greens but IT’S NORMAL THE FIRST YEAR.

We knew we would have a difficult first year with these greens, even before the start of construction.  We decided to keep a short window for construction to limit the amount of time that the course would be closed.  The Fazio guys came in here and said that we should open no earlier than the middle of July, but we knew that wouldn’t work and we could do better than that.  We did open in May, even after a terrible winter and early spring and we knew we would struggle a little through the first year until the greens had time to develop some maturity.  We struggled a little with some of the outsides……but the greens stayed in great shape – for the most part – throughout a really, really, really wet year. 

I guess what I’m trying to say is…….don’t worry…..we’re good.  Believe me, I’m not normally the calm voice of reason when dealing with bentgrass greens in this area, but we’re in good shape.  I was sleeping like a baby through most of this summer…and that’s saying something.  In a normal summer with our old greens (usually July and August) I didn’t exactly log too many sound asleep hours - waking up in the middle of the night worrying about grass….my wife thinks there’s something wrong with me.

These are normal growing pains that every course goes through, to one extent or another.  I like to tell people it’s like building a new house and installing all new landscaping and sod.  You really don’t get the full effect of the money you put in until a couple years down the road once everything has had a chance to root and mature, but eventually you can see why you spent all that money upfront.  You spent a lot of money on these greens…..but not for the first 4 -5 months….you spent the money for the next 20 years.

If anyone has any questions…pick up the phone and call me or shoot me an email.  I’d be happy to explain what we have going on and even take a quick ride around the course to look at some stuff if you want.

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

Aeration on Greens

Here it is!!!! Finally!  Been waiting for this the last couple months!

Getting a head start on the aeration this evening - not sure what the weather is going to do for the next couple of days and I'm not missing this!

The first aeration on new greens tends to make them a little soft and squishy - limited thatch is the cause of that.  We had a little bit of softness, but they look really good.  They are much firmer than I thought they would after pulling cores.  So far I'm thrilled with how they look after punching them.  They might be extra bumpy the next week or so until they grow through everything - mainly because of this softness.

Spraying

Spraying for that constant fungus management throughout a wet summer in Williamsburg.

Aerifing

We aerified 7& 15 today just to get them out of the way and take advantage of some of the cool weather. They look really good after the topdressing - even after a little indecision at the beginning. After making a pass on 15, it was really soft and squishy. After making an adjustment to the machine and stressing over what would make more damage - either not aerating or continuing - I decided to keep going.

We apply slow release Potassium, Calcium, Magnesium, 007 seed, and an organic app to help the collars and cleanups recover. Aeration is a great time to take advantage of a clear pathway into the soil for our additional nutrients.

We will finish the front 9 greens on Monday and the back 9 on Tuesday. Aeration is a great tool that aids in recovery.

Same spots different time of year.

The area that are struggling just a little bit on 15 are the same spots that we struggled with 11 months ago after seeding. I have to look through some of my construction photos to find that pic of this green all washed out just after seeding in this exact area.

You might have seen us out spraying greens this evening wearing the full spray suits with the respirators. We are making an application of a fungicide that acts almost like a soil sterilant for the diseases that work on the roots. It's a nasty fungicide but works fantastic. I'm not positive that we have some Pythium root rot, it doesn't look like a specific pattern, it's more of a general decline during extended wet periods, but I think we might have something working on the roots on some of the weaker greens. This goes back to the compounding problems. These problems come to light on greens without the new, big fans and limited air movement, coupled with high traffic and no maturity.

The first year or so are rough on new greens that have a lot of play and a limited amount of grow-in. We have definitely experienced that this year - the edges are rough but the majority of the inside of the greens are in great shape.

The greens are actually not playing that bad. They are rolling out nicely and starting to firm up. Look for the speeds and firmness to really pickup through September and beyond.

FYI - I got this picture in before Ryan and Chris could scurry out of the frame. It's funny....they see the phone come out and know exactly where the picture is going.

Flushing

Flushed 5,7,12,13,15 yesterday to try and take advantage of this cool weather.

Fans

13 is a perfect example of how important the fans are. The area right in front of the fan is in great shape, and the further you get away from the fan, the worse things get.

Closure of a few greens

I made the decision to close 5,7and 15 this morning for a little while. I have been trying to avoid doing this, but after looking at them after I flushed them last night...now is the time. They are not in deep trouble, and we are about out of the woods, but they are close enough for me.

We knew this year would be a challenge with the short time frame we rebuilt and grew in all the new greens, but I never thought the first year would be this stressful. Erring on the side of caution is necessary evil until these greens get some maturity to them.

September/October can't come soon enough!!!

Missed that one

We dodged a serious bullet today! I got 3" in about 20 minutes at my house near Colonial Heritage. The place looks like a warzone after the high winds and hardest rain I have ever seen.

I just got back from the course where we received 0.2". Really glad we missed that one!!

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

Greens - Please Read

Our greens have had me searching for solutions the last couple of weeks. You have probably seen us digging around the greens checking drains, making sure that they are all working properly.

The greens have been doing ok - 14 or 15 of them look fantastic but be have about 6 or so that are struggling a little. The majority of the greens look good, just the high traffic areas and outside of the greens are showing stress. Really the only 2 greens that are showing stress in the middle of the greens are 7 and 15.

I got some news this evening that can help me explain some of the problems that we have been having. I took some soil tests last week and just got the results. The nitrates are through the roof. About a month ago I took some samples and we were in great shape with the nitrates. Since that time we stayed pretty wet with all the rain and the temps really spiked - especially the nighttime temps. This kind of weather pattern really encourages the microbial activity to go crazy. Microbes eat which release Nitrogen into the soil - this is sometimes good, and sometimes bad. This coupled with the poultry manure that we used in the mix really caused the nitrates to spike. I have been really shy with the nitrogen applications this year because I had an inclination that this was going to happen eventually - we just didn't expect them to get this high. I have just under 1 lb of nitrogen per 1000sqft down year to date. The average USGA recommendation is about 5 lbs per year. So as you can see, even with the small amount of N that I put down, we have excess amounts of N in the soil from the PPM and all the microbial activity.

A typical question is....why is this a problem? Too much N causes to plant to sprint through the marathon, eventually tiring out. It tends to give the grass a mealy look that is a sign that the plant isn't eating and breathing like it should.

My plan to counteract this problem is flushing these greens more often. Flushing is a tool we use to remove unwanted nutrients and introduce some fresh air to the roots. These nitrates are highly soluble, so a flush is a great tool to lower these nitrate levels. They will build back up quickly, so this is something that I might have to do for the next couple of weeks.

This decline can be noticed on a few greens - greens that have compounding problems. Problems like high traffic, young age, shade and limited air movement, compounded with high nitrates cause some of these areas to decline. Greens that don't have that amount of compounding problems are not as rough (river holes). All the greens are still very young and have not developed any thatch (which acts as a coushin to defend against things like traffic and ball marks) and have had a ton of play on them the last month. This is like sending a high school football player in to the NFL - they are going to get beat up.

All that being said.....we are almost through this summer and I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. Some of these things we did, like the ppm in the mix, wasn't the best thing for the greens in their first year, it was the best decision for the next 20+ years. The sand and mix that we picked was selected with the long term sustainability of the greens in mind.

Money Money Money

And they say money can't buy happiness.......I beg to disagree. This is a picture of the 10th fairway at Caves Valley in Baltimore. It's kind of hard to see but there are fans on the left and right for the fairway......yes.....fans for the fairway. They spend a mint on this course every year and it definitely shows. Absolutely flawless.

This place was truly unbelievable. All walking with caddies and no carts was my favorite part. This instantly went into my top 3 of courses I've played.

Status of the greens

Ok....so next time you are out on the greens look at the greens without looking at the collar or the first 3' of the outside of the green. Most of the greens themselves are looking great, we are just struggling with the collars and the cleanup laps. I have been getting a lot of questions on the status of the greens - How they doing? The areas we are struggling with are areas that I knew we were going to struggle with. They tend to stick out, especially when a lot of these areas are entrance or exit points. So look down....if you see one of these areas when walking off a green, make a mental note to try to avoid these areas with your feet on the next green.

Collars and cleanups are typical problem areas for new greens. That being said...I'm pretty happy with most of the greens....even 5&14 are holding their own. The greens I'm disappointed with are 7,13,15. These greens struggled through this summer a little more that I would have liked to see. Even though some of the greens look rough around the edges, I'm not extremely concerned for their long term health. That is because the centers of the greens look great, just the outsides with high traffic look bad. This tells me that our struggles are more due to a brutal July with a lot of play on new greens, than a larger, more widespread problem.

I wouldn't say the greens are great, wouldn't say that are good, but I would say they are ok and are still rolling decent. I would have to admit that they are far below my expectations from what I had imagined they would look like after this summer, but then again I've been told by more than a few people that often times my expectations are unobtainable. All-in-all not a bad first year for greens that were seeded just 8 months before opening.....not great...but not bad.

We aerify the 19th and 20th of this month and after that we should really be able to take advantage of some good weather and get them sweet. I know patience is not one of my strong suits but I only have to wait a few more weeks to get them going at a pace I can be happy with.

Flushing greens

I decided to flush #5,7,12,13,15 today. Flushing is a tool we use to push out some of the sodium in the soil (which we currently don't have much of) and bring some new, fresh air into the rootzone. These greens are struggling just a hair to recover so I decided to flush them to see if that would help. We did find one drain on 15 that wasn't working properly and fixed it later in the day. If you see the guys digging around the greens the next couple of days, we are checking some of these other drains. A clogged or malfunctioning drain can really put a hurting on a green in the summer. They are really hard to diagnose and find. We found this one, and I think it was the only one that wasn't working, but just to be safe we will be checking some of the others.

Nice!

We could use a few more mornings like this.

Wow

The greens look amazingly good this morning. They are stimping at 9' and have made a huge turnaround in the last few days. This is probably due to the increased fertilizer rates and the nice weather.

We still have a few that we have to baby before really putting the petal to the floor on the green speeds. Most of the greens are ready for that but there are about 5 that I still need to be cautious with. No sense in treating these 5 differently at this point and having inconsistency from green to green.