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.

Liquid green.

We are trying a pigment on the fairways to make them look green longer into the winter. They are dormant for the most part, but we finished spraying them today to give them that green look. I like the results so far.

Greens

We verticut and topdressed greens on Monday. They look good and this will help to firm them up.

Greens

The greens have been rolling fantastic the last few weeks. Now that they have completely filled in on the edges, we started using a more aggressive growth regulator. This regulator keeps the speeds more consistent and is also used to prevent any poa germination on greens.

They are actually higher in height than they were a month ago. I am going to raise them again on Monday to make sure they don't get too fast.

You can see in the pics the darker green in the center of the green and the squared off areas near the edges that are a different color. We cut off the sprayer before it gets to the cleanup lap on the green and the Bermuda collar. This is to keep the edges growing and recovering, and also keep the regulator off the Bermuda. I think one of the main problems that all these golf courses in the area have been having in the spring with their bermudagrass collars is the overspray from growth regulators coupled with traffic (mowers). If we can eliminate one of the problems, which we try to do with the growth regulators, hopefully it won't be as severe in the spring.

The only disadvantage of doing this is the non-uniform color throughout the green. I think it's an acceptable trade off if we can keep the cleanup and the collar healthy throughout the year.

Good-by bermuda

We have had 2 good frosts on the Bermuda already. Kiss it goodby. The rough will be completely dormant in 2 weeks and the short grass will hold on a little longer but not much. We are going to spray fairways and add a pigment in the tank. This will give them some artificial color longer into the winter.