Paint

The paint lioks good on the tees and fairways. It's been a constant project the last week to get everything painted. It looks a lot better after a few days on the ground and a mow to clean everything up. 

It's still really moist out there. I've noticed that a lot of the morning moisture on the roads is still there late into the afternoon in the shaded areas. This is part of the reason that things are slow to dry down. The humidity and limited daylight keeps drying time at a crawl. 

Course is looking good with this drier weather. We have limited staff this time of year, but it's nice to have some dry weather, allowing us to get some much needed work completed. 

Brent Graham, CGCS

Two Rivers Country Club

1950 Two Rivers Rd 

Williamsburg, VA 23188

Office: 757-258-4606

Leaves

Working on leaves today. It's finally dry enough to get the blowers out there in full force. 

Hopefully we can finish getting the place cleaned up tomorrow. 

Brent Graham, CGCS

Two Rivers Country Club

1950 Two Rivers Rd 

Williamsburg, VA 23188

Office: 757-258-4606

Signs

Some times I wonder why we even bother putting out signs to divert traffic around wet areas. #commonsense

Brent Graham, CGCS

Two Rivers Country Club

1950 Two Rivers Rd 

Williamsburg, VA 23188

Office: 757-258-4606

Course conditions

We got another 2" of rain yesterday. The course is really wet. We are unable to get equipment out on the course for leaf cleanup and bunker work. We fixed a lot of the washout today by hand and once it dries down a little more we will get the bunkers raked. It's going to be a little while before we can get tractors out there to blow leaves. 

This recent warmer weather has really got the greens growing. We verticut on monday and have been mowing everyday, but they are slower from the excess growth and wet conditions. I backed off the growth regulators for a week or so to thicken them up.  It worked, but letting the regulators wear off results is slower greens from the additional growth. We sprayed on Monday, so the growth should start slowing down by the end of the week. This combined with drier weather should start to speed them up. 

Brent Graham, CGCS

Two Rivers Country Club

1950 Two Rivers Rd 

Williamsburg, VA 23188

Office: 757-258-4606

Re: Pc drainage

That's great news! Let me know when I need to pack up and head back.

Nick Willis
Turf Dynamics Inc.
864.420.9868

> On Nov 6, 2015, at 7:34 AM, Brent Graham <Bgraham@tworiversclub.com> wrote:
>
> To the right of the cart sign is an area that we installed pc drainage and the left side of the sign has nothing. You can see all the mud and worm castings in the area without drainage and the area with the drainage is pretty healthy bermudagrass.
>
>
>
> Brent Graham, CGCS
> Two Rivers Country Club
> 1950 Two Rivers Rd
> Williamsburg, VA 23188
> Office: 757-258-4606
> <20151106_072702_resized.jpg>

Pc drainage

To the right of the cart sign is an area that we installed pc drainage and the left side of the sign has nothing. You can see all the mud and worm castings in the area without drainage and the area with the drainage is pretty healthy bermudagrass. 

Brent Graham, CGCS

Two Rivers Country Club

1950 Two Rivers Rd 

Williamsburg, VA 23188

Office: 757-258-4606

Tree work

Working on some tree removal to try and get some more sunlight on 2 green. Bentgrass...especially 007 doesn't like shade.  

Brent Graham, CGCS

Two Rivers Country Club

1950 Two Rivers Rd 

Williamsburg, VA 23188

Office: 757-258-4606

Frost

Its a little early for frost, but today was our first frost. This will really shut down the bermuda. The rough will go first and the fairways will hold on for a while. We will be making the first paint application an a few weeks. 

Brent Graham, CGCS

Two Rivers Country Club

1950 Two Rivers Rd 

Williamsburg, VA 23188

Office: 757-258-4606

Back to business

We mowed greens, the verticut, and mowed a second time. This cleaned up the greens nicely. 

We were also working on bunkers. It was too wet to get the machines in them, so we did them by hand.  They look great...I wish we had the labor resourses to hand rake everyday. With the size of our bunkers....this would take a lot of resourses. 

Brent Graham, CGCS

Two Rivers Country Club

1950 Two Rivers Rd 

Williamsburg, VA 23188

Office: 757-258-4606

Rain

I think the rain should be gone for a while....thankfully. We got about 6" total on the last week or so. 

We are working on getting the place cleaned up and back to normal. 

Brent Graham, CGCS

Two Rivers Country Club

1950 Two Rivers Rd 

Williamsburg, VA 23188

Office: 757-258-4606

Finished product

Here is what the greens look like today. I wantes to get these done before all the expested rain this week. 

Brent Graham, CGCS

Two Rivers Country Club

1950 Two Rivers Rd 

Williamsburg, VA 23188

Office: 757-258-4606

Topdressing and aeration

We lightly topdressed and punched greens with a solid knofe tine yesterday. I wanted to open them up to help get some fresh air in the soil profile to help new root development. 

We mowed and rolled today and they are rolling really good. The topdressing will help with the ballmarks and helps keep the greens smooth and fast. 

Brent Graham, CGCS

Two Rivers Country Club

1950 Two Rivers Rd 

Williamsburg, VA 23188

Office: 757-258-4606

8 green at these speeds

https://youtu.be/TPaEYFrpM1c

Brent Graham, CGCS

Two Rivers Country Club

1950 Two Rivers Rd 

Williamsburg, VA 23188

Office: 757-258-4606

Perfect fast

https://youtu.be/ldJM8KVSdd0

Brent Graham, CGCS

Two Rivers Country Club

1950 Two Rivers Rd 

Williamsburg, VA 23188

Office: 757-258-4606

Brent Graham, CGCS

Two Rivers Country Club

1950 Two Rivers Rd 

Williamsburg, VA 23188

Office: 757-258-4606

Member guest greens

The greens are rolling 13.5' this am. This is major championship speed. The greens really hit hard yesterday. The wind dried them out, resulting in some wilty areas. Hard, but still receptive...and extremely fast. Would be a perfect combination if it wasn't for the weather forcast. 

Brent Graham, CGCS

Two Rivers Country Club

1950 Two Rivers Rd 

Williamsburg, VA 23188

Office: 757-258-4606

Irrigation

We have been running some irrigation the last few mornings. We have been watering in a fungicide for spring dead spot and a pre emergent for winter weeds. 

Brent Graham, CGCS

Two Rivers Country Club

1950 Two Rivers Rd 

Williamsburg, VA 23188

Office: 757-258-4606

Drain

Finished a quick drain on 14. Just trying to get all the wet areas on that hole. 

Brent Graham, CGCS

Two Rivers Country Club

1950 Two Rivers Rd 

Williamsburg, VA 23188

Office: 757-258-4606

September

This is the September I like. So far it has been extremely hot and humid, but it looks like our break is here. Low temps in the 50's and 60's are prime for new root development on the greens. 

Brent Graham, CGCS

Two Rivers Country Club

1950 Two Rivers Rd 

Williamsburg, VA 23188

Office: 757-258-4606

Man killing work

The crew worked till dark today. We finished all the bunkers except #9, which we will get in the morning. These bunkers were destroyed and the guys knocked them out. I should go to Plaza Azteca and get them some gift cards. I couldn't imigane doing this job without those guys. Not a whole lot of people that would do that kind of work for 13 hours in a day.  

Brent Graham, CGCS

Two Rivers Country Club

1950 Two Rivers Rd 

Williamsburg, VA 23188

Office: 757-258-4606

Bunkers

To say the bunkers washed yesterday would be a mild understatement.  They are destroyed. It took 7 guys all morning to get through 8 holes. 

We are getting ready to go back out this evening to mow greens and fix bunkers, getting ready for club championship tomorrow. 

We needed the rain badly but not 1.75" in 30 minutes. It was a perfect rain for the greens though. Flushed them with some clean, non-sodium water. At this point we'll take it any way we can get it. 

Brent Graham, CGCS

Two Rivers Country Club

1950 Two Rivers Rd 

Williamsburg, VA 23188

Office: 757-258-4606

Heat

What is wrong with September?  Dont like this. 

Brent Graham, CGCS

Two Rivers Country Club

1950 Two Rivers Rd 

Williamsburg, VA 23188

Office: 757-258-4606

High and dry

Cart path edges

Working on a few improvements out there. These pavers look great in turns in the paths where carts cut the corners. Lot of work but look awesome.

Brent Graham, CGCS

Two Rivers Country Club

1950 Two Rivers Rd 

Williamsburg, VA 23188

Office: 757-258-4606

Dry

It's getting really dry out here. The edges are smoked...but at least the fairways are really firm. Plenty of ball roll out there. 

Brent Graham, CGCS

Two Rivers Country Club

1950 Two Rivers Rd 

Williamsburg, VA 23188

Office: 757-258-4606

That white stuff around greens

I made an application of a herbicide to try and clean up some of the edges of the greens. This time of year the bermuda grass tends to creep into the greens. This herbicide is hreat...smokes the bermuda and doesnt touch the bentgrass. The only bad part is that the white bermuda sticks out like a sore thumb. 

Brent Graham, CGCS

Two Rivers Country Club

1950 Two Rivers Rd 

Williamsburg, VA 23188

Office: 757-258-4606

Greens

The greens look kind of beat up now that they have grown through the sand. They are also off of growth regulation to try and have some chance of recovery by club championship.  They are starting to grow like crazy. We mowed and rolled yesterday afternoon once I could see that they were getting long on our closed day. 

Brent Graham, CGCS

Two Rivers Country Club

1950 Two Rivers Rd 

Williamsburg, VA 23188

Office: 757-258-4606

Well

The well has been running for about 4 straight days. It's amazing how dry it's gotten so quickly. Most of June and July we were soaked and it's like it just shuts off in August. 

Along with the well comes problems with sodium in greens. We increase our calcium inputs to help offset the impact from the sodium. We also need to make an application to Fairways. I'm going to try and get 1000 lb per acre of gypsum down this fall on tees and Fairways this fall. 

Brent Graham, CGCS

Two Rivers Country Club

1950 Two Rivers Rd 

Williamsburg, VA 23188

Office: 757-258-4606

Punching greens

We started areifying greens this evening. I wanted to get a head start because it looks like it might get pretty warm tomorrow. We will do a few in the morning, stop before it gets too hot, then finish up on Tuesday. So far so good. They look ok. This is the first time we have pulled a core in a year. I wanted to develop some more thatch so the greens could withstand traffic a little better.  It worked but they were to the point or really needing to be opened up. 

A few of the greens were a little squirly after the areation (5, 2) but should be fine after a few rolls. We verticut, mowed, heavily top dressed, core aerified, rolled, brushed, and fertilized. The holes filled in nicely. 

This is always the most anticipated (and stressful) aeration.  It marks the end of a summer and signals the start of a great fall growing season. The August aeration is by far the most stressful for me because the greens are at their weakest after a full summer.  You have to be careful with how much you beat them up. The root depth is shallow this time of year, but the aeration along with cooler nighttime temps helps with new root initiation. 

Brent Graham, CGCS

Two Rivers Country Club

1950 Two Rivers Rd 

Williamsburg, VA 23188

Office: 757-258-4606

Green speed

Th Greens are a lot slower today. We have a 9am 18-hole shotgun this morning. Didn't have time to roll behind the mowers and took a day off from mowing yesterday. We are grooming the last few mows which stands the grass up before the mowers go over them. Initially this tends to slow the speeds a little, but will actually help long term speeds.  

Also we sprayed a fungicide that we had to water in yesterday...so that little extra water tends to slow them down as well. 

All in all it might be a good day to take it easy on them. We will do about 150 rounds today. 

Brent Graham, CGCS

Two Rivers Country Club

1950 Two Rivers Rd 

Williamsburg, VA 23188

Office: 757-258-4606

Greens

It's been getting dry. The greens speed has really picked up with some drier weather. Friday they were really fast, and even after a water Friday and Saturday night, they were still keeping their speed. 

The Bermuda is getting really dry. Been watering it a little bit, but keeping it on the dry side to increase roll. Things are coming together. I love when this course gets dry......it plays so much better.

Brent Graham, CGCS

Two Rivers Country Club

1950 Two Rivers Rd 

Williamsburg, VA 23188

Office: 757-258-4606

Soil samples

Taking some water and soil samples today. Monitoring soil nutrient levels is important to know where you are, and where you need to go. 

Brent Graham, CGCS

Two Rivers Country Club

1950 Two Rivers Rd 

Williamsburg, VA 23188

Office: 757-258-4606

Greens and rain

We got .3" of rain this morning before mowing. It then got sunny and kind of hot. They were kind of wet, followed by a full day of play really beat them up. I'm glad we just punched some holes in them and sprayed fungicide on Monday. This will help prevent any algae from developing.  

If this was in July, a day like this would really have me worried. Thank goodness it's the middle of August and temps are not really that high.  Still... the roots are as short as they have been all year, so you still have to do everything you can to help protect them with these type of environmental conditions along with this amount of play. 

We really need to aerify greens , remove some of that organic in the top inch and replace it with some fresh sand. This will help develop some new roots and improve overall plant heath. 

Greens are still in pretty good shape with ball roll remaining it the 10' area. I've been really happy with the consistency of ball roll throughout the summer. 

Brent Graham, CGCS

Two Rivers Country Club

1950 Two Rivers Rd 

Williamsburg, VA 23188

Office: 757-258-4606

Greens

We double cut greens this morning. That's why they were a hair faster than yesterday even after the rain. 

These cooler temps for a few days are a welcome sight. It's not been a terrible summer but it hasn't been that cool either. 

This is the time of year when all the guys get a little irritable. Everyone starts hitting that end of the summer wall.  Those 11-12 hr days handwatering the the afternoons get old the 2nd month in. 

September and October are extremely busy months with tournaments but they are still a welcome arrival because they come with some cooler temps. I kind of like the tournament season because you can focus on really getting the golf course as good as it can be without loosing sleep at night fretting over greens and the weather. 

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

Here we go

I just hope the bunkers don't wash out. Greens are already a little wet from the 0.5" last night but nothing you can really do about that. The bermuda rough could use a little water. 

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

Rough

We lowered rough a 1/4" (one notch on the mowers) to try and make the rough a little less tough. It's still scalping a little and making a mess, but should.help a little. 

Tomorrow we are going to start making growth regulator applications in the rough. This isn't something we usually do...but anything to help. The wet June and July has gotten this stuff really, really thick. One growth regulator application should get us through August, which is usually the toughest month to keep up with rough. 

With the exception of the rough, the rest of the course looks pretty good. Greens are great!

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

Dry in a hurry

It's amazing how fast things dry out this time of year. I ran over 600,000 gal of water on the course last night. 

I'm sure many of you have seen us out there handwatering greens.  The greens are in really good shape, you just have to stay on them this time of year.  The front of 5 is struggling a little but it's a small fraction of what we usually see on that green every year.  The roots are as short as they will get all year long, so they can go from fine to wilting in a heartbeat. Especially with some heat and lower humidity like we had yesterday. 

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

Weather

Gonna be pretty brutal the next couple of days but should start to cool off in August....I hope. 

The greens are in really good shape for this time of year. We should start to develop some new roots with cooler night time temps that August should bring and with that firmness will start to increase. 

Almost out of the tunnel. Just have to take it easy on them the next couple of days. 

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

Greens

The greens are in really good shape for the end of July. There are a few thin areas in the typical locations (front of 5, back of 2, front of 13) but a fraction of the problems that we normally see this time of year. I think you can attribute this to the greens finally having some maturity to them and the ability to wistand traffic stress. 

It's amazing the difference between the new greens versus the old. We have only had about a week and a half of the entire year where they have been rolling less than a 10. Our old greens were routinely a 8-9 throughout the summer. With proper construction and a new grass they have the ability to recover from stress with some food and some favorable weather. If the old greens got dinged up from stress or weather they wouldn't recover until night time temps were consistently in the 60's every night (usually September).

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

Bunkers

Working in tweaking some sand depths. Very labor intensive. We have to go out and probe, then mark areas to work on. The bunkers are pretty close.  There are just a few small areas on each bunker. 

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