Weeds

This has been the worst year for weeds in quite some time. We almost finished spraying rough today. Poa and nutsedge should start dyeing soon. 

Also sprayed fairways today with growth regulator. The course is really starting to look good. The bermuda is finally starting to fill out and greens are fantastic. 

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

Pollination plot

We planted a pollination plot in the no mow on 8. It's starting to look pretty good. I was a little skeptical at first but Lynda talked me into it. Just one example of how golf courses are good for the environment....I have many more...just ask some time. 

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 Speed

Greens were a little stick the last few days. They are still real smooth,
but we have lost some speed. The growth regulator is wearing off and we are
making a spray application today.

They could use another topdressing....which is on aeration schedule for
Monday. We will do a light verticutting, aeration and topdressing on
Monday. Not pulling any cores....so they should recover pretty quick.

Winterkill

We have aerated and fertilized all the thin areas still left on fairways.
Right of #5 is the worst. We will probably have to sod a lot of this. I'm
going to give it another week or so to see what comes back, but some of it
is most certainly gone. The shaded fairways got hit the worst. 5 is the
worst, and 11 is a little slow to fill in...but that's the nature of the
beast. It should get kicking with these higher temps on a regular basis.
I'm just glad most of the golf course was relatively unaffected. Some of
the tee tops are still a little thin and there is some spring dead spot left
to fill in, but for the most part I think we got pretty lucky.

Sod and Irrigation

These are two good examples on #5 of the have and the have not's. The one
pic with good turf has updated perimeter irrigation and the other pic does
not. Irrigation makes a huge difference when trying to maintain these high
traffic pinch points around the course. The areas that have sufficient
irrigation do well, and those that don't, struggle to survive.

Equipment training and short game

In Alabama for 3 days for John Deere training on some of the new equipment we bought this year. Looking at a lot of the new equipment and how it can improve our current condition and save us some capital dollars. 

They had this great short game facility outside the cottages. Something like this would be perfect at TRCC and relatively inexpensive to create. 

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

Sod work

We finished the front white tee on 4 today. It looks really good. 

I have 5 more pallets of sod coming on Tuesday. It's still early, and some of these areas around greens would probably come back but I'm fairly certain that bermuda sod is going to be imposible to find in the next month or so. Most of the Carolinas and spots in Virginia Beach and Richmond are destroyed with winterkill, and the available sod in the Mid-Atlantic is going to be gobbled up quickly. I figure I can put some in the worst areas around greens and put any extra on some of the shaded areas on fairways that lost some grass (5,14)....either way, I'm going to get it while I still can. 

We got really lucky with winterkill this year. A lot of courses got hit pretty hard, but it looks like our swamp-like soils helped to keep things from drying out and dieing from the extreme lows. It's not all bad having soil you can make clay pots with.....

The fairways are looking really good and full. We made the first application of growth regulator today. Everything is starting to fill out and get defined...it's go time. 

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

Spraying

Sprayed greens yesterday. Getting to be that time of year. This spray included some foliar fert, fungicide, and two different growth regulators. 

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

Summer

So much for spring. 94 tomorrow, little bit of a break for a few days and then next week looks hot again. I'm not ready for this yet....but the bermuda grass is. 

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

4 white tee

We finished leveling the white tee on 4. Just waiting for sod now. It looks good. 

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

Two ways to kill bermuda

It's been a rough winter for the second year in a row. The bermuda throughout Virginia and the Carolinas has been hit pretty hard by this cold spell. I'm hearing more and more stories every day about the turf loss in the area due to winterkill. We have some select areas but just a fraction of what a lot of other courses have. Believe it or not, I would attribute this to our clay soils that hold so much water in the winter, and our common bermuda contamination in the fairways. The common seems like it doesn't get hit as hard as the 419, and the clay soils prevent a dry down. A lot of areas and courses with a sand base are decimated with winterkill. You can see this in our tees - they are much further behind the rest of the course - and they are sand based. 

The recent cold mornings haven't helped anything either. The bermuda is just sitting there until we get some heat.  Looks like next week we'll get some growing weather to get things rolling. We just finished a fertilizer application on the fairways before the rains on friday...so when it starts warming up this weekend, there is some added Nitrogen to get these things bumping. 

Shouldn't be long now. 

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