Storm cleanup

We finally got all of the priority trees cleaned off the golf course. All the guys worked a 14 hr day today to get through everything. Not exactly the Friday afternoon we all planed on but we got it done.  There are still some trees out there that we have to cleanup, but all the trees that fell on fairways, bunkers, or play areas are cleaned up.  Lets hope that our weather returns to normal soon.

We lost 9 monster trees and about 15 other normal to small trees.  One of the trees that we lost was along the wood line to the left of 15 blue tee was the oldest tree we had on the golf course.  It was a huge oak that was really healthy!

I'll post some pics on the storm damage.

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

We are working on getting the greens rolling fast again after all this rain and humidity. We double cut and rolled yesterday which helped out a lot. I will say it again, this 007 is amazing. It has got really thick and full since the temps have gotten up there. Usually bentgrass runs and hides when the temps and humidity gets this high. They really need to be verticutted and lightly topdressed. We can't do that today because of the hot weather. I don't want to stress them out, so we will wait until Monday to do this.

Course conditions

It's been a rough last couple of days for the golf course. We got almost 9" of rain Friday and Saturday. We are working on getting bunkers fixed and we started mowing grass today. It's going to be all we have this week just to get all the bunkers fixed and grass mown out. It will be especially difficult if it rains again and we lost most of Monday due to the William and Mary Pro-Am. Monday is the day we get a good portion of our mowing done.

The greens are pretty slow from all the rain and humid weather. They are growing a lot everyday which doesn't help speeds. I am spraying them today with a fungicide (much needed with all the rain and humid weather) and a growth regulator. This 007 is really amazing - I am still trying to figure out a good amount of growth regulators to put on them to keep them from growing so much. I am getting into some very high rates, and the 007 just hogs right through it. It seems to be a very tough grass, even with the higher temps. We will get them figured out soon though. It's been a difficult spring for most guys with greens speeds - the relatively mild, wet weather is perfect for bentgrass to flush with growth - they do look good though.

Raking Bunkers

Here is a picture of the fwy bunker on 11 this afternoon. There was no effort made to take the bunker after 3 shots. It is important to leave the course better that you found it. This is especially frustrating because we don't have enough guys to rake bunkers in the morning. We are trying to get caught up on all the mowing after all the rain on Monday and all the expected rain on Friday. We also have to spray the fairways in the morning.

Usually we rake bunkers every morning, but occasionally when I don't have enough guys to get everything done that we need to get done, raking bunkers is the first thing to go.

We spent just under $300K of your membership dollars on these bunkers. Please make sure to put forth the effort to keep them raked for the group behind you.

Drainage around 11 green

Here is a picture of the right side of 11 green. This has been staying real wet lately and I think there might be a cut drain in here from construction. I am sure that the green is draining
but one of the old Outfalls from the old greens might be backing up this low area. It's a pretty easy fix, we just need to put some dig it up and put some new drainage in there. We are going to try to get that done sometime next week.

Topdressing around greens

Here is a picture of the topdressing that we did around the greens before aerating. We are working on getting these collars good and the transitions from apron to the collar seamless and smooth.

I am going to continue to really push these areas for the next couple of weeks and see how they recover. Whatever hasn't recovered by that time we will sod.

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.