Mowing

Yesterday and today it has dried out enough to get all the short grass mowed. The rough is going to be the challenge. With all the rain early in the week, then 4th of July preparations, and an 18 hole shotgun on Friday, it's a lost cause until this weekend. I was hoping to wait until Monday - working the guys full days on the weekend really sends my labor through the roof, but I don't think I have an option this weekend.

Once we do mow it is going to make an absolute mess. I have raised the rough mowers 1/2" to compensate for the growth and hopefully decrease the amount of scalping and clippings. After we get it mown I will lower it back down a 1/4". Throughout the season we have to gradually increase the length of the rough to compensate for growth, density, and growth characteristics later in the year. I start the rough out at just above an inch and usually by the end of the year it will be at 1.5-1.75". I try to keep it as short as possible as long as I can.

Rain & fungus.

Hopefully the rain will stop for a little while. It doesn't look like we will be able to mow rough this week. That will make a mess of the rough next week once we are able to mow.

I hope everyone has their fungicide down on their lawns. With this incredible amount of rain and the temps that we have coming in next week, brown patch is about to go crazy. If you don't have it down and need some, we have it at the shop for sale.

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

Bunkers

My boys raking bunkers+edges to get ready for play on Tuesday. We had some washout, which made bunkers a pretty hard job this morning.

The amigos don't complain, they just go out there and hump it in the hot, humid weather - no questions asked. I can never give them enough hours or work - gotta love that dedication. I love those guys. They truly take the course to another level.

Follow up pic of spraying greens.

Surrounds and growth regulators

We have been struggling with growing in the Bermuda around greens for a couple of different reasons, one of which includes the higher rates of growth regulators that the new greens require. The new sod around the greens doesn't handle the traffic and growth regulators as well as established grass.

We have been sodding the worst areas - which is turning out really nicely. This picture shows the impact of the growth regulators on the Bermuda grass. The light squares are the overspray of the growth regulators off the greens.

We have started a different spray approach on the greens. We started cutting the sprayer off early so no over spray goes onto the Bermuda. The down side to this is that not all the green gets sprayed, and most of the time we mix that growth regulator with a fungicide. Now with this approach we have to separate the applications into two separate sprays. Not real fun when we are spraying greens by hand. It is a hot, sweaty, dirty, nasty job that we now have an additional time in a two week period, but if it helps bring back these surrounds it will be worth it.

I will follow this post with another pic of Garrison and Mike spraying greens without any spray going into the Bermuda.

Venting greens...again

Here is a pic of us venting greens again. In the background Ryan is setting up the Subair to suck some of the moisture out if the green. The venting helps the greens to breathe with all this rain we have been getting.

Rain followed by hot, humid weather in this area is a worst cast scenario for guys growing bentgrass in the Mid-Atlantic in the summer.

In June we got 14" of rain, not counting what we 2.5" we got the last couple days. With the monthly averages for our area this amount of rain will carry us through the end of September. Food for thought.

Rain

It's pouring outside right now and it's Monday. No Bueno. Mondays are critical to us getting all the mowing and maintenance done for the week. When we loose Mondays or even portions of Mondays, it really puts us behind for the rest of the week.

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