Hello Fall!

I wanted to take a few minutes to update the membership on the last couple of weeks here in Golf Maintenance.  The week of the 19^th it seemed like it rained every day.  We ended up with close to 6.5 inches of rain.  Compared to a lot of other courses in Hampton Roads it was barely a sprinkle.  Some golf courses in the Virginia Beach and Chesapeake area took 12-15 inches!!  Those courses were closed multiple days and one still has not completely opened back up.  The rain here filled the lakes back up and brought our month long drought to an end.  On the down side we went 7 days without mowing anything except greens.  When we finally got back out on Monday we bailed hay everywhere.  The pictures show what it looked like before the turbine blowers came through to clean up.  This week we have dodged the rain and are back on a regular mowing program.  The course looks great after being cut a couple of times.  We skipped edging bunkers last week but they now have a razor sharp edge on them.

We did miss two days on greens mowing last week which allowed the plants to get tall and fat when added to all of the rain.  We double cut them on Thursday and Friday of last week and have mowed them every day since.  This week we lowered the height on the mowers and changed out the front roller to a more aggressive style so we can get rid of all of the fat plants.  Consequently greens are rolling great again and getting back to our normal speeds.  Hopefully fall will arrive soon with some cooler nighttime temperatures and pleasant afternoons!

August 23 Update

As the end of summer approaches it seems like a good time to reflect back on our season.  On a positive note the Bermuda was awesome once it got going.  We are growing grass in areas that have been thin or were dirt for a long time.  The sod work on the range, number 5 and number 6 looks awesome.  The other thin areas on the course are much smaller than last year.  Quality on the fairways has been good with a much farther ball roll.  We have raised the height just a little this week to prevent scalping.  The rough is also very thick and is being mowed at least twice a week.  Even on the second pass after only 2 or 3 days we are having to blow off the clippings everywhere we cut.  We have held the height the same all year long, but it is playing tough right now due to the density.

The greens have been a struggle for us this July and August.  Early wet weather in May and June led to some disease problems, anthracnose in particular.  This is not a common disease of bentgrass, but is a difficult one to get rid of once you have it.  The extreme heat followed up in the last couple weeks of June causing some turf loss due to direct heat kill as well as some loss due to wilt.  The putting green in particular dried out on a hot windy day, and even though we got water on it that day, it never recovered.  The roots on that green are never good and the turf just wasn’t strong enough to recover in the poor location where it sits.  We did vent greens on a frequent basis, we did adjust fertility, growth regulator and fungicide applications for the weather.  We did raise the mowing height on the greens on July 25^th, in hindsight maybe sooner might have helped some?  No way to say for sure.  We were not seeing any damage from the mowers even when we raised the height.  Going into next year we will make some changes to our programs in the event that mother nature hits us again with a once a decade heat wave.

Good news is that September aeration is right around the corner.  The cooler weather this week has helped tremendously in just a couple of days and the greens are already happier.  Hopefully next year we won’t have as many dog days of summer.

USGA On Site Visit Report

The USGA Green Section came to visit the JRCC Golf Course on Tuesday, July 12, 2016. Below is the entire report from their visit!

 

Breathtaking...

If these pictures don't make you want to play, you don't like golf!!

Happy Fourth of July!

It finally feels like summer around here.  Fairways are looking awesome, roughs have filled in and greens are still doing great.  This week we ran the verticutters Monday on all of the fairways.  We did this to promote lateral growth as well as new growth in an effort to have denser, finer leafed grass. Monday we also ran the aerator on the greens.  We used solid tines to poke a 1/4'” hole in the turf so we can get some air down into the root zone.  We will continue this process through the summer months to keep the greens healthy.  

This week we also worked on the bunkers on 8 and 17 by adding new sand to the greenside bunkers.  Again, this is a short term fix until we have a chance to address the problem with the liners coming up.  All in all the course looks great and I am finally starting to be pleased with the playing conditions.  Happy Fourth of July!!!

Tennis Project Update

The Tennis Project is rolling along.  The tree stumps have all been removed and the new access road for maintenance has been graded and filled with gravel.  The paving work will not be done until the new structure is up and completed in the fall.

We got out and did some topdressing on the newly sodded areas in the fairways alng with a few of the thinner areas.  All in all the grass is growing great and filling in nicely.  We did the greenside bunkers on 14 this week with new sand and will continue to work on the rest.

Course is really starting to look beautiful, here is a shot of number 2.

A busy week!

It has been a VERY busy week here on the golf course.  We put down a truckload of sod on Monday on holes 6, 14, 18 , 9 and the practice tee.  We also took some of the old material from the areas we prepped and filled some low spots at the driving range.  There was plenty of Bermuda in those spoils so hopefully they will fill in the thin spots at the range.  The rest of the fairways continue to improve quickly.

We started adding sand to the greenside bunkers today beginning with number 7 and 13.  As time permits we will pick up a few bunkers at a time until all of the greenside bunkers are playing more consistently and the liner is no longer showing.  The new sand will play softer than the old until it has been in a while.  Watch out for buried lies!

The tennis structure project has also begun with the removal of a few trees.  We had to modify the holes on 2 and 4.  Looks like the ladies and seniors enjoyed #4 as a really short par 4!

Rain, Rain, Go away!

Well the heat is finally here, and it has quit raining for now!!  I wanted to take this opportunity to update the members on the status of our bermudagrass, in particular the shady holes.  The fairways on some of the shadier holes have experienced some winter kill, particularly in the heavy shade and wet areas.  With the erratic spring this year (green up in March, frost again in May, and cooler temperatures throughout the first of June) we have a few areas that will need to be re-grassed.  The areas we will be sodding include 6, 14, 18, and the practice tee.  The sod will be here the beginning of next week and will take care of the worst of our problems.  Most of these areas would have grown back eventually, but we did not want to wait another month for that to happen.  Other areas are filling in rapidly and we should be a 100% in a few weeks.  

Sunny fairways look awesome and are playing great!!  Greens have recovered nicely from aeration and should be back in prime form next week.  The bunkers are another area of concern right now and we have ordered multiple truckloads of sand to add in the green side bunkers to help with the consistency.  This is a short term fix but will help to get us through until we can address the problems with the bunker liner degrading and starting to fail.  It has been a slow spring here at James River, but we are looking forward to an awesome summer!!

April 1 Update!

I love spring time on the golf course.  As we approach the date for our first greens aeration it is a great time to lower the height on the greens mowers without doing any damage.  This is probably as firm as they will be all season.  We have already put out 5 topdressing applications in an effort to keep greens smooth and dilute thatch.

 

 

 

I am sure many of you have noticed the bermudagrasss starting to green up around the course.  The Northbridge sod that was installed around the greens was the first to green up, way ahead of the Celebration growing in the same areas.  We are mowing the fairways at .400 of an inch and will be verti-cutting soon to get that grass going.

 

We have done our plantings around the drinker houses with ornamental grasses and the rest of the spring plants are putting on quite a show!

March 10, 2016 Update

I am very excited to kick off another golf season here at James River Country Club!  Winter was very productive with new drinker houses (that were built on site) being installed on the golf course. All course accessories were re-furbished, new drainage installed, and we continued work on amending the soil in the putting greens. There was a big push to keep the property leaf and debris free using the new vacuum.

As warmer temperatures arrive, our fairways are at the top of the list for spring maintenance.  This year we are going to start the season at a lower mowing height, really trying to thin out a lot of the thatch and older plants.  Less aggressive thatch maintenance programs in the past have left the fairways spongy. This leads to less healthier turf, lots of grain to hit into with approach shots, and decreased ball roll.  The shallow tine aeration we did last year was a start, but not nearly enough.

The USGA regional agronomist agreed that mowing as low as possible to start the season and then coming back with vertical mowing will improve both the health and play-ability of the turf.  We will also be on a top dressing program to help with thatch management, smooth out the fairways, dry up the tops, and increase ball roll off of the tee.

The only down side to this process will be some really tight lies in the beginning of the season along with some discolored grass for short periods of time.  Hopefully an extra 10-20 yards off of the tee will help to make up for it!