Welcome Rob Wilmans!

Rob Wilmans joined us at the end of January 2015 as the new Greens Superintendent for James River Country Club! Rob grew up in Northern Virginia, and attended college at Villanova University. He achieved his Bachelor's Degree here before going back to school. Rob then attended Virginia Tech to get his Associate Degree in Turf and Landscape Management. After graduation, he worked on different golf courses before being offered Assistant Superintendent at Elizabeth Manor Golf and Country Club in Portsmouth, VA in 1995. In 1996, he moved up to the Superintendent position where he stayed until arriving at James River Country Club. Rob currently lives in Chesapeake, and has been married to his wife Jamie for two years.

Here is an update from Rob after this first month with us.

I have been on property for just over a month now, and unfortunately have been under snow for over two weeks of it!

Prior to the snow the staff did a great job of getting the leaves off the course and getting all of the beds pruned and ready for mulch.  The clubhouse front entrance has already been mulched and looks great!

Since we have had a lot of time indoors, we have been working on improving the maintenance building. "Small" things like painting and adding blinds goes a long way! Along with that, we have been clearing out trash, organizing items, and purchasing any tools/ items we will need for this coming spring. The staff has also been refurbishing course accessories such as ball washers and benches.  

Also new the James River staff is Ruby, my American Bulldog puppy. She will be assisting in goose abatement once she gets older. Last but not least, I want to thank the membership for trusting me with your course. I look forward to fantastic season!

Winter Projects

As we prepare for the 2015 golf season, the maintenance department is busy finalizing leaf removal and finishing the drainage projects. Below are pictures of a French drain being dug on hole #7. 

Getting ready to lay drains

Markings on #9 for work to be done next 

You may also notice markings on #11 which is planned to be completed this month.

Golf Course Winter Project Update

With the decided shift in the weather, golf course maintenance activities have shifted from cutting fairways to blowing leaves and cleaning up storm debris. The biggest impediment to this process is wet weather.  Since fairways do not dry as fast this time of year, it is difficult to keep up with leaf removal. Everyone knows tractors on the fairways are not a good thing, so we appreciate your patience. Feel free to use the “leaf rule” to speed up play.

The greens continue to grow over the winter and we are monitoring places on the greens that have had damage prior to the project.  Some of these areas are being allowed to grow in and other areas have been plugged.  This healing process will continue into the spring.  You might notice different mowing patterns on the greens.  Normally the operator mows in a straight line and goes off the green to turn the mower.  Because all the areas off the greens had new Bermuda grass sod that required a lot of water, the operators have mowed the greens in a circle (to stay on the green) rather than back and forth. 

This mowing pattern has resulted in some scalping, which will heal.  At this point the Bermuda grass has become dormant and the green irrigation system has been turned off.  As the surrounds dry out the operators will return to normal mowing patterns.  

On #4 you may notice some scalping which is due to the new surface not being perfectly smooth.  The USGA recommends beginning mowing as soon as the turf is well rooted.  Quoting the USGA, “Since it is almost impossible to keep the green surface perfectly smooth (due to the frequent irrigation necessary during establishment) some scalping is inevitable.  However, it is better to scalp the new turfgrass plants early (and have time to recover) than wait to lower the cut just prior to opening.”   

The final phase of the green renovation project was to inspect and replace the defective subsurface green drains.  Fortunately the drain problems we identified were in the main drain lines off the putting surfaces, so we only had to dig up fairways and roughs. Since the last update, the drainage work on holes 7, 9, 12, and 18 has been completed.  On the 7^th hole, we added a “smile drain” which is an arc – like a smile – that wraps the low side of the green which will improve the bent grass on that part of the green.

# 4 Drain 

# 13 Drain

Finally the excess dirt we removed from around the greens has been placed in bare spots around the golf course.  It is being tilled and seeded for the winter.  As stated in a previous update, play these areas as ground under repair.

Golf Course Renovation Update

The remaining areas of the course that had not opened after Double Eagle finished their work are now open.  This includes the practice putting green, #4 green, and the front of #7 green. In addition, the drain work on the front of #4 and #17, right of #13 and #3 have been completed.  The only remaining work items are the drains on the front of #7, left of #9, left of #12, and left front of #18. 

#7 Before

#7 After

Keep in mind that we are only talking about the subsurface drains that move water off the greens.  If the budget allows, we plan to add fairway drains in the front of #1, #7 and other areas of the course that do not drain well.

The new bent grass sod edge on all of our greens has done well.  It loves the cooler temperatures and it should continue to grow in on mild days when ground temperatures are between 55° and 65° F. 

The Bermuda grass sod appears to be doing well, but it has largely gone dormant.  The final verdict on the Bermuda grass will come in the spring. If it attached properly, it will green up with the rest of the golf course. We seem to have had enough nice weather this fall and we are optimistic that the new Bermuda grass will thrive this summer.

Putting Green

The large tine aeration (5/8 inch) that we did at the beginning of the project is slow to heal (if you look closely you can see where the aeration holes were), but healing as planned.  We will continue next year with an aggressive aeration program, the schedule for which will be determined by our golf course maintenance.  We will have additional testing done by ISTRC next year to make sure we get proper water infiltration rates on the greens.  According to the report done this summer, too much water is being retained in the soil on our greens and we will continue aggressive aeration until that condition is fixed. Their report dated August 29, 2014 is posted on our web site for those who are interested in reading. Click here to go to the website (the document is at the very bottom of the page).

Pro Tips on Pitching

Having trouble pitching over the newly sodded areas? Check out the soft pitch instruction by PGA Head Professional Jeremy Franks.

Setup with the ball in the middle of your stance and keep your weight towards your lead foot.

Rotate your shoulders and arms so that the club is parallel with the ground. Keep your arms and hands relaxed.

Brush the grass keeping the momentum of the club head swinging towards the target. 

Let your arms extend and your body weight move towards the lead foot. 

Hold the pose until the ball comes to rest. This will allow the player to evaluate distance control. Lengthen or shorten the body rotation to adjust for distance change. Do not hit it harder or swing faster. 

I hope this helps you navigate over the soft, newly sodded areas and ultimately shoot lower scores. For more information on this or other types of shots, contact the golf shop!

Practice Putting Green Ready to Open

Previous to the renovation, the ground around our putting green has always been higher than the green. Over the years we paved more of the area surrounding the green.  In major thunderstorms, the drain system around the green is overwhelmed and the green becomes like a creek bed with water rushing over it. 

As part of our renovation project, Double Eagle installed two new drains to the right of the green and contoured the ground. When the drain in front of the green is overwhelmed, the water will flow toward the new drains.  On the left side of the green the ground has been contoured to encourage water to go around to the back of the green rather than across the green. 

The green and the surrounding areas are recovering nicely and we look forward to opening the practice putting green on Friday, November 6, 2014.

The final phase of our renovation project was to evaluate and repair the drainage system in each green.  The first step was to dig holes in the top side of each green to locate the beginning of the drain lines.  When all the greens were rebuilt in 1996, with the exception of #1, the contractor was allowed to bury the beginning of the green drain line.  This is not in accordance with USGA guidelines and occurred because we did not properly supervise the 1996 construction.  Our staff has located the beginning of each green drain line and installed an access pipe that allows the drain lines to be flushed out with water, air to be blown in the drains, and a camera to be inserted to inspect the drain system. 

We were able to run a camera through the main trunk of each drain line and we found the drains on 1/3 of our greens were stopped up.  We cannot inspect the branches, but they seem to be performing well.  The blockages were largely due to crushed lines and/or negative slope on the line from the original construction.  Fortunately all of the problems were off the greens so the repairs can be made without damaging putting surfaces.

The three greens on the course with the worst problems are #4, #7, and #17, where the drains were completely blocked. The drains to the right of #3, left of #9, right of #13, and off the front of #18 are not as severe but they need to be repaired too.  We also will add a catch basin to the left of #12.  These repairs will involve digging in the ground so please be patient if you see this work in progress while playing.  

Seventh Green Improved

Based on how well the partial rebuild of the fourth green went, our architect, John LaFoy suggested we rebuild the front of the seventh hole.  The improvements we are making will allow us to have faster green speeds next year and the slope on the front of #7 needed to be reduced to keep downhill putts on the green.  It was tough enough before the renovation.

                                                                                                   

Just like we did on the fourth hole, we removed the bent sod for the first 20 feet of the green and placed it on the fairway.  Double Eagle then added new top mix (we had some extra from the fourth hole) to raise the front of the green about 2 inches to give us a 2% slope.  The existing slope was 5% which is simply too steep given today’s green speeds. Then they put the sod back on, supplementing with new sod as needed.

Double Eagle then contoured the approach to the green over 20 feet to provide a smooth tie-in to the existing fairway. The approach is steeper, but the green is flatter. Because the approach is steeper, it could be harder to run the ball onto the green, but we will have more on that in the next update. The approach was sodded with new Bermuda grass we used on the rest of the greens.

Mr. Bill Haywood making sure the contractor understands
 that we need more usable flag stick locations on the front of the green

Finished product on the 7th green

The front of the green will be roped off until the bent grows in well enough to survive cutting to green height.  If the weather continues to cooperate, we should be playing on the full course, including four and seven by mid-November.