Great Staff/Great Effort after Rainfall and High Temperature Forecast

Wednesday, July 25, 2012 Putting Greens, Tree Work

This summer has already been an adventure.  Afternoon and nightly thunderstorms seem to be the norm with very erratic temperatures.  Today is supposed to be in the high 80s with Thursday and Friday near 100.  What does this mean when we received a storm last night?  It means that our managers are here this morning venting and spiking greens and then applying a root pythium fungicide.  I have to thank our assistant superintendents for putting in the work to protect the golf...

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Three Closed days for Fairway Aeration and Topdressing

Monday, July 16, 2012 Fertility, Projects, Putting Greens, Tree Work

Well the last month or so has been a whirlwind per our typical Richmond summer.  A typical summer to me means to expect anything and everything.  Between a drought, a heat wave and now frequent severe storms, we have been living a little on edge to say the least.  The sprigs have loved the heat and the rest of the golf course has handled the weather decently.  Not great, not bad.  Greens 3, 4, 10, and 13 were core aerated today to help speed the recovery of stressed, thin...

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Heavy Rainfall Leads to a Day of Bunker Repairs

Tuesday, July 10, 2012

The course recieved a much needed 1.2 inches of rainfall last night.  If you played early this morning, you noticed standing water in several areas.  These areas have drained throughout the day.  Most of the course accepted the rainfall well, only bunkers suffered.  The crew has spent the day removing silt and replacing sand on the bunker faces.  Tomorrow we will remove the remaining silt after water has completly drained from the bunkers. The final electrical...

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The Heat is On

Friday, July 06, 2012

Here is an article from Stan Zontek, our USGA Agronomist talking about turf management in the heat.  We follow these guidelines in our cautious maintenance of the turf.  The heat has taken its toll on the course and will not let up until Monday.  Greens, tees, and fairways are hanging in there but the exterior roughs are very stressed.  We have to focus on the top priorities.  A few greens edges have begun to show signs of stress.  This is not disease or anything catastrophic. ...

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Happy 4th of July

Wednesday, July 04, 2012

What a great day.  Independence day is easily one of the best days of the year.  The golf course is holding up well and the greens are handling the heat very well.  The fans are definitely helping as is our conservative approach.  Greens will be soft as they have still have holes in them from Monday's venting (solid tine aeration.)  You will notice a blue tint to the greens.  This is a combination of few fungicides and turfscreen that all have a blue dye to them. ...

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The first real test of the Summer

Sunday, July 01, 2012

This weekend was quite a test for the golf course and most people in the Metro Richmond Area.  People across Virginia and a lot of the east coast have been hammered by oppressive heat and heavy thunderstorms.  The golf course experienced a great deal of high temperatures and two heavy thunderstorms.  Course cleanup, water management, and syringing dominated our team's priority list this weekend.  On top of all of these normal challenges, the club lost power for over 24 hours.  This presented many challenges and the largest...

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