Crazy Weather Causing Problems

The crazy weather we are having is causing problems on the greens.  With the 4.5 inches of rain and the temperatures fluctuating from cool to warm every other day has caused an outbreak of Black Algae  to develop on the greens.  We started the correction process yesterday with an application of fungicide.  We mowed greens today, tomorrow we are going to spike and roll them to allow more water to flow into the greens sand base and keep more expected rain off the surface.  This may take a couple weeks to fix but it looks worse than it really is.  Hope you have had and continue to have a great Holiday Season.  Kevin

#10 Bunker Update

All the new surface drains and drain tile are in.  We have added two landscape areas in the bunker to add some contrast to the bunker.  All there is to do now is add the new sand.  The other major change in the bunker we have made is raise the bottom of the bunker about 12-15 feet.  Not only will the bunker be more maintainable but much more player friendly. You can now see the green from anywhere in the bunker.  We hope to have the sand in and the bunker back in play the first week of the new year.  Kevin

Temporary Cart Path Only Holes

After having a busy year there are a few holes that the turf if just won out.  We need to give them a break until spring when we can have a chance to aerate them and push them back with fertilizer to good health and playing conditions.  These are holes that have poor entrance and exit points causing the turf to be thin and week.  We ask you please help us and keep carts off the marked fairways.  Hope your getting to enjoy this awesome December Weather!  Kevin

Cart Path Only Holes

First part of #5, 8 11,14

Frost as seen in the eyes of the Superintendent

Frost is essentially frozen dew. Ice crystals visible on the outside of the plant can also form on the inside of grass blades. The grass plant, normally resilient to footsteps or cart traffic, becomes brittle and fragile when ice crystals form. Under the pressure of traffic, ice crystals puncture living plant tissues and rupture plant cells. Damage will not appear right away, but it will show up in footsteps and tire tracks the following days as the plant is unable to repair itself and begins to die. Frost damage can occur on any turfgrass mowed at any height but it is amplified when the plant is mowed low, as on a putting green. In a best-case scenario, damage will be limited to leaf blades only, which will eventually disappear once active turf growth resumes. However, if the plant crown, or growing point of the plant, is compromised, damage will be more severe and recovery could take months.     

Keep in mind, a foursome typically takes several hundred footsteps on each green, so even allowing just a few groups to play when frost is present can be very damaging to the greens, and the rest of the golf course for that matter. It is not completely understood when frost will cause damage, so the decision to keep traffic off the golf course must be made conservatively to protect the condition of the course. For this reason, golf facilities are wise to close the course to play or delay starting times until frost has completely melted.

Super Wet!

We are super wet and will be cart path only at least to the weekend!  Look back here or call the pro shop for CPO information.  Kevin

Finally!!!!!!!!!!!

Do to the generosity of Joe Sanders (member) who has loaned us some equipment we have started and going to finish the remodel of the bunker on hole ten fairway.  We have been pecking away at this project for over 2 yeasr but having Joe supply the big equipment we need we have done more in the last four days than the last two years!  We hope to have the bunker finished in the next 10 days or so.  Kevin

Collars

Just a note,  The Collars are going to be fuzzy and a little tall over the next couple weeks as the over seed grows in!  Kevin

Busting Out Work

We made it through a tough dry summer here at RNK.  We seen some of the most dry conditions we have in a few years in the months of August and September.  We went 31 days without a drop of rain.  The New Kent rain bubble was in full effect even during last weekends rain with only 1.6 inches of rain over the 4 days.  With the rain staying away and turf not growing we have a chance to knock out a few items on the to-do list.  The stack sod bunker face has turned out awesome and we are looking forward to do more of that in the near future on hole 11.  When the pond level gets low, I have hated the look of 18 green with the bottom of the pond showing.  One of the first things I did two years ago when I got here was find the things that wasted time and effort that need to be eliminated.  One of those was to remove all the Rock Edging on the entire course.  We reused all those rocks and placed them in front of the green in the water making the island appearance even when the water levels are low.  We started the process of aerating and overseeding the collars this week as well.  I hope you you had a great summer at all of the Traditional Golf Properties! Kevin

It's Over!!

Aerfication is over and the greens are healing quickly and should be back to normal by the weekend!  Kevin

Aerification

Greens Aerification is coming soon!!!

Brickshire: August 17th & 18th

Royal New Kent:  August 19th& 20th

Stonehouse: August 24th &25th

These days are subject to change do to weather!!!

We also have been out this week at RNK Aerating and topdressing tees.  We are tring to firm up the feel of the tee boxes and remove the thatch layer to help with a faster green up in the spring.  Keep coming back her to get more info about upcoming Aerification Information, Kevin

Bunker Trial

We have just a couple touch up things to do at the bunker remodel in number four fairway.  Let us know what you think!!!!  The Bunker Face is made out of 225 yards of sod that was cut here on the property and moved to hole four.  Along with a full day of work its held together out of 2500 sod staples.  Kevin

4000!!!!!!

We just hit 4000 visits on RNK Turf Talk!!!!!!!  Keep coming back.  I hope this provides you the information you want about what we are doing to improve the course for you and our guest at Royal New Kent.  Don't be afraid to ask questions or post positive comments!  Kevin

Progress on Number 4

We have Started a bunker project on #4 Fairway.  We are looking into alternative ideas for the bunker faces here at RNK.  We are creating a "Stacked Sod Bunker Face on the small fairway bunker.  We are going to finish the wall Monday and Tuesday of next week.  We hope to get the same results you see at the Open this week at St. Andrews.  Here is a couple pics of the progress from this week!  Kevin

The Norm

We are into the full mode of the normal golf course maintenance!  Mowing, watering, and trimming!  Working in the heat the last two weeks has been brutal on the awesome staff we have at RNK.  We have been able to do a lot of the handwork like bunkers and weed eating in the cooler hours of the morning and getting on the mowers in the heat of the day! We hope the conditions are improving at RNK!  We feel they are and were looking to see if we can slide in some summer projects to help with some aesthetics around the course with drains and bunkers!  Kevin

Never Ending Battle

We are embarking on a battle that may be never ending!  We have turned our attention to the native areas to help improve the speed and play-ability of RNK.  We are spraying a very good herbicide that is taking out everything except the fescue and broom sedge, leaving behind an awesome golden color native areas that look great against all the green turf. Hope to have the spraying complete by the end of next week! Below are some pics of the results!  Kevin

Day 1

7 Days Later

Native Weeds on their way out on 6

Heat is on again this week!

The heat will return again this week with storms in the afternoon.  I have learned if i want rain just go rake the bunkers!  We work all day Monday to put them back from weekend rain and got another washer last night 1.10 inches to wash them back out.  The greens are recovering well from the last heat beating the took.  We changed some of our chemicals to hopefully deal better with the heat this go around.  Over all the course is in good shape and working hard to get ready for a good Junior Tournament this weekend!  Kevin

Winter Kill 2015

We have surrenndered to the idea that some of our turf is not going to make it back from the winter. It is not as bad as we were thinking.  We lost three tees and a couple slopes in the fairways.  Here is a great artical from Virginia Tech about the winter kill 2015.  Kevin

Virginia Turf @VAturf, #VAturf                                     s                                                            Page 1    Turfgrass Winterkill Update – 2015 Mike Goatley, Extension Turfgrass Specialist, Virginia Tech Winterkill:  I always like to tell people that you know what it is when you see it, but you just can’t tell exactly what it is or why it occurred.  The first week of May has brought some parts of Virginia the first real evidence of significant winterkill of bermudagrass as golf course superintendents, sports field managers, and sod producers have patiently waited to see if there was any life in areas that were slow to green.   Reports on living or dead Bermuda from folks that pulled plugs and brought them inside to monitor greening have been quite mixed to this point.  The damage seems to be more concentrated from Richmond to Tidewater, and I am supposing that is because these areas of the state probably didn’t have as much snow cover as the traditionally colder areas of the state did when the low temperature extremes of January arrived.   Where bermudagrass is grown in the colder parts of the state, a significant snow pack during the low temperature extremes of February seemed to provide adequate low temperature protection. When I reviewed my temperature data at the Turfgrass Research Center here in Blacksburg during the period where our temps dipped to ‐2 and ‐6 F for the nights of the   20th and 21st of February, the uncovered control plots in my winter turf blanket research trial were still in the upper 20s underneath 6+ inches of snow.    Another observation on the value of the snow cover is whereas we lost 75% of our NTEP bermudagrass variety trial in 2013‐14 (no snow and two nights of subzero temperatures), it appears that the majority of the varieties have survived the winter of 2014‐15.   In 2014, predicting where the bermudagrass damage was going to occur was strangely more difficult in that I saw bermudagrass in certain locations that survived (and even thrived) under poorly drained soils and northern facing slopes.  However, in 2015 the predictions on where the grass is damaged have been much more consistent:  poorly drained soils, north‐facing slopes, heavy traffic areas, fairways shaded by the tree lines (Figure 1).  Put any of these in combination with each other, and the damage is that much more exaggerated.   Figure 1. There is a stark difference in the winter survival of this bermudagrass fairway between the shade from the tree line and the center of the fairway. Virginia Turf @VAturf, #VAturf                                     s                                                          
 Page 2  Again, the standard cold tolerant varieties that have traditionally withstood the test of time in Blacksburg variety trials (Latitude 36, Patriot, Northbridge, Midlawn, Yukon, and Riviera) have survived fairly well as mature turfs.  However, just about any bermudagrass (cold tolerant or not) that were either harvested and/or established late last year are showing significant winterkill.   Brian Walker of Riverside Turf shared two photos of a Patriot bermudagrass production field harvested last fall (Figure 2).  Scott Woodward of Woodward Turf in Culpeper confirms the same scenario at his farm.  This type of damage strongly suggests a short supply of bermudagrass sod in 2015. Figure 2. This fall‐harvested Patriot production field in Charles City, VA shows the concerns with a late season harvest of even a superior cold‐tolerant variety such as Patriot. This type of damage always leads to questions of the turfgrass manager on “what did I do wrong”?  In most cases, nothing.  Mother Nature constantly sends us friendly reminders of the trials and tribulations of growing grass in the transition zone.  One contributing factor has been the summers of both 2013 and 2014.  Each were relatively mild summers that I would describe as fairly poor bermudagrass years in terms of prime growing conditions during the summer months (of course, this has been a blessing for those mostly managing cool season grasses).  Much of the state has struggled getting that ‘100 days of prime bermuda growing conditions’ that we feel are necessary in the transition zone to really have a healthy bermudagrass stand that is fully prepared to survive a 4‐5 month winter dormancy period.    However, the damage we have experienced over the past two winters does give us reason to think about possibly altering management strategies and situations, and to at least let your clientele know of the challenges and how you are addressing them.    Two areas that I definitely think can be addressed (WITH the necessary approval and financial support) are poor drainage and modification of shade lines.  Anything that can reduce persistently wet soils is going to improve the overall health of any turfgrass.   Where possible, move the water away from these persistently wet soils and you will be rewarded with the opportunity to really grow some grass there in the future.  The trees vs turf battle is never going to go away and there simply must be some level of                                                                                            
 Page 3
  compromise between golfers, the superintendent, and what to expect regarding turfgrass density and persistence in part sun/part shade turfs.  There is no better time to ‘educate’ greens committees etc. than right now about how damaging winter shade lines can be for tree‐lined bermudagrass fairways.   The problem with the shade is not just the duration of the colder temperatures of the winter, but also the reduced thriftiness of the turf in the first place from growing under low light conditions on a regular basis.  I understand that trees provide great beauty and function, are a part of the strategy of hole design, and even an important safety component for people that drive the ball like me, but there almost always is some potential for some selective thinning of trees (desirable) and ‘limbing up’ of trees (better than nothing) in order to get more light to the turf.  Again, take advantage of the opportunity to discuss this with your clientele first hand on why the problems exist.      Another issue for which you can continue to educate your clientele on for its importance is the effect of persistent, heavy traffic and how it increases the potential of winterkill.  This is readily evidenced just about every year for any major entry and exit points into greens, tees, and fairways and it is obvious every spring between the hashes and 30 yard line markers on football fields and around the goal mouths of soccer.   Now is a great time to once again remind the users of the turf just what a difference could be made if we could only distribute the traffic better.  Signs, ropes etc. all help, but what is really required in traffic management is an appreciation by all that we can make a difference one cart or one player at a time if we simply keep this in mind. If you have had significant damage, what are you going to do now? If you return to bermudagrass for sports field or golf turf use, are there more cold tolerant varieties available than what you have used in the past?  And remember what was said earlier about short supplies of bermudagrass this year as the damage extended well into the Carolinas in the winter of 2014‐15.  Sprigging at 800‐1000 bushels per Acre rather than what I usually think of as our ‘minimally acceptable standard’ of 500 bushels per Acre can greatly assist in achieving complete coverage of bermudagrass as soon as possible (I would say no more than 8 weeks in an average summer… whatever that is!).  If you seed, prep the soil, be prepared to manage the irrigation and weeds, and I would use up to 1 lb of pure live seed per 1000 sq ft of our improved seeded varieties. If you would like to talk to Virginia Tech in more detail about how to utilize lower quality seeded bermudagrasses with the improved seeded varieties as a means of saving money and enhancing the rate of coverage, contact me to discuss the benefits of this approach based on our Virginia Tech research.    One thing I didn’t discuss but it is particularly appropriate for sports field managers (and an absolute necessity for anyone in the golf business moving towards ultradwarf bermudagrass putting greens) is the use of turf blankets for winter protection.  For those of you pondering about whether or not a turf blanket might be a good investment, remember that you can use the more translucent turf blankets
  (typically the white or lighter colored blankets) to assist you in grow‐ins of both warm‐season AND cool‐ season grasses, in addition to winter protection.  I attach the following picture (Figure 3) that I received on May 7, 2015 from Mike Skelton of Culpeper Parks and Recreation Department.  For three years now, Mike has had great success establishing Riviera bermudagrass under non‐irrigated conditions by way of dormant seeding and covering the installation with a turf blanket.  This picture shows the results of a March 23 dormant‐seeded bermudagrass that also received a ¼ topdressing of compost and a quinclorac treatment for weed control.  Mike has brand new bermudagrass turf that is already in need of a mowing BEFORE most of us are even considering seeding bermudagrass.    Figure 3. The turf blankets are being removed on May 7, 2015 at Spillman Park in Culpeper, VA so that the March 23 dormant seeded Riviera bermudagrass turf can be mowed for the first time. Please let the Virginia Tech Turf Team know if it can assist you in any facet of your turfgrass management programs.

Aerification Finished

Aerification is finished a the healing process has started.  Overall a pretty smooth spring aerification!  Hope to be healed up and back to rolling smooth no later than two weeks!  Kevin

Finally Turning Green

We are turning more green everyday!  We are doing all we can to speed up the process.  Don't forget this week id AERIFICATION WEEK here at RNK!


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=va98sIUEjFw

Here is a quick video for those wondering why we have to do the necessary evil of Aerification


Kevin

Back To Tees

We are back working on working on the tees again this week.  We just finished another de-thatch and topdress of all the tees.

Night time temperatures are finally up hope to see some quicker green up this week!

Kevin

Cart Path Only Holes

The LONG and COLD winter has put the 419 Bermuda Grass way behind schedule!  I talked to a friend in Danville Va. this week and he said his is two to three weeks behind and we a normally two weeks behind him.  The Zoyzia is turning as normal and the other strands of Bermuda are turning well such as the Common and Vamont.

We need to make some changes to help out the fairways and tees. Removing cart path traffic and foot traffic on tees are a MUST.  We will only close two to three holes at a time to help out with the pace of play.  If things start changing soon we will keep the fairways closed during the week and open them up on weekends.  Please help by keeping off the "Cart Path Only" holes.  As for the tees be prepared to play some odd tee locations.

We are planning on competing some cultural practices such as more verti-cuting, aerification, and topdressing.

Thank you for your help,

Kevin

TGP Aerification Dates

May 19-20 RNK
May 26-27 Stonehouse
June 1-2 Brickshire

Plan your golf around these dates if you can!  Kevin

Busy Busy Busy

We have been going a 1000 miles per hour the last couple week with little hope in slowing down in sight.  We have been doing a lot of work on our tee boxes.  So far we have put down out first application of Pre-emergent for Crab and Goose Grass, Verticut all the tees to open up the canopy of the turf, remove thatch and let the sunlight in to warm up the soil a little faster.  Next week we are going to start pushing them hard with fertilizer and put down the second application of Pre-emergent.

We also had to start the dreaded job of mowing this week. We Finished removal of the Juniper behind 8 green and fairway and got those area hyro-seeded as well.  Fertilized Greens this week to get a little deeper green color and start pushing health for upcoming aerifiction in a couple weeks.

We are about to finish spraying all the rough and tee complexes for weeds as well, total about 56 acres sprayed.

Hope to see you soon enjoying all the great work my crew and I are doing to best serve you!  Kevin

Paint Pic

Work on 8

We have started the process to pull out all the Junipers that burned in the native area fire on hole eight.  We will finish up this week and will have to re-seed this area very soon as well. Kevin

New Hole Signs

A huge Thank You! to Bob Burke and DZ for the labor in helping with the new hole signs!

New Flags at RNK

If you have been here this week you noticed that we did away with pin number placements.  The pin number placements some times put us in bad situations in the summer.  Some pins are in spots the green struggles to stay alive during extreme heat and the foot traffic in these areas did not help.  The flags are now colored.  Red = Front , Yellow = Middle, and Blue = Back.  The above chart shows how we figure out what zone is what.  With the huge greens out here as a golfer I would rather know the front, middle back, than a zone that it could be anywhere in that zone that starts in the front and goes to the back.  This also allows us to set up the course at the USGA standards.  Every three holes should have a pin in each of the three zones, the old pin zones were not that way.  Kevin

Pumping out work

We have been very busy fling all over the course.  We have finished painting all three courses. and knocking out small project like cutting back cart paths, cutting sod out for the new hole signs, fixing bunkers and setting up for tournament play.  Now our next task is to get all the pre-emergent out Crab and Goose Grass.  Kevin

CPO

We are Cart Path only today, Monday the 16th of March. Should be the last day of CPO from Saturdays big rain.  Thanks and Sorry, Kevin

CPO

We will be cart path only for the remainder of the weekend :(  BOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

8 Bridge

We completed the work on the upside of the bridge by extending the concrete wall up the cart path about 8 feet and down four.  Getting the wall higher up the cart path will stop the water from eroding under the path.

Painting Fairways

We have started painting all the fairways that could be painted, we have some touch up spots to do where it was just too wet to spray.  We should be finishing up this week at Brickshire the moving down to Stonehouse.

Closed Saturday

We are Closed Today!  We will be open tomorrow but tee time at RNK are filling up fast call soon!  Kevin

Funny

Great Video

This is a great video of what we as Superintendents do on a daily basis.  Check it out!  Kevin

http://www.gcsaa.tv/view.php?id=2489

Working For The Weekend

We are going to do all we can to get the course open for the weekend.  We hope to be open for some Saturday afternoon play and all day Sunday.  Check back here or call the pro shop for a more detailed timeline Friday afternoon or Saturday Morning.  Kevin

OPEN

We are OPEN! At least for today!  Kevin

Melt Down

We had a great melt down yesterday but not good enough to open today.  We hope the last little bit goes away toad and possible open tomorrow afternoon.  Check back here or call the pro shop to see if we can open Wednesday afternoon.  The snow for Thursday can feel free to go away as well!  Kevin

This Week

We are starting to crank up this week.  The main project this week will be Painting Fairways!  We have our Pro -Am on the 9th of march we are trying to be painted by.  We are going to paint what we can when we can.  There is a high chance the sprayers will be out over the weekend.  We are going to close the fairways that have wet paint though out the day.  Each hole will be well marked! Please help us out by not driving on wet paint!  Kevin

Maybe Yes Maybe No!

We should be open for the weekend if we get spared by the snow on Wednesday night.  I will keep you updated here on RNK Turf Talk!  Kevin

It' Going to be while!

New Shoots!!!!

With the great weather we had over the weekend and the beginning of the week we noticed some new grass shoots popping out of the burned Tall Fescue area (The Native).  We are feeling success with the idea to burn these areas and feel like recovery is well on its way!  Kevin

Bridge Repair

We are working to make the bridge across #8 creek safe again.  We noticed some stress fractures in the cart path and took a closer look this week and found out the up side of the creek has formed a hole about the size of the beach ball behind the stones.  The down side had been washed out completely.  Good thing the path was about 8 inches thick and stayed suspended in the air with just a couple cracks.  The down side and under the path has been repaired. We are going to bring the concrete wall about 6 more feet to stop the water from causing this issue again.  Kevin

 Back Side Finished

 Up Side Hole

 Repacking clay on downside

Down Side Hole

Paint and Carts

We are gearing up for painting the fairways March 1st.  We have been out spraying the entire golf course wall to wall with round-up to kill anything green in the roughs and fairways.  Our plan is to start here at RNK then move to Brickshire then move down to Stonehouse.  Fairways will be hit and miss with cart path only we will do our best to get you back on the fairways ASAP.

We also have been out still cleaning the course from under brush and native areas.  I have noticed a lot of carts in the native areas lately.  Please keep carts out of these areas.  There are drains that have fallen in just like the fairways so deep that you could loose your cart in.  We also have seen an increase in carts cutting across the road from 13 to 14 tee.  Please keep your carts on the path all the way around through the tunnel.  ALL FOR YOUR SAFETY!!! Kevin

3000!!!!!

We hit 3000 views this week!  We created this blog about 1 year ago this week and 3000 views make it worth the time and effort to keep you informed about whats going on in the turf world of Royal New Kent Maintenance Department.  If you ever need to ask questions please do so!  Kevin

12 Clean Up

We have spent the first couple days this week liming up the good trees, removing all the dead trees and under brush on hole 12.  We plan on seeding these come spring with a No Mow Type Fescue to help with looks, erosion, maintenance, and it will let some air and sunlight in these areas to help with seed germination. We have also done the hill top behind 17 green and hope to get good results from that as well.  By removing the old mulch and debris from these area and seeding them with low maintenance grass will eliminate the need and expense of mulching.  Kevin

What to do, What to do?

We are in that middle gray area of the winter where it's too wet to do the big work that needs to be done and the not cold enough for the ground to freeze.  We are starting to in prove on the little things we can like liming up trees along cart paths and around tee and green improving air flow around these areas.  We have been removing the final bit of leaves and debris around the course as well.  Simply put we are doing all we can until the weather gets to the point to allow us to do the big projects.  Don't forget to sign up for the Super Skins on Sunday, call Lester in the proshop. We have about 20 teams ready to go with lots more room for you!  Kevin

2.5 Inches of Rian

We got 2.5 inches of rain over the weekend making the course a wet mess. We are cart path only on holes 1, 10, and 11.

The rain has put us on project hold so we are doing some much need clean up around the course.  Picking up more leaves and liming up trees.  We really need to dry or get really cold and the ground to freeze, we have way too much to do this winter to get ready for a great 2015 golfing season.

Things on our list to do:

- Fix as many sunken drains as possible
- Remove junipers off hole 8
- Clean wooded areas
- Repair and re-do driving range
- Add drainage to #10 fairway and the approach on #18 green

We Still need to make time to spray out all the POA (all green stuff in fairways), paint fairways and a bunch of hand work on slopes and ditches we can't bush hog.

Kevin