Big Break Invitational at Reynolds Plantation

It was announced last week that the Golf Channel series The Big Break will be having an Invitational tournament this fall and that it will be held at Reynolds Plantation. It was also announced to our members that Great Waters will be the host course. This is very exciting for myself and my crew. The tournament will be the first of its kind. It will be a 4 day tournament all airing live on the Golf Channel and rebroadcast in primetime everyday. The tournament dates are September 30th-October 3rd. A few weeks ago Matt Ginella from the golf channel was here shooting a segment for Ginella's journeys that was shown on the morning drive. The segment was used to lead into the tournament announcement. I had to wait to post these pictures until it aired on the golf channel, but here are a few behind the scenes shots from that video shoot.

We have already been working hard preparing for this tournament and over the next few months we will have a lot more to do.  Anytime we do something related to The Big Break Invitational set up or any agronomic things done specifically for the tournament I will try to post them. Below are links to the announcement on Morning Drive last week and a link to the Ginella's Journey segment filmed at Reynolds Plantation.

The announcement on Golf Channel can be seen at the following link: http://www.golfchannel.com/media/morning-drive-tommy-gainey-excited-big-break-invitational/

 

A special segment profiling Reynolds Plantation, hosted by Golf Channel’s Matt Ginella, can be seen at the following link:

http://www.golfchannel.com/media/morning-drive-matt-ginella-visits-reynolds-plantation/

 

 

 

Verticutting Greens 5-20-14

On Tuesday of this week we were able to get out a veticut greens. Our process this time went as follows:
Verticut one direction (but up and back on the same pass, so really like 2 directions)
Walk mow greens with brush attachment on
Topdress light to medium
Brush with sweep and fill brush
I am attaching a short video of then entire process.

 

 

Resodding #2 tee on hole #2

A few weeks ago we resodded the #3 tee on hole #2 and we reopened that tee last week. Once we got that tee opened up we decided it was time to take a look at the #2 tee. We stripped the entire tee and part of the tee surround. We also added a lot of tee mix as fill because this tee has always held water between the tee top and the cart path. We used rolls of Zeon zoysia for the tee top and squares of Tifgrand bermuda for the surround. Both of these grasses have good shade tolerance and stand up to traffic well. Here are some pictures of the whole process.

Day 1 of Member-Guest

The first match of the Member-Guest tournament was delayed until 11:15 this morning. We got almost 4" of rain on the golf course lastnight. Bunkers washed pretty bad and lots of pinestraw and mulch was washed out. We spent all morning mowing greens, pushing up bunkers, and cleaning up the washouts. Our crew really worked hard and compared to what it looked like at 5:30 AM the golf course looked pretty good.

Member-Guest special events

This year for the social event on Wednesday evening we set up a chip, putt, and pitch course for the players to have a little fun with. We used regular dry topdressing sand to make 6 and 12 foot circles around 2 holes on the putting green for the chipping and putting parts of the contest. For the pitch we placed a mat on the dock by the water and placed a flag across the cove on the 18th fairway. We also painted a green and two red lines around the hole on the fairway. The closer the players ball the more points they got.

Tent for member-guest

Great Waters and The Landing are hosting the spring Men's Member-Guest this week. The tent went up beside the big putting green yesterday. A social event on Wednesday night, lunch everyday of the tournament, and the awards dinner will all be held under this tent.

WGA at Great Waters

We have a WGA shotgun at 9:00 AM this morning. One of the things we try to do for the ladies is use flower pots as tee markers on these days.

Update on #3 tee on Hole #2

Here is a quick update on the newly sodded tee on Hole #2. The sod is coming in nicely, we have mowed it down to tee height already. The sod was completely dormant when we laid it a little over 2 weeks ago. If the sod had been greened up when we got it in from the grower I believe we would already be playing on it. As it stands now we are getting very close but I believe we are still about a week or two away from getting on it and feeling comfortable about it. You can see it slowly greening up in the pictures we have taken over the past few weeks.

Storm damage

The weather forecast for Tuesday and Wednesday of this week called for severe storms and up to 4 inches of rain. Well we dodged the heavy rain and only got about 1/2" for the two days. However, we had some VERY strong winds come thru on Wednesday morning. We lost about 10 trees on the golf course with most of them going down in the area between 17 green and 18 tee. We also have a ton of debris down all of the golf course. The wind was coming in so hard that it was blowing waves over the sea wall on 18.  These pictures were taken after the strongest winds had already come thru. The waves on the sea wall on 18 are going over the short portion in the pictures but during the strongest winds it was blowing water up onto the green.We are out there cleaning up right now but it will take us more than a day or two to get everything cleaned up.