5 Days Left Until the Manakin Project Begins

Here is the final reminder about the Manakin project. On this coming Tuesday, May 28th, non-selective herbicide will be applied to all the tees, rough and fairways. The greens, the bermuda sod around the greens and the zoysia around the bunkers will be left in place. Gone will be any cool season turf playing surface along with the weeds that have accompanied that turf for the past 15 years. 

We have plenty of work to do as the current turf dies off and before the sprigging of new bermudagrass begins on July 8th. One of the larger items on the list is creating new tee boxes that are on the Master Plan. We got a jump start on the tee box construction here on 18 this week. This new box splits the difference between the forward tee and the white tee. These new boxes will give us much more flexibility in how to play the course when it reopens. We have a long list of projects to accomplish over the next few weeks, the excitement is just beginning.

You will see some white pin flags marking some boundaries around the Manakin this weekend. In addition we will get a jump start on spraying herbicide around the trees on Friday. We have been preparing for weeks for a successful project starting on Tuesday.

The crew has continued to move sod from the Manakin to the Sabot this week. The voids left behind on the Manakin will be filled with fresh sprigs come July. The Sabot continues to benefit with more level, turfed areas for play.

The existing Latitude bermuda sod around the Manakin greens continues to fill in nicely. Early in the week we topdressed with sand in order to help smooth out the turf and improve the quality of cut from the mowers.

Over on the Sabot we took the time to put a sharp edge on all the bunkers. This is about a three day process that takes all the bermudagrass runners out on the faces as well. We will use growth regulators to maintain the speed at which the bermuda continues to dive into the sand through the season.

Before the pool opens this weekend we rented a lift in order to prune up some trees and take out some dead branches hanging over the fence. The branches are fed into our chipper and quickly disposed of. This work was accomplished in house at 10% of a quote from the tree company.

Our plantings around the club are just about set for the season. While our main focus is on the Manakin project, we are still very well set up to raise the bar around the Club and on the Sabot Golf Course this summer.