Full speed ahead
The golf course did what we thought it would do and all of our different turfgrasses that once graced the Manakin are now the same color, brown. The common bermudagrass has also taken up the herbicide well and is on the way down. The herbicide will continue to translocate through the plants this week and our second application is slated for Friday the 14th. Our signs about the re-grassing will go back up next week and it will be important to keep traffic off the Manakin. Especially as we begin the sprigging process July 8th, neighbors need to find a different way to the club that doesn't involve driving across any turf.
Our first application went exactly as planned and was finished in just one day. We worked around the existing Latitude bermuda and the greens accurately.
With the Manakin closed until September now, we jumped right in to aerate the greens. These greens have not been aerated for over a year. The deep tine aerator went first and punched 8 inch deep holes through the profile. The goal with any aeration is breaking through the upper growth layer to provide a path for roots an water to reach the lower original sand construction mix. The deep tine finished up with the greens and is now working on the fairways.
Next up came the Dryject procedure. Just like on the Sabot this spring, the Dryject shoots a bead of water through the green about 4 inches deep and dry sand is pulled into that void. We put close to 40 tons of sand into the greens with this procedure. Doing this in front of the core aerators helps firm the surface and more than doubles the amount of sand we can get into the profile during aeration.
The aerator goes at a different angle than the Dryject so that it doesn't pull up any sand installed prior. The main purpose of the aeration is thatch removal. This has to be done at least twice a year in order to maintain proper putting surfaces that can stand up to golfer and mower traffic and provide a healthy and consistent surface.
The plugs are manually pushed to the side and shoveled into the trailers. All of the greens were finished being Dryjected and aerated by Tuesday at 2:30 pm which is an awesome feat.
A half inch of rain washed the sand in perfectly and the greens are set up for a great, albeit lonely, season. In addition to new turf on the tees, rough and fairways, our goal is to present the greens back to you in September as basically brand new as well. No ballmarks, no scalped plugs, no wear spots, just pure bentgrass greens.
Over on the Sabot, Joe and his team continue to work on the texture of their greens. The surfaces were groomed and then mowed with brushes on Monday and then lightly topdressed. We will continue to tightened up the Sabot greens and keep them firm and putting well.
Our tree work is continuing on the Manakin. One of the bigger play impacts, if not the only one, will be here on #1. The large willow oak to the right of end of the fairway not only blocked massive amounts of sunlight from the centerline of #1 but it also did not allow for any turf to grow underneath it, which is a pretty popular landing area. The Green Committee approved the removal of this tree as well as the pine tree that was in a turf area a little further up.
This removal has opened the bottom of #1 very nicely. We will be extending drainage up to where the willow oak used to be in order to catch all the water running off from the right side before it comes on to #1 and soaks the bottom. Once the latitude 36 is grown in, we will mow the fairway through the bottom and connect it to the approach for the green. This improvement opens up more options off the tee and will create a beautiful opening hole.
The oak was actually severely rotted in the center. As these oaks continue to age they become more and more dangerous, especially after such a wet year last year. The center of this tree was absolutely soaked and did not smell very good at all. It was almost a daily event to pick up branches that had fallen out of this tree each day.