Goodbye July
July is always a good month to get rid of. The heat and humidity have been impressive and unless you were on the Manakin all month like Nick and Jacob, you knew how dry we were. July finished with just over an inch of rain. We are losing daylight as we work towards fall now but the Manakin continues to progress.
8 and 11 hit the two week mark today and we are close to turning off the water on them. At our peak last week we were hitting 1.5 million gallons of water going out. We are thankful to see some rain in the forecast now!
14 at 3 weeks and one week apart. We are mowing and rolling holes up through 16 now. 17 and 18 are ready as well.
We are primed and ready for the bermuda to really start taking off in weeks 4 and 5. The thinner spots will close up quickly. We do have a few areas that were sprigged in the severe heat about a week and half ago on 10 and 13 that will be touched up with fresh sprigs tomorrow. This is par for the course as we are still in great shape moving forward.
Behind the scenes we are working on some small items like polishing up the tee plaques for the Manakin. All the markers were removed prior to sprigging. They will be refurbished and reinstalled nice and level for re-opening. New plaques for all the new tees have also been ordered.
The Sabot is hanging in there but far from where we really expect it to be for the summer. Lack of air movement and a healthy growing medium on the greens are a work in progress. The fans are a huge benefit for the bentgrass in the summertime. They cool the air and soil temperatures down close to 10 degrees. With soil temps in the 90's in the afternoons the fans are a game changer. The fan on 3 is in perfect position. The effective range for the fans is 100 feet. It is easy to tell on the other greens with fans where the range runs out and the grass becomes more stressed. We poured a new mount for the fan on 4 this week and it will find itself in a much better position on Monday.
Bentgrass is a very interesting turf in the summertime. Over time bentgrass will segregate out and express its true genetics. Similar to people, bentgrass all looks the same when it is young. Over time you and your brother or sister grow to appear different and like different things. Just how your sister may like the summer heat and you can't stand it, bentgrass grows to do the same thing. Some turf thrives in the winter and thins in the summer and some thrives in the summer and thins in the winter. Using fans, proper aeration techniques, special fertilizers and different mowing techniques helps us equalize the differences in each individual bentgrass area. Implementing these new techniques and introducing improved varieties takes time and we are excited for the path forward.
The tees and fairways continue to play nicely on the Sabot. The team is hustling to work around all the play and we have been using the small afternoon gap to keep up with mowing and the details. We are inside of two months left for just having one course to play on!