Bluemuda in the works and 12 days to open the Manakin

We just moved past 40 days since the last two holes, 10 and 13, were planted. This late summer heat is helping to keep the bermuda moving, even though we have not seen much rain to speak of (besides .2" last night) in the past month.

The "short cut" on the Manakin is being mowed just about every other day. With the tees connected to the fairways and green surrounds, we have essentially doubled the amount of low cut turf on the Manakin. There are now 58 acres of turf being mowed at fairway height.

Short cut height is down to .575" at the moment. We will take it down just a tick more next week and then leave it there. Even though it is 100 degrees outside, fall and winter are in the sights. The height will go back up slightly for the winter.

Here is your lie in the "deep rough" that wasn't even cut today. There are still a few thin spots and some bumpy fairways out there but come two weeks from now there will be a great golf course to enjoy.

We have decided to leave the bunkers just as they are, full of weeds and algae building up. This will provide a real challenge and true hazard!

Just kidding about that. The crew is working extremely hard in scraping the algae and cleaning out the bunkers for opening on the 24th.

The greens on the Manakin have enjoyed themselves over the past few weeks. They have recovered from aeration nicely and even though temperatures are still up, we are working to squeeze some speed out of them for the fall.

The refreshed tee plaques are headed back into the ground. We are working on developing daily pinsheets and some new tee markers are on site waiting for the opening. The tee sheet for Tuesday the 24th opens on the prior Tuesday the 18th, at 8am!

On the Sabot we have gotten a head start on our bluegrass overseeding process. The short game fairway along with all the tees were sprayed with growth regulator and verticut in order to slow down the bermuda and thin the canopy a bit.

The areas were mowed slightly lower than normal and the bluegrass seed, which is significantly smaller than rye, was dropped into the existing bermuda turf. We are keeping the tees moist and hope to see some germination inside of 2 weeks. The bluegrass will establish slower than the rye did but the blue should be able to hold up through the summer and fill back in on its own in the fall. If things go perfectly over the next year, this may be the last time we have to go after a wholesale overseeding. The tees were done first since there is minimal impact on play and it will allow us to perfect our process on fairways. Seeding will be done on fairways starting on the 30th.