It rained, and we have control of your golf carts!
Almost 2 inches of rain soaked us down on Wednesday. This was the first time it had rained more than .3" in well over two months. As soil temperatures continue to drop, ensuring we have enough moisture in the profile is important so this rain was extremely beneficial. It is very doubtful that you will see the lakes that low ever again.
The Sabot bunkers slowly drained out over night but that still leaves plenty of silt behind. The silt is cleaned out and the bunker is raked in what takes almost of full day of work. It will be very exciting if we are able to start renovating these bunkers next year.
The rain was also very good timing for the bluegrass seedlings in the Sabot fairways. They continue to pop and grow. We have been keeping cart traffic in the rough this week and will continue to do so through the weekend in order to protect the seedlings. Please keep your cart between the cartpath and the fairway, don't get trapped on the opposite side.
It is easy to notice some fertilizer speckling on the Manakin fairways in some areas. Last week we applied the last of our grow in fertilizer (mostly potassium). The dry conditions combined with a large particle size resulted in some speckles. The canopy is so dense now that the Manakin will demand a smaller particle from here on out. The speckles should become less noticeable over the next week.
On Thursday we took a look at another cartpath repair process that was being demonstrated at Salisbury CC. This process took the grinding that we had done in the spring a few steps further. The bumps are ground down with a larger machine and then the cracks are blown out. A proprietary binder is sprayed into the cracks and the millings are swept back in. The binder is then applied on top to seal up the void. The binder dries to a matte black and can be left as is or sealed on top of with blacktop sealer. An interesting process that is certainly less invasive and expensive than true asphalt work. We will see how this area holds up at SCC for the winter!
The new technology that is installed on the new golf carts really is spectacular. From a golfer standpoint you now have gps yardages, music and all kinds of media capabilities. On our side we have a very easy way to send messages about fixing ballmarks, repairing divots and it is simple to set up zones where we don't want cart traffic. The yellow lines you see above represent the cart history from Thursday. The green zones are message areas and the red and yellow zones represent areas where the carts are slowed down to persuade carts to get back on the path. We will continue to tweak the zones and make sure we are not impeding the experience while at the same time protecting the course as needed.