Fall weather is here already (and a hurricane)

 

Shorter days and cooler night time temperatures are here. The bermuda is going to slow down and we are hoping the bluegrass on the Sabot keeps popping its head back up. Hurricane Sally is helping with that right now. We will wait about another month before any more bluegrass seed hits the ground. We are lucky to get some cooler temperatures this early. Last year it was still hot as the Manakin was finishing growing in, next week will mark its one year anniversary.

All of our 6 new fans are down and back at the shop for the season. They unplug and unbolt from their pedestal and then a top fits nicely on to the control box so that a mower can have an easier time mowing around the area. The fans were life savers this season, moving cooler air across the bentgrass when it was hot and wet. We have four more fans in the budget next year for 2 Manakin, 6, 7, and 14 Sabot. Installed cost of each fan is about $10,000.

We continue to dial in the irrigation renovation bid process for the Sabot. Meeting with vendors and visiting courses has been pretty intense over the past few months. The new design and subsequent install coming next winter 2021/22 is going to be impressive.

In the meantime we still have plenty of leaky heads and general pipe problems to attend to on the Sabot. These 30 year old heads are well past their normal lifetime.

On this coming Monday, we will be finishing up the back nine Sabot bunker renovations by digging out the fairway bunkers on 10 and 18. It will take about 3 days to dig the sand and old drainage out and get the bunker bottoms ready for the capillary concrete. We will pour the concrete on the following Monday and then fill up the bunkers with fresh sand. The front nine bunkers will have to wait for the next fiscal year to click over in November before we start rebuilding those.

Also on Monday our cartpath contractors will be here to start filling in cracks and sealing all 10 miles of cartpaths. Watch out for ropes, cones and signs keeping you out of their work area next week. The cracks will be filled next week, the 21st to 25th, then the following week we will be closing nine holes at a time to get the paths sealed with heavy black sealant. The paths should be looking pretty sharp by the end of the month!

Enjoy the US Open!!