Sabot Aeration Complete
Mother Nature tried to slow us down a bit early in the week as we started aeration on the Sabot. We were able to pull 3/8" cores out of 14 greens on Monday before the clouds opened up. The remaining greens were completed Tuesday. The plugs were simply blown off the greens surface as to not scarify any turf during the cleanup process.
This muck is what we are going after. Many of the greens, especially down the center have some very anaerobic medium in the top layer. Pulling cores out allows us to introduce air into the system and the sand helps dilute the percentage of built up muck.
About 20 tons of sand went out on the greens which is actually a lighter rate. With the heat still on us, the last thing we want to do is bury the greens with sand and then brush the turf right off of them. We have enough sand down to help dilute the muck and help the holes fill in.
By Thursday you could really see the bentgrass enjoying the breath of fresh air. We have been applying a wide array of foliar fertilizers to help with stress management and summer recovery. There should be pretty minimal putting impacts this weekend. As the fall weather drops in we will tighten up the screws and get back to having some slicker putting surfaces.
Another major project that has recently been implemented is the new distribution of par 3 playing yardages for the blue, white and silver tees on both courses. On the front page of this blog you can find a link titled The Hermitage Par 3 Experience that goes in to more detail about the process. Together with the golf shop and Hermitage member Bruce Matson, we have designed a system that attempts to ensure that we have more variety from hole to hole and day to day when moving through the par 3's. As you can see in the chart above, the goal for the day is set and then our staff has details on where to put the pin as well as the tee markers. In order to spread the variety, the markers will not always be at their score card yardage. The average for the day however stays within the normal parameters and does not impact the slope of your respective tees. Check out the link on the front page and we hope you find this new effort valuable!
Maybe of equal value is the chopping of the rough on the Manakin. The latitude continues to grow! This week we lowered the rough mowers down a quarter of an inch on the Manakin. This change results in some ugly (to us) scalping that will take a week or so to figure itself out. This dark green strip in the middle of the picture above is an area of fairway that we let grow up in order to smooth out the fairway line. No scalping there. We are excited for a more regular year next year where we can implement more culture practices, like scalping the rough (down to an inch during aeration) and then letting it grow back up nice and even.
Next week we start the bid process for the Sabot irrigation system. As we have mentioned before the front nine irrigation will be redone starting around November 2021. We have been working on the above irrigation plan with our consultant and will meet with potential contractors for the install next week. This is major progress for the Sabot!
The full moon is out and with an inch and a half of rain on the ground it is soft out there. We are excited for the change in the weather coming! Enjoy your long weekend and please remember to fix your ballmarks and fill your divots!