The bottom has dropped out of the night time temperatures. We even hit 39 degrees the other day! The cold temperatures have slammed the bermuda to a halt and allowed our bentgrass to take a nice breath of fresh air.
Today is the one year anniversary of the Manakin opening with Latitude 36 bermudagrass! We were very lucky with the weather last year. An extended hot and dry period led us to perfect conditions come September 24th. Looking at the weather last year, it was 100 degrees on October 3rd!
Now on September 24th the bermuda has slowed down significantly. The Manakin will receive no paint this year, we will be going all natural, all winter. The paint certainly did not help us green up any faster this spring and bottom line, it is expensive!
We are going to continue encouraging our bluegrass experiment on the Sabot. The bluegrass gives great natural color and helps suck up moisture on the lower area that the Sabot plays through. While the bluegrass isn't showing its face as much as we would like at the moment, it will continue to fill in. We will be adding more seed into the mix in about two weeks.
Our first big project for the week is getting started on the cartpaths. Flatline contractors are here to start patching up our 10 miles of cartpaths. This week they are cleaning the cracks out and then filling them with a special liquid asphalt. Next week we will have nine holes closed at a time to apply sealant over all the paths. By this time next week (if the weather cooperates) the paths should be looking brand new!
Our staff has been hustling along the paths as well. A new attachment to our Ventrac mower has a cartpath edger attachment which has sliced through the overgrown bermuda that has encroached on the paths. Hand work is our only option to clean things up unfortunately so most of the crew has been attacking the 20 miles of edges in order to prepare for next weeks seal coat.
The rest of the team has been knocking out the remaining bunkers of the Sabot back nine. This fairway bunker on 10 and the 3 on 18 are all we have left to rebuild on the back of Sabot. The bunker on 10 was cleaned out and new drainage installed. The edges were moved back almost 3 feet to the original edge.
Since this bunker is on top of a hill and very flat, we skipped the capillary concrete process here. This bunker has very little exposure to washing from heavy rains so we felt the $3,000 in concrete would be a waste. This bunker has much better presence now from the tee with its new edge and white sand.
The guys dug back the edges on 18 fairway bunkers also. The shovel marked the previous edge. The sand build up around these 25 year old bunkers was impressive, that is almost 5 feet!
The sand and drains are cleaned out of 18 and new drainage is in. On Monday we will pour the capillary concrete here and then Tuesday the sand will go in. Some quick accomplishments this week in between more golf events!
