The weather over the last few days has been absolutely beautiful. Low humidity, no clouds and full sun means excellent growing weather and great playing conditions. We do have some rain in the forecast however. With the weather continuing to slow the bermuda growth to a halt, and a wet week ahead, we went ahead and pulled the trigger on overseeding the Sabot fairways with bluegrass again. Some of the bluegrass from last year is coming back but certainly not close to 100%. We simply dropped more seed in at 2/3rds the rate of last year to bolster what is already there. Time didn't really allow for a full verticut and scalping process to prepare a seed bed but we didn't want to injure what bluegrass was coming back anyway. The vamont still presents a nice seedbed for this tiny bluegrass seed so as the rains come, we hope to see the bluegrass take back over this fall and winter.
The cartpath sealing work is finally over! About 9,000 gallons of sealant mix was applied to the paths over a total of 7 days. Those 7 days felt like a month though as we had to move play, and leagues and our own equipment out of the way to a different corner of the property each day. We are happy to have the paths complete and they look great. If only the acorns and grass clippings had a little more respect for the effort that just went in to making the paths look nice!
Here is where the big project for the week started out, behind 17 green Sabot. These pines were planted here probably 30 years ago for reasons unknown. In the 70's and 80's golf clubs felt like they had to modify the land more, and create separation on the course with trees. Now we are happy to let our existing contours do the work and we want some better views across our beautiful property.
The view off the back patio of the clubhouse now can take you all the way to 16 tees. We will continue working on the lake bank behind 17 green this fall in order to get more water into view. Pictures are hard to relay the difference some come out and check it out for yourself!
Next week we will start prepping for a few architectural projects on the Sabot. Here on 2, the back right bunker (the one you can't see, may not have know was there, and have never hit in) will be removed and sodded over. The remaining hollow will be mowed down in the spring and the approach will connect around to the left side in order to mirror that extension and create a more interesting roll off area. The black tee on 4 Sabot will also be leveled and prepped for new sod. We may even make back to the fairway bunker on 2 to start pulling out sand. The following week that bunker will be filled in and then we will start work on 5 tees and 5 approach. Hopefully we get the right amount of rain to keep the bluegrass moving but not slow down our soil work! Enjoy a few more beautiful golfing days!
