Cold weather not helping us this week

 

Frost and 34 degrees is not what we need for bermuda growth, or even bentgrass growth for that matter. Another light frost is expected tonight so we will just look forward to the thermometer hitting 80 next week and see if spring can try to start again.

You can see some remnants of winter out on the Manakin in the form of large patches. This is a fungus called.......Large patch. It develops in the fall and through the winter and is due to excessive moisture and thatch, two things the Latitude had plenty of over the last 6 months. It is more or less just superficial on bermudagrass. Once the temps get moving the bermuda will grow right out of the patch.

So the bermuda isn't growing but we are allowing the grass range tee to be used Thursday through Sunday. New signs are out encouraging linear divots. A linear divot pattern can reduce the area impacted by 65%. Considering our range tee is about 33% of the size it needs to be, we need all the help we can get in salvaging turf here. If you want to check the math and read a 3 page article about divots, click here, otherwise, just give the linear pattern a try and stop making giant voids on the range tee.

The new tees on 18 are now sodded with Latitude bermuda. We will continue working on the cartpath next week in order to get ready for the paving company to pave the new path.

With the new tees in on 18 we wanted to remove the silt and willow tree island that was in the lake between the tees and the fairway. Our mini excavator made it to the island but it could not make it up on top. The mud worked against us and our star employee got stuck.

Thankfully Ben Nuckols with Crozier Construction was right up the street with a real excavator to help us out. Minutes after unloading 1,500 pine straw bales from a truck, our team flip flopped plywood from the parking lot to #18 so the metal tracked excavator could help out.

In about an hour, our machine was back on dry land and the island was scooped up and taken to the dump. 

With 18 tees sodded we moved on to erasing the bunker behind 3 green Sabot.

Andrew Green sent us some notes for his detailed interpretation from the master plan.

And then we made the change! The swale fits in nicely and the walk up from behind the green is much more accommodating. This area, along with the collars around all the greens on the Sabot will be sodded to Latitude36 bermuda next week. Exciting times as the weather tries to warm up!

If you see Melvin Cox around on the Sabot please congratulate him on being at Hermitage for 40 years! Melvin is a stalwart on our team and always up for anything we toss his way!

Have you ever been playing 17 or 18 Manakin around lunch time and smelled something wonderful on the grill? Our staff stays well fed and we are willing, this one time, to let you in on a Maintenance Facility BBQ. On Wednesday next week we'll give a tour of our facility and treat you to some authentic Mexican tacos churned out from our own Golf Course Mechanics/Chefs, Dunstano and Carlos. Click here to sign up!