After 2 inches of rain came down over the weekend, we have been privleged to some gorgeous weather this week. On Monday we were able to get some growth regulator out on the Manakin short grass. As we enter in to late summer the bermudagrass likes to get puffy and starts to scalp. The regulator slows the turf down and allows for a much better cut with the mowers.
The Manakin crew has been working on some serious bunker detail this week. They continue to check depths, pull out expired liner and then wet down any new sand that is added. We'll be excited to start replacing the sand and drainage in some of these bunkers this winter.
Over between 8 and 11 Manakin, Julio tossed in another set of pavers on the edge of the path. This section was worn out since it is pretty difficult to harness the power of the golf cart upon exiting this turn past 11 green!
Over on the Sabot we continued work on dressing up the walk paths between holes. Behind 7 green we stripped up the old gravel that was there and used to wash all down the cartpath. If you look back towards the tees, you can now see a void where we will build a new gold tee for 7 next week. The sod was removed from that area and laid here on the way from 7 green to 8 tees.
Late summer on bentgrass greens is always going to bring up the conversation about ballmarks. We have been hearing members trying to blame others for not fixing their marks properly. There will always be room for improvement in golfers fixing marks but for the most part, the success of that task is going to follow a bell curve. The greens are really the ones to blame for ugly ballmarks this time of the year. Especially on the Manakin, these greens have had a tough time growing roots. When a ball hits a green at 100 mph in 100 degree heat there is going to be some injury.
Besides getting pounded with golf play, past years of aerations being skipped or moved or eased off of, have given us an upper layer that gets anaerobic and subsequently heats up quickly in the summer. Our new program of aggressive aeration, relentless preventative fungicide applications, fans, and using the most advanced fertilizers on the market have given us some pretty acceptable surfaces this year. As time goes on, our programs, especially the fans, aerations and topdressings, will continue to improve the ballmark recovery and of course, putting quality.
So yes, encourage your playing partners to find and fix their ballmarks correctly by pushing in towards the center. We may just have one more blast of summer heat to deal with and then its on to the fall!
