Polishing off some projects before school starts
The golf courses continue to shine through the heat this summer. The rains continue to come in almost a timely fashion, even though we could of used a little less than 5 inches on Saturday this past weekend. As about 10 of our crew members cycle back to school, we looked to tackle a few projects this week.
We also cut up a few thin spots on 1, 14 and 16 fairways where the vamont nor the bluegrass wanted to provide a nice surface for the summer.
The bentgrass tee for 15 blue was also swapped out for new bermudagrass. The only bent tees we have left now are on 5 black tee. Those tees on 5 black will be pushed back and rebuilt this winter after the new irrigation pipes go through. The bermuda laid this week is called Iron Cutter and it is from the farm that is growing our greens sod for the Sabot. The Iron Cutter is supposed to be just as good if not better than Latitude or Tahoma. Sod quality wise (ability to roll it up and handle) it is way better than the Latitude and price wise it beats the Tahoma. The sod farm had just dropped the height on this field and after a long drive from Maryland it looks a little rough but this will be a good test moving forward.
The Manakin team continues to keep their side dialed in. The pine straw beds are a large nemesis over there. Between rain storms washing them out and blowers trying to disperse clippings and pushing the straw around, the beds take a lot of time to maintain. This small bed around the pine tree by 13 black was sodded out with Latitude from our nursery area on 3 Sabot.
On Wednesday we were able to travel down to NC State for their turfgrass research field day. Despite it being about 640 degrees outside, it was great to look at some interesting trials. There were fungicide trials on bentgrass, shade and drought trials on bermuda and we were able to look at some new experimental bermuda and zoysia grasses.
The Pure eclipse looks great in the NC State trials. The texture and drought tolerance is outstanding!
On 8 green Sabot we have sprayed a non selective herbicide on the bermuda encroaching onto the green. Another application or two should have this bermuda set back pretty nicely by the time the sod cutter runs through it in November.
We are still working on repairs to the inflow pipe at the pumphouse. We removed the top of the 14" valve that had not been working and are waiting on parts to get that put back together.
The paving work is looking fresh out there! Remember, this Monday we will be totally closed all day while the paving is completed on the entrance road. Our staff will be parking on 2 Sabot and then enjoying a day without golfers on property!