Sabot greens resurfacing off and running

 First thing Monday our regular Dryject team showed up and injected about 15 tons of sand through our profile on the practice greens and front nine. This was the first of many events this week!

The drill and fill machines came right behind the Dryjects, drilling a 1 inch diameter hole down 8 inches deep. Dry sand filled the hole up to the top.

The drill and fill makes a mess but having that massive column of sand will make sure these greens are draining nicely for a long time.

 The greens were brushed and rolled and then the sod cutters went to work. We chose 8 green to preserve some sod and transfer it to the back nine where we sprayed out the encroaching bermuda on the edges.

Just one pass around the back nine greens took out most of the older bermuda. Doing this now should give us a nice head start in keeping these back nine greens clean and ready for the pure eclipse sod next year.

About 3/4 of 8 green now borders the back nine greens. This sod should root in over the next few weeks and blend in over the winter.

Here is what we are left with when the sod is removed. Our organic layer is still there but it is filled with recent areation, dryject and drill and fill holes. All these holes will be filled with roots very shortly.

The remaining removal process went quickly with the full team working together.

Cutting up the greens in the dark first thing in the morning took the sting out of tearing up our beautiful old L93 greens a little. 

Our neighbors bounced across the road and harvested 3 and 4 green in order to build a fairway nursery at their maintenance facility. The L93 will match up with their fairways nicely. So your original Sabot greens will still live on in Manakin Sabot!

The first truck of sod rolled in Wednesday morning. The putting green was covered with Pure Eclipse bentgrass before lunch.

Laying greens sod is pretty technical. Making sure the seams are as tight as possible is imperative for a successful grow in. The sod looks amazing coming off the pallet!

With a warm week in the forecast next week, we should see some roots start to come down next week. The winter grow in process will be interesting. After two days of sodding, and by the looks of this sod, I think we'll be ok for a mid-April opening.

All of the seams are filled with dry sand just to keep the turf insulated and encourage it all to fill in evenly. 

In the midst of all the greens work, we are also starting to work on the bunker renovation for 9 Sabot. A large amount of sod has been stripped and repurposed. Wood chip beds like this one by 11 green have been covered in sod from 9. A few other out of the way beds on 18 were also covered. More on this project next week!

Modifications to the 7th green have also begun, look for more detailed info on the softening of the right side of this green next week.

We have plenty of action going on out there, we are ahead of schedule and looking good!