Winter Projects still moving, Nick Scheible set to continue his career in St. Louis!
The main line has made its way back to #1 tee Sabot! In total for the mainline we have seen about 14,000 linear feet of pipe go into the ground.
The HDPE pipe is really efficient to put together. Instead of wrestling with gasketed fittings and glue, every 50 foot long stick of pipe is fused together with this machine.
The ends of the pipe are heated up to 425 degrees and then the fusing machine pushes the two ends of the pipe together. An 8 inch pipe is fused for 8 minutes. The result of the butt fusion is a joint that is stronger than the pipe itself, ensuring that this system will be in use for a very long time. Each fusion is dated and signed before it goes into the ground. We should start seeing the new heads being plowed into the ground next week.
The dormant fairways on the front of the Sabot have held up extremely well this winter. This area on 2 used to be a mud hole before we installed drainage in it last year.
The bunker project for the Manakin has moved over to #1. These two bunkers will be excavated and new drainage installed. The capillary concrete is ordered for February 3rd. Concrete orders are 3-4 weeks out which is fine anyway since we need some warmer temps for the concrete to set up. After #1 we will head over to 8 green.
We are excited to report that our own Manakin superintendent, Nick Scheible as secured himself a new job as Head Superintendent at Persimmon Woods Golf Club just west of St. Louis. Persimmon has zoysia fairways and bentgrass greens with a strong golfing membership. The new course is also within 45 minutes of much of Nick and his wife Jessica's family. Nick's contributions to Hermitage over the past 5 years have been immeasurable. He has turned the Manakin into one of the best courses in the state after our 2019 renovation but most importantly he has shepherded and built up the Manakin crew which has given you those conditions. We wish Nick good luck in this next great step of his career!