Spring transition begins!

 

High's in the 70's and lows in the 20's look like they will be around for the next week or so. It is always hard to realize that grass needs a little more than a few nice sunny days to start to growing again. Soil temps are slow to change so keep fixing ballmarks and replacing divots, there is a solid two more months before we see even the tiniest amount of growth out of the bermuda. Around the bentgrass greens we have sprayed our pre-emergent and a non-selective herbicide to help knock out the Poa. Overall the Manakin is very clean from weeds this spring.

We continue to push the bunker project along so that we can spend more time on daily maintenance as the weather changes. This fairway bunker on 3 and the first fairway bunker on 2 are the last two bunkers that we will renovate this spring.

These bunkers have seen a lot of different weather over the past 20 years. New sand has been added on top of contaminated sand and the bunker liner has been ripped up from normal maintenance. We have aimed for the worst conditioned bunkers first, and will continue to do so each winter.

3 fairway bunker cleaned out and ready for Capillary concrete. We are scheduled for 1 load of concrete Friday which will finish 5 green and then come to 3. Two more loads are scheduled for Wednesday next week which will finish us off. Joe Wagner at the helm making it all happen on Manakin now!

The bunker work takes a toll on our tractors and trailers. Carlos had to do some axle work with the welder on this trailer.

With the glimpse of warm weather we got the bathroom opened back up on 14 Manakin. The pump house is on and the irrigation company is starting to charge up holes 8 and 9 on the Sabot.

2 inch pipe for the next few holes is laying out in the sun, stretching its legs before it is plowed into the ground.

8 is complete and the team is now on 7. This is such a big undertaking, the irrigation crew is up to about 12 people now.

One day it looks like the picture above and the next day it is cleaned up and sodded back. Sunny dry weather is our friend!

John Gibson was out checking yardages on 9 today. The laser was reporting numbers back right on the money with what the GPS map was giving us. Yardage caps will be on the new fairway heads from 50 yards out to 250, plus a little longer for the par 5's. A single yardage will give you a number to the center of the green.

Get ready for some rain and some roller coaster weather!