A perfect week for sand and compost, bring on the rain!
The forecast was gloomy and wet this week but the sun powered through and helped us complete our cultural practices on the Sabot right on time. The new greens got their first light vertical mowing and then a light topdressing. The sand was brushed in to help keep the new bentgrass standing up and providing a smooth roll. Our new Assistant Superintendent, Tyler Edger jumped right in this week and is having fun. Tyler joins us from Belmont Golf Course, where Hermitage originated over 120 years ago.
Our smaller machines aerated the tees and approaches. The aeration process is slow but we were able to punch all 30 acres of short grass in two days. The sand topdressers went ahead of the aerators most of the time.
Just about 200 tons of sand were spread over the tees, approaches and fairways on the Sabot. The sand is scooped up 1.5 tons at a time and hauled out in 7.5 ton loads and spread evenly with the big Dakota. We now have two of these machines to get the job done.
The Dakotas split time with our oldest material handler, the Tycrop to get 100 tons of compost spread wall to wall through the course. We were going to have a contractor spread the compost on Monday but their truck came up broken from last week. This is why we rarely rely on contractors and like to have the ball in our own hands when it comes time to get things done on a tight timeline. The compost is going down at a great time. As the weather warms up, the microbes in the soil will also come alive and work slowly to break the compost down and release plenty of nutrients that the plant can use during the season to stay healthy.
The compost and sand were all brushed in together. The last 30 days have been super dry so we had no problem running a little water behind everything to also help knock it down into the canopy. The poa annua will continue to melt out of the back nine fairways as the bermuda underneath wakes up.
The latitude on the Manakin turned a small corner this week and is starting to move a little. Another pine straw bed reduction project is happening behind 8 black tee. Grant has used some old bunker sand and stole some compost from Sabot to prepare a seed bed here for more fine fescue. He has seeded the area and will try to create a new native area here instead of the old pine straw that would just wash down towards 11 green in a rain storm.
We tossed a few more perennials in around the bathroom on 14 this week. Next week our annuals for the clubhouse will be here and will start going in the ground. That means real spring is here and we headed towards summer!