The weather was on our side for the Men's Member Guest and we were happy to put out a pretty solid test of golf last Thursday through Saturday. We paid for it Sunday though when over 3 inches of rain came down hard and fast, saturating the turf and destroying any non rebuilt bunkers on the Manakin. Even the new bunkers had a lot of silt in them that all required a lot of work to clean out and put back together on Monday.
Summer is here now so this week we started getting the greens fans back on the course. This year we will have a total of 19 fans helping us keep the bentgrass cooled off on steamy days. Of all the tricks we employ on the greens via aeration, fungicides and fertilizers, the fans are the end all be all in making sure these greens with any kind of air flow restriction around them stay alive and playable.
Of the 19 fans, 4 are new for this year. 10, 14, 16 and 17 Sabot will have fans on them now. This week we plowed in over 3,000 feet of electric cable in order to power the fans. We had already done 17 last year so that left 10, 14 and 6 to hook up but with #10 being a 1600 foot run from the pool to the green that was plenty of a challenge.
To get power to 10 we had to cross three cart paths and hump over at least 10 different irrigation and drainage lines. Everything has seemingly gone well and we hope to have all the fans up and running early next week. This work is easily something to be done by outside contractors but by doing it ourselves it is much more cost efficient and a great learning experience for all involved.
We were finally able to get our pre-emerge weed control out for the summer this week, exactly 4 months after our last application which is scheduled to last exactly 4 months. There is definitely some crab and goosegrass starting to break through out there so hopefully this wall to wall application of close to 200 acres is just in time.
We started our full court press of getting the fairways on 12, 13 and 16 Sabot back into shape this week as well. Most of the approach on 12 was re-grassed with new hybrid bermudagrass as well as another spot back in the fairway. These fairways are the ones with the most shade through the year which make it easier for the Poa to invade during overseeding. The vamont continues to fill in every day and we will have another truck of sod delivered Wednesday of next week as well for 13 and 16.
The Sabot's desire for some sod is giving us the opportunity to expand the blue tee on Manakin 16. The team stripped, rolled and re-laid the sod from between the current blue and black tees on 16 over to 12 Sabot today. Next week we will massage this area to be a flatter teeing surface so that we have more options here on 16.
Plenty of comments have rolled in about how great the fairways are on the Manakin so that lines up perfectly with our three day closure this coming Monday. We will be pulling small 1/4" cores out of the greens and blowing them off. The fairways will receive the above pictured verticutting followed by a light sand application. This process makes sure the greens can take one more big breath before summer and that the fairways can make it through he summer with less thatch. Less thatch on the bermuda means a better playing surface and reduced scalping which results in that pure look all season long.
Thank you for your patience during the week as we are always looking to make things better!
