Busy week with some timely rain

 

This was our big week on the Manakin to get all of our cultural practices done. Once again on the greens we just used the small 1/4" coring tines to pop out some organic matter and help ensure we can keep the air and water moving through the greens profile through the summer. The largest task was verticutting and topdressing all 55 acres of short grass. 

The small plugs are easily blown off the greens and picked up. The greens were very lightly topdressed and very lightly brushed in. Playability should be totally acceptable for the weekend.

Roots on the Manakin are in great shape going into the summer. The green surfaces themselves have never looked better. The cumulation of all our different practices over the past few years are coming together nicely.

Both of our verticutters took all 3 days to work their way through all the fairways, tees and approaches. Making a run at the thatch on the Latitude is absolutely necessary as we head into the deep summer. 

All the tees, fairways and approaches were topdressed with about 200 tons of sand which is actually a pretty light rate. The sand helps keep the surface firm and continue smoothing things out. Everything is brushed in, blown off, rained in and ready for golf play.

While we were closed we also took the opportunity to scalp down the rough to about an inch. Scalping it down a bit will help level the rough out and look more consistent as it grow back to its normal 1.75" height.

The area behind 16 blue tee has been shaped in and leveled out. We have sod coming in Tuesday afternoon for this new teeing area.

Our last project for the week was modifying and cleaning up the view along our entrance road. Many of the cedar trees were over grown, filled with vines and poison ivy and blocking the view of the golf course and the road itself. We also removed one of the pin oaks behind 16 green in order to highlight the larger pin oak and to see if we can get some grass to fill in around that area. There is still some work to do but we think the improvement is already substantial.

Even the deer were helping with the new clearing along the entrance. Thanks to all for your patience while we got things done over the past few days. Another timely rain has helped us button things up and be ready for a nice weekend!