Another productive week, ready for the rain
Last weekends 80 degree temperatures have the fairways on both courses looking phenomenal. Looking at pictures from last year the color this year is a little better but some cool nights will have things looking differently towards the end of the month. The dry weather has kept playing conditions excellent for the fall.
As the sod farm worked Monday on cutting our first load of grass to be delivered on Tuesday, we finished dialing in 12 green as well as prepped the fairway bunker on 10 for capillary concrete. Two golf course shapers from Landscapes Unlimited helped us with the finishing touches for 12, getting the grades to Andrew Green's recommendations, making a few adjustments and then doing a final rake for sod.
We stole some sod from 16 approach (which will be modified this spring) and laid down the new collar. This left collar has been brought back to the original green cavity line which was almost 2 feet inside where the green used to be. It is much flatter now and raised up about 8 inches.
The Pure Eclipse went down on Thursday and new zoysia sod was laid on the stream bank which was also lifted up a bit. The green is much more fair now and will produce a few more pin positions on this left side. More balls should be held here now as opposed to rolling all the way down to the stream.
The sod laid last Thursday on 10 and 11 is already tacking down, always a good sign!
Overall this was a strenuous week for the entire team. Right now we have 30 people on staff and all 30 of us were in on the sodding action Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. So far we have laid 51,000 square feet of bentgrass sod. That is 85 pallets or 4,250 rolls of sod!
Every single piece has to be put perfectly in place and then cut in to match up squarely with the piece beside it. A tedious and time consuming process. Doing this project in house not only helps reduce the cost of the project but we know it is being done correctly. The entire staff now can take pride in the new greens because they made it happen!
Here is all that is left to be sodded, most of 15 green. All the other 8 greens are covered and completed. With the tropical storm headed our way we canceled our last truck that was scheduled for Friday so 15 will be completed Tuesday next week.
All of the sod seams are filled with dry greens topdressing sand. The sand helps keep the seams moist and also allows them to fill in and level out faster. We will be rolling and mowing these greens inside of two weeks.
Bunker work continues on Manakin. 8 fairway bunker has been dug out and new drainage is going in.
Our first two loads of Capillary Concrete came on Thursday and covered the floor and faces of 10 fairway bunker. This is by far the largest bunker we will rebuild this year and in fact is the largest bunker on the property. Our sand is rolling in from North Carolina and we hope to have this bunker filled up next week. The concrete scheduling is a little tough this time of the year as we have to schedule loads 3 weeks in advance and hope the weather is good. SB Cox already lost our reservation for next week so we may be out of luck until after Thanksgiving. Please keep enjoying your free drop as we move on to digging out 9 fairway bunker next week.
Over 100 miles in the last two weeks is a lot of sod work and this is probably 75% of what our crew guys are doing! We will be enjoying the rain tomorrow!