Sabot back nine greens complete, first taste of winter inbound
The last 10 pallets of Pure Eclipse covered up 15 Sabot on Tuesday before almost 1.5 inches of rain came down. This was another awesome team effort, sodding out all 9 greens, 60,000 square feet in 5 total days. We had two pallets left over so the nursery green by tennis was also re-sodded.
10 green is more or less rooted in already. We rolled 10 and 11 on Wednesday and they smoothed out nicely. The rest of the greens will have to go through some 20 degree temperatures this weekend before we get the rollers and mowers on them.
Landscapes Unlimited has broken ground on 10 Sabot and we have new HDPE pipe going in the ground. Just like last year, the mainline pipe will go in the ground first, all the way around the back nine. The contractors will then come back and plow in the lateral lines and dig in all the irrigation heads.
The pipe is currently being fused right in the bottom parking lot. The pipe ends are heated up and squeezed together creating a bead that is much stronger than the actual pipe. The couple 100 feet of pipe is then simply dragged out to 10 and put in the ground. There is no glue involved here, massively reducing the chances for leaks for a long time.
Ian Williams our irrigation architect was out Monday flagging and marking sprinkler head positions via his GPS module. As boring as trenching and putting pipe in the ground is, it is exciting to see the last portion of this project make its way from the drawing to the actual golf course!
Bunker work continues on the Manakin as 9 fairway bunker is prepped for concrete. We may get lucky with a load of concrete next week but its not likely. We also got unlucky with the last two loads of bunker sand which is why 10 fairway is not filled up yet. Once we started dumping the fresh loads of sand into 10 we saw it filled with different stone from the quarry, just like last year. The bad sand will have to be pulled out and screened. We have a direct line with the quarry now and are working with them to get clean sand delivered.
This article from the USGA was floating around Twitter this week and was something we used when developing our portion of the Capital renewals and replacements plan. As we enter the new fiscal year we couldn't be more thankful that Hermitage has put forth a proper plan to replacement our equipment intelligently so that we can produce a high quality product. We still have a few pieces left with 4,000+ hours on them but that number is dwindling. This year in total between leases and capital purchases we will be replacing one more tractor, a track loader, a deep tine aerator, 3 triplex mowers, another trailer and 3 pull behind blowers which are already on site. Onward and upward!