Onward! No more 20 degree nights, Sabot aeration complete

 

Frozen ground in late March is never good for Bermuda. Temperatures are back and the sun has been shining so we should see things start greening up over the next few weeks.

Sabot aeration started slowly earlier this week with 25 degrees reading on the thermometer. The greens thawed quickly though thanks to the sun. Because of the cool weather the Dryject machines had some trouble operating cleanly so we went ahead and bypassed that process and went straight to pulling 1/4" cores out of all 20 greens on the Sabot. The cores are easily blown off and picked up.

A medium application of coarse, dry sand was laid down and brushed into the smaller holes. Our cultural practice philosophy continues to evolve, especially as these greens perform better and better each season. Aeration is all about managing our upper organic matter layer. If we can moderate the growth of the turf with less inputs during the season, our organic percentage can actually decrease. Keeping the holes small allows for minimal inputs in recovery as opposed to having to fertilize to fill big holes in the spring. We can manage OM with frequent topdressings that match turf growth instead of making huge holes and then getting them to fill in quickly with a bunch of fertilizer. To summarize: Small holes = better for everyone!

We borrowed the big roller from the irrigation guys and rolled everything smooth.

There is your final product on the front nine. Putting quality is still in tact and should be back to normal in two weeks easily.

The back nine greens are coming along nicely and are set to open Tuesday April 18th. We'll continue to drop the height down as the turf allows over the next 3 weeks. Manakin aeration is set for April 3rd and 4th and you can click here to see our full schedule for the year.

Our little bit of help with the patio moved over to the steps to the Tap Room this week. The old railroad ties and pavers were ripped out in favor of these varigated Tennessee stones that match the flagstone on the new patio.

The new stones are beautiful and will be here for a long time. We are all set to finish up the back lawn of the clubhouse starting April 3rd. We'll take the fence down, run new irrigation lines, grade the area out and then sod it to bermudagrass on the 7th. Up on the patio they are buttoning up a number of different procedures and should be able to announce an opening date soon.

With freezing temperatures behind us we were able to get a truck of sod in on Thursday. This bed on the left of 14 Sabot has been graded out and sodded with tall fescue.

The guys on the Manakin also found themselves a bed on 14 to sod over and make life easier during the season instead of chasing pine straw around. The leftover bermuda is headed back to the Sabot to continue patch up mainline areas from the irrigation system. 

So at the end of the day (or week), we continue to get a massive amount of work accomplished. All we ask you to do when you are out playing is to find and fix your ballmark correctly. We all know that everyone that reads the Blog accomplishes this feat (and probably more) very consistently. So your mission this year as a Blog reader is to pleasantly remind your playing partners to find and fix their ballmark correctly. Good luck!