Green up continues for most areas......Sabot back nine open Tuesday the 18th
We traded a few frosts early in the week for some 80 degree temperatures yesterday and today. The Sabot greens continue to knit together and we have worked the height down a touch more this week.
You can still make out the sod lines but these new Pure Eclipse greens are more than puttable. We are happy to get this back nine of the Sabot opened back up on Tuesday the 18th. Remember your ballmark repair tool and enjoy a full 18 holes of Pure Eclipse next week!
As excited as we are to open up our new bentgrass greens, we have to remain patient with the bermudagrass green up. Some areas green up quickly and as we have mentioned in a few recent blogs, other areas with shade, wear, and moisture issues will take longer to wake up.
On top of shade, wear and moisture variances we also have to fight the winter annual Poa annua. This means always having a supply of pre-emergent in the ground from November through today. If you'll remember last year, the back nine of the Sabot was infiltrated with Poa annua in April. This year we have licked the Poa but at a cost of delaying the bermuda from waking up. This is a picture from 17 approach. The difference in green up is staggering between the approach where we did not go after any Poa with a selective herbicide vs the fairways where we did apply a herbicide to take out any remaining Poa.
There has been some serious green up though this week as the soil temperatures eek past 60 degrees. We fertilized all the weak areas through both courses this week and have been supplementing the dry weather with irrigation. This picture is just 3 days after the above shot.
The new irrigation system on Sabot is working nicely as we try to wake up the Sabot back nine. The contractors are buttoning up a few details but are otherwise finished with this project.
As you travel back to 12-16 Sabot next week it is like going 2 months back in time because of all the shade and the March herbicide application for the Poa. Every spot across our 500 acres has its own story after being dormant for close to 6 months. We'll do our best to encourage growth over the next few weeks and then see where we end up.
Back on the cool season side, the Manakin greens have started to fill in and are putting well just one week after aeration. The smaller tines have done their job and we are excited not to have to push this bentgrass along to fill in huge holes in the spring. This property will continue to change every day!