It is mid-summer for most of us but the end of summer for others

 

3 inches of rain soaked us down last weekend but some nicer low humidity days followed up this week. The weather has been pretty average this summer, with bursts of moisture when we needed them. There are not any more 100 degree days on the horizon either so maybe all of our summer help going back to school can actual signal a downslope into fall.

This is by far the best year we have had on the greens. We have been able to keep our clipping yields low and stay ahead of any summer weather induced diseases. Putting speeds are adequate for August and having them healthy headed to September means we can step back on the gas more quickly. All 20 fans are operational (as of this minute) and continue to make a world of difference on greens with restricted airflow.

A dry light topdressing was again applied to the greens on Monday. This sand has been very beneficial over the last two weeks, combatting the puffiness potential of the bentgrass as well as the mid summer ballmark epidemic. By the way, we did 7,555 rounds of golf in the month of July. I would go ahead and take that into account if you are concerning yourself about ballmarks on these smaller than average greens. The good news is that 47% of those rounds were on Sabot so we have certainly made some headway in spreading play between both courses.

With our summer help on the way out we are making one more push to get around and edge the bunkers and smooth the sand out more. The rain last Sunday came down quite hard, hard enough to cause some washouts and accumulate some silt. All day Monday was spent manicuring the bunkers with the better part of 10 people across both courses.

Mario and Fortino lucked out of the bunkers but into the stream on 5 Sabot to clean the invasive bentgrass that likes to clog up the flow and waterfalls. The amount of golf balls they found in there probably explains the lack of snakes, snakes and artillery ranges really don't mix.

The latitude on the Manakin has recovered nicely from the verticutting and was very timely considering some of the latitude on Sabot has become very thick and prone to scalping. We brought the smaller verticutter out today to some tees on 5, the approach on 5 and the fairway on 18. We aren't sure exactly what variety is on 18 fairway and approach but it was in drastic need of thinning out. We hope to topdress and brush these areas in along with most of the approaches this coming Monday. On August 28th we will be closing the Sabot for three days while we verticut and topdress all the short grass there as well as aerate the greens with 1/4" tines.

Enjoy the rain today and get ready for more summer heat this weekend!