Two days of frost but some beautiful weather!
Here is the closest we got to a frost picture this week. Two mornings in the mid 30's froze up most of the leaf blades in the rough. Bermuda season is officially over. Thanks to Emily for the picture! If you look closely there is a candid shot of a bald eagle in the fairway enjoying the view.
The greens verticutter got dusted off and put into action early on Monday. This process of thinning out any laid over bentgrass takes the entire day Monday. The single triplex verticutter has to travel to all 39 greens and the sand topdresser follows behind. Once the sand is dry it can be brushed into the canopy.
The sand brushes in nicely and the grass clippings disappear. We ran irrigation quickly in the morning on Tuesday and the greens mowed out beautifully and have been rolling great all week.
The excavator made its way out to 5 green Sabot to renovate the green side of the bridge which has been long overdue. Eligio and his team removed the old asphalt and laid in new brick pavers.
On the way back in the excavator stopped in the native area on 3 to remove some bunker sand from probably 20 years ago that was dumped in the trees. The sand was deep which is why we could never get fine fescue to grow over there. Ben pulled most of the sand out and swapped it with some topsoil. The area was seeded and covered and should blend in nicely next year. Notice also that these trees were pruned up a touch more Monday. The view from 4 tees is among the nicer ones on property!
Over on the Manakin two more drainage systems were installed this week on the right side of the fairway. Both of the projects were right of top of irrigation lines that had to be worked around which always makes operating the trencher tricky.
Sloan and Pete kept the guys moving through the wet clay. The trench is filled with gravel, pipe and sand and then sodded back over. Only about 6 more months until the bermuda starts growing again, anything we can do to control the moisture will help keep it alive! Next week we look to start working on the bunkers of 4 Manakin and you will see the old tennis proshop come down in the Pickleball area. Winter project time is coming quickly!
Rosa and Angela have the Clubhouse dialed in for fall! Enjoy the last burst of summer this weekend!