April starts wet - Manakin aeration Monday/Tuesday next week
We were almost dried out this past Monday but a quick shower on Tuesday and a deluge of water on Wednesday soaked us down with another 1.3" of rain for the week. The only good thing about the rain is that it is keeping frosts away but that may also change this weekend. The fairways may be green enough to power through some low thirties but we will have to wait and see. The Sabot guys continue to pick off small drainage projects like here along #1 cartpath.
More drainage was added to the walkpath to the right of 3 approach where the spring seems to of expanded some. This french drain should help dry up the access to 4 tee.
Trinidad and Eligio even made it up to the entrance road to remove a few years of build up along the parking lot drainage.
The sprayer snuck out on Monday to apply a new to the market Poa annua herbicide. "Poa cure" has been in development for over 15 years and now can be applied to golf courses. It will act as both a pre-emerge and post-emerge herbicide to combat Poa and is supposedly safe on bentgrass and bermuda. We applied a band around all the greens to help clean up our collars and hopefully prevent any new Poa from germinating this fall.
The rains continue to batter the culvert pipe on 16 Manakin. This area will be renovated with a new pipe and a lot of concrete next week when the Manakin is closed Monday and Tuesday.
The Sabot greens just need a little sun to start shining again. We are back to mowing regularly although growth is still slow with the lower temps. These greens will be very playable come next week when we go after the Manakin with the same procedure. It is nice to see an inch of rain drain quickly through the profile with fresh aeration holes.
Our one new mower for the year does not need an operator. This new robot has been placed in the front lawn of the clubhouse. Wire has been placed around the outside to define its boundaries and the machine will run every day to keep the turf at a consistent height. Its silent operation and consistent cut will be a benefit this season next to an ever busy clubhouse.
We started work on a new, larger bentgrass green nursery out on 3 Sabot this week. The small nursery close to indoor tennis is being retired in order to give the kids a little more outdoor room to play. We'll get drainage inside this cavity along with greens mix and seed next week.
Another reminder that anything besides grass is considered trash on the golf course. There is no reason broken tees and cigarette butts can't be placed in a trash can but their user.
The roof is on the breakroom and the windows and doors are in. The plumbing guys are inside work and HVAC is following soon. We are moving along, bring on the sun!