Perfectly cold this week
The third coldest day of 2024 is what it took to get frost to form on the fairways and greens for the first time this fall. There will not be much green bermuda left come next week and that is just fine. We are dry and ready for some winter work.
With below freezing temperatures keeping golf inside this week we did make some headway on winter tree work while the ground is firm and dry. A few trees on 3 Sabot came down to get more sun on the bottom part of that fairway and we have been working around 6 fairway Sabot to clear trees back off the cartpath and get more sun on that fairway. Our tree work is ongoing and once again going to make a nice impact on conditions this season. For reference here are the steps we go through when looking at trees through both courses:
· Is the tree causing poor conditions to an adjacent cartpath?
· Does the tree block sunlight from reaching in-play turfgrass during the growing season (April through October) after 8:00 am or before 3:00 pm?
· Does the tree cause significant shade problems in the winter months?
· Is the tree restricting critical air movement to in-play turfgrass?
· Can surrounding trees be removed in order to highlight a larger, healthy hardwood tree and still create a better environment for the turf?
· Does the tree contribute heavily to the aesthetics of the area and/or provide a strategic hazard?
· Is the tree impeding a normal line of play and creating a non-strategic hazard?
With the cold weather here we are happy to have the bunkers on 17 and 18 completed and now get started on the continuation of the Manakin irrigation upgrade. Soil temperatures are still above freezing so digging conditions were no problem this week.
If you can remember back to last year, the 20 year old irrigation control system wiring on the Manakin has degraded past a breaking point. That system used satellite control boxes and sent a signal down a wire to each sprinkler head to tell it to turn on. That meant about 50 miles of wire underground to control the 1300 heads on the Manakin. The Sabot received a new "two wire" technology that uses just two wires ran in series to every head and a solenoid with its own address that the computer can turn on individually. With the pipe and sprinkler heads performing well on the Manakin, we decided that we could run new wire in house and get another 10 years out of this system, so here we are.
The orange wire (there are two wires in that casing) is plowed in to every head on the hole in basically a daisy chain link. A new solenoid is screwed on to the head and wired up and that is it, on to the next head.
Last year we needed just one wire path for holes 5-13. This year we'll use one path for 14-18 and one path for 1-4. The wire for 18 back to 14 was ready to go here left of 18 from last year. The wire for 1-4 is ready and waiting to be hooked in to on the Driving Range.
8 foot long copper grounding rounds are installed every 500 feet or 16 sprinkler heads to help protect from lightning strikes.
Digging and backfilling keeps the blood flowing in the cold weather. Another benefit of visiting every sprinkler is getting it back to level and smooth with the playing surface.
Level heads mean proper water distribution which means better turf quality and overall less water demand.
Little cleanup is required after the sod around each head goes back down and our new roller smashes everything relatively smooth for the winter. 18 is finishing up now and we will start on 17 next week!
The deep tine machine will also get going next week on the greens. There are 1/4" solid tines equipped here that will go down about 7 inches into the greens profile. Once rolled these holes are barely noticeable to the golf but will go a long way from root growth on into the spring.
Stay warm the next few days, next week looks a little more normal for late fall!