Men's Invitational does not wait on Mother Nature

Usually by June we are pretty happy with how the property has shaped up. A few more 49 degree nights this past week has put us behind on the bermuda but the greens really could not be better. The rollers and growth regulator are out and our cool season turf is loving life.

The Manakin short grass got a dose of Nitrogen on Monday but these cool nights still has the Latitude behind where it could be. We will continue counteracting the cool weather some more nutrients next week.

The native areas are just now going to seed and the guys have the bunker surrounds dialed in nicely for this week. When the sun is shining both sides give some hints at good a season ahead.

We made another lap around the property cutting dead pine branches out of damaged trees from the winter. Our final load of sod will come next week and maybe then we can put this past winter behind us.

Our seed is starting to pop up on the dredged material on 16 Manakin. This is about the only area that is enjoying the moist cool spring.

Next week we are scheduled to do a quick aeration on the greens. We will just be using 3/8" solid tines along with a medium amount of topdressing. This will be the final cultural effort before we stretch through the summer.

The Sabot fairways are also scheduled to be verticut and topdressed. This event was moved from after the Valentine in August which was always just too late in the growing season. Now we are too early this year. We will forgo the verticutting and just stick with a heavy topdressing on all Sabot tees, approaches and fairways Monday through Wednesday. Let's hope summer shows up sooner than later and we will get this bermuda moving!

Normally before Men's Invitational we like to get out and make sure we play a round or two to see how everything is looking from the golfer perspective. As it happened Mr. Daryl Chappell issued a challenge the week prior stating I could not break 100 from the black tees on the Sabot using full tournament rules. On Monday we went after both tasks so here are the takeaways:

It had been a long time since I had to putt everything out and play with the threat of a 10+ on the scorecard. My 13.7 index and non existent practice schedule combined with the absence of a drink cart did not play well into this challenge. 

Daryl reminding me on every tee box and every green that there were no gimmes or free drops sunk in quickly after taking 4 shots to get down on 4 from the left approach.

There is just no room for error off the tee on the Sabot. After playing my drive out of John Click's backyard on 5 I registered penalty strokes on 6, 15, 16 and 17 off the tee. 

Daryl's chipping and putting was exhausting. It seemed like he made every putt he looked at and even when a bogey was lurking he would make a long putt or chip it in from out of no where. It makes sense now as to why you only see him torturing his 7 iron on the range every day, his short game is solid, mine is terrible. 

I ended up with more impossible chipping scenarios (like right of 7 in the rough to the back right pin) and in more bunkers (like 3 different ones on 9) than I thought possible. It was a punishing round and I choked all the way through Arnolds March to end up with a 102 and no desire to play true stroke play again. 

The Sabot is certainly our Championship side and asking for more than the current 46% of play over there should fall on deaf ears. Being able to set the golf course up for 3,000 golfing members and 400 different golf games a day really is our toughest and easiest challenge. We only serve one meal a day as my old boss used to say. Modifying certain holes to make them easier or harder, or just better, has to go through a serious process. It is one that involves committees, architects and the board to take into consideration our wide berth of golfers here at Hermitage. I am excited to see how the next 10 years plays out!