The weather has been nothing short of amazing over the past week. A couple quick shots of rain have kept both courses growing and coming into their summer color. Temperatures back into the 50's will keep clipping yield down on the bermuda and green speeds up on the bentgrass. Our bi-weekly summer soil applications on the greens started in May. Every other Monday fungicides for pythium along with beneficial soil nutrients like calcium and manganese (a lot of people don't know what that is) are washed down into the greens profile to protect our roots against degradation as the summer he ..read more

  The tractor aerators made their way through all the Manakin fairways this week. The solid tines were going down about 3 inches for our annual aeration. This is a clean and fast process, knocking out about 50 acres of turf in less than three days. These holes should help keep water moving through the upper profile as we dry out in the summer while also promoting longer root growth so that the Latitude can draw water from deeper into the soil. All three 648 aerators were out as well punching holes in tee tops and all around the greens. Efrain, David and Raul all put in 20 miles a day to ..read more

  This past weekend hosted some of the best weather of the year so far. Cool and dry made for some great playing conditions. 1.2" of rain Tuesday evening brought some moisture back in but nothing that either course wasn't ready for. The greens are rolling great and the rough is starting to show some life while our herbicides are shrinking the Poa down. The Manakin will be closed Monday and Tuesday so that we can poke some solid tine holes in the fairways like we did on Sabot two weeks ago. Again, this should go relatively unnoticed by the golfer. Boomer is enjoying the Zoysia being awak ..read more

  The big aerators knocked out the Sabot fairways early in the week, poking 5/8" wide holes about 3" into the soil. This annual event helps the bermuda strengthen its root system as we head into the growing season. Manakin fairways will receive the same treatment in two weeks. After a mow this aeration is basically unnoticeable by the golfer. The walk behind aerators took care of solid tine aerating all the tees and approaches. They are able to go a little tighter on their spacing and are much easier to maneuver around the greens and tee slopes. And when we say walk behind aerator we a ..read more

  Sabot Superintendent Ben Longest picked the right day to get married to his new bride Nikki last Friday. A cool sunny day let the two tie the knot and then head west to Primland for their honeymoon. Back to reality on Monday buddy! It has been hot and dry on our side of the state this week which has made for some pretty firm fairways out there. Night time soil temps are still in the mid-60's so the rough is still a ways from waking up.  The Manakin greens are getting close to fully healed. The fairways and approaches have great color for May, and that really goes for both course ..read more

  We are in our normal holding pattern for spring now. The fairways have greened up nicely but there will be no exciting amount bermuda growth for a bit, even with 90 in the forecast next week. The soil temperatures rise slowly, just as the water temperature does. Above 80 degrees makes it close to comfortable to jump in the pool and that is when the bermuda will start moving. We are hovering in the mid 60's right now. In the meantime enjoy the bouncy golf course and lack of rough! We were able to knock out our final bunker renovation of the season on Manakin this week. Joe and Sloan sc ..read more

  With all 3 aeration machines in action on Monday the guys ran through all 19 greens on Manakin before 3:00. The upper profiles of these Manakin greens continue to become healthier. The plugs contain much more sand than in the past, with plenty of new root growth already taking place.  The quarter inch sized plugs are relatively easy to blow off the surface, eliminating any abrasion during the clean up process. Our zeolite clay along with some calcium, potassium, magnesium and humic acid were all applied to the open holes before close to 40 tons of sand was spread over the green ..read more

  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 s ..read more

We have seen a solid 4 inches of rain come down since this past Saturday night and that puts us well past the airport total of 7" for the month. We'll go ahead and place ourselves in the 8th place spot for wettest March on the books. The rain continues to wash the chaff off the bermuda and despite a few speckles of frost here and there it continues to green up slowly. Monday was a beautiful day however so Joe went ahead and knocked out some additional drainage on 15 Manakin blue and white tee.  Grant, Dillon and Bobby continue to dial in the Manakin irrigation system. All of the part ..read more

  The guys got started early on Monday with all three of our greens aerators. 1/4" cores were pulled out of the top two inches of our greens profile on all 20 greens before the end of the day. The absence of the dryject combined with smaller holes at a tighter spacing seems to put these greens through less of a shock in the spring. The performance of the surface through the season has improved with this aeration practice and recovery is much quicker than using the dryject and larger holes. We are still able to get about 30 tons of kiln dried sand into the holes on the greens. This ..read more