Hermitage CC Golf Course Management

 The first signs of winter weather hit us earlier in the week. We’re still over a month away from the winter solstice, when winter officially begins, but it certainly felt like it had arrived. The cold weather settled in a bit earlier than expected, and while we didn’t break any historic low temperatures, it sure didn’t feel that way for anyone out on the golf courses. Looking at the forecast, we still have plenty of time to enjoy some good golf weather before Thanksgiving. Nevertheless, things are cooling down here at Hermitage Country Club.  With the cold weather that decided to sit over us Tuesday morning, we opted to keep a handful of guys around the shop to tidy up a few things. We were able to pressure wash two of the equipment storage facilities that had accumulated plenty of dust over the years. We also added a fresh coat of paint to a couple of adjacent walls and made good use of our Hermitage stencil as well. Keeping these areas clean helps maintain a more profession...

 This week began with a pre-emergent application around every putting surface at the club. We have to use a different pre-emergent herbicide around the green complexes to prevent any potential injury to the bentgrass greens. This product is also applied on some slopes where irrigation or rainwater may flow downhill into areas where we do not want the product to end up. On most green complexes, this product is applied with our smaller sprayer only utilizing the center and right boom, allowing us to work efficiently around the greens. Next week, we’ll tie these treated areas together with a different pre-emergent to cover the remaining rough sections and ensure consistent control throughout the course. This application must be followed by about a half inch of rainfall or irrigation to properly activate the product. Having both courses closed on Monday makes for a smooth application and gives us plenty of time to run the irrigation heads immediately afterward. The following night...

We had our first frost on the bermudagrass last Friday morning. While it didn’t delay play, it certainly set up on the Latitude enough to start putting some of our bermudagrass around the property to sleep for winter. Dormancy is now officially underway for the bermudagrass as we head deeper into the fall season.  As the bermudagrass starts to lose its color, our green divot sand does not! We’ll begin phasing out the use of the green divot mix for the winter months ahead and transition back to our regular Kyanite sand until we start to green up in the spring. Over on the Manakin, we took advantage of the last Monday of the month to get out a much-needed light topdressing. Having the course closed and outing-free made it much easier to work this into the schedule. With rain in the forecast later in the week, it was a no brainer to get a light dusting on the greens and let the rain wash it into the canopy. The sand helps create a smoother surface, improves firmness, minimizes ball ma...

Sunday’s storm packed some gnarly wind, knocking down a few branches across the property including this tree on 16 Sabot. We didn’t get as much rain as expected, but the wind definitely made up for it. The crew was able to get everything cleaned up and get out of the way before Mondays outing.  Rosa and Angela have been busy decorating most of the campus entrances with our fall displays, bringing a true seasonal feel to the property. Temperatures continue to drop, and with that, so do the leaves. Almost every morning, we’re greeted by two beautiful golf courses blanketed with leaves, sticks, pinecones, and other debris. Our all-star crew is out well before sunrise with backpack blowers, debris sweepers, and turbine blowers to get the courses cleaned up and looking their best for another busy day of golf. The team continues to handle it with great efficiency and pride. We took a couple of guys over to dress up a much-needed area on 18 Manakin. I’m sure everyone’s grown tired of...

Our winter annual plant order has finally arrived, and Rosa and Angela couldn't be happier! We rounded up the team to help unload the flowers from the truck and get them into the ground. Most of the plants are already in the soil, marking the final major planting of herbaceous material around the property for the year. Early next week, you can look forward to seeing our fall decorations making their way back out. The tractor sprayers got dusted off this week and came out of the shed for our second application targeting spring dead spot.   We use the smaller 200-gallon sprayer for the tees and approaches on both courses. Its more nimble build allows us to access tighter areas with ease. You’ll likely see the sprayers back out in a couple of weeks for what will probably be our final nutrient application on the bermuda-grass this season. The fungicides used to control spring dead spot need to be watered in after application. Since we already needed to run irrigation for this tre...

  A couple weeks ago we had a site visit from the Audubon agency to maintain our certification here at Hermitage. Every 3 years to maintain status you must complete a site visit. The Audubon International Golf Certification is important because it validates a golf courses commitment to environmental stewardship, leading to benefits like improved water and air quality, habitat conservation, reduces maintenance costs, and enhanced public image. It also helps courses implement sustainable practices in areas such as water, wildlife management, and reduction of pesticides and fertilizers. Ensuring the long term health of the eco-system and golf facility.  Senior Member-Guest week kicked off with some bunker work on both golf courses. The Manakin team started by giving all the bunkers a fresh edge, then used the Sand Pro to fluff up the sand. We also took some time to push sand around in the bottoms of the bunkers, especially in the areas where it’s clear most of the shots are being...