Hermitage CC Golf Course Management

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...

  Welcome to October! While we’ve had a few cool mornings earlier this year, nothing has matched the crisp 40° mornings we’ve seen recently. Fall is officially here, and with temperatures continuing to drop, it’s perfect weather for the courses and our bentgrass greens.  To adjust for the weather, we’ve raised the fairway units from .500 to .550, which will carry us smoothly through the rest of the year. Manakin aerification was only 10 days ago, and the recovery on the A1/A4 greens couldn’t be better. We’re very pleased with our decision to use a smaller tine, which allowed for a speedy recovery time.  By the time Senior Member-Guest begins next week, we are confident the greens will be fully recovered. From here, speeds will gradually increase as the surfaces continue to fill in and smooth out.   After all the rain last week, we made some notes on where water tends to sit on the paths. Once things dried out a bit, we decided 6 would be the first one we target. By l...

  Manakin aeration week got off to a slow start with the Virginia Tech Lunch Pail outing falling on the first day of our two-day closure. After setting up both golf courses and clearing out, we were still able to check a few much-needed items off the list. First task being “blowing up” the bentgrass nursery tucked to the left of  3 on Sabot. This nursery is an important tool for us throughout the season, providing plugs to repair damaged areas on both courses, everything from scalped plugs to heron droppings. We’ve made full use of it this year, and it was time to reseed and start fresh for next season. A couple of the guys were also able to get some divots filled in on the range tee. It’s a simple yet effective task, but an important one in keeping the range tee level and well-maintained. Over on the Manakin, we had a not-so-simple task waiting for us. Last Friday, we spotted a leak between 15 and 17 rough. Since you never really know the extent of a leak until it’s uncovere...

           Monday we got off to a great start with some perfect weather. Even though it’s not officially fall yet, the "fall like" weather has been a huge benefit for our bentgrass greens and staff. We were able to remove a good number of trees along the right side of 13 cart path before the not so perfect weather started. With these trees gone it will open up the fairway to more sunlight and help us reduce the risk of winter kill that tends to occur in that area year after year. We also managed to seed a couple of cool season grass areas along with the clubhouse lawn just before the rain moved in. The timing couldn’t have been better, as the moisture should give us a great boost in germination. Tuesday and Wednesday, however, were far from ideal. A rain front settled over the golf course for what felt like an eternity—but in reality was just two days—dropping 2.5 inches of rain and thoroughly soaking both courses. We started Thursday morning with carts re...