Hermitage CC Golf Course Management

We are down to about half capacity this week as the staff tries to burn up their annual allotment of paid time off before the end of the month. The sun and warmth was here as we buttoned up the irrigation wiring on 17 and also wired up the greenside of 16. The staff continues to dwindle next week as will the temperatures. Looking into 2025 we have 14, 15 and 16 tees left to wire up and then we will head to 1-4 to finish off the irrigation renovation. Bunkers remaining to be renovated on Manakin are 11, 13, 14 and 16. Despite the near term weather the forecast for the rest of winter looks mild which is very welcome! This is your 287th blog post and the 48th of this year. Since March 1st we have mowed greens (average across both courses) 176 times, rolled greens 77 times, mowed fairways 54 times and raked the bunkers 210 times. We look forward to a little break in maintenance over the winter as the focus shifts to in-house capital projects.  For 2025, the Board of Directors has appro...

  We have had it all this week as the deep tine machine worked its way through both golf courses. Warm, cold, sunny, rainy and constant wind will summarize most days this winter.  After starting with some smaller tines on a different machine and not getting a clean hole, we moved to a different aerator and some half inch solid tines on wider spacing. These tines are going 8-9 inches deep into the green creating a nice space for winter root growth and water infiltration. The roller is out now smoothing everything out for the weekend. In some drizzle on Monday we had Bartlett tree out to take down this rotting oak hanging over the golf shop. This tree had accelerated the dropping of its branches this year and the base of the tree was really showing some unhealthy symptoms. The bucket truck made safe work of getting this tree down without putting a hole in the golf shop. They also had enough time to get us started on a large oak tree overhanging the baby pool that was also in bad...

  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:   ·          Does the tree pose an immediate or potential safety risk from poor health or condition? ·          Is the tree...

Monday started a little slower than normal as the concrete plant was having trouble with some of their equipment. The first truck showed up two hours late and ended up having too wet of a mix. After sending them back to the plant they got it right and the first yard of 58 for the week was poured into 17 greenside bunker.   All 5 bunkers on 17 Manakin now have fresh drainage, liners and new sand in them. After a busy Monday and Tuesday pouring concrete the white sand came out from the shop and about 250 tons were laid out between the bunkers.  The sand has been tracked in, tamped down and smoothed out for play. This will most likely be the last bunkers we do in 2025 as we will need to get moving on the Manakin irrigation project after Thanksgiving. The area left to complete the bunkers on 11, 13, 14 and 16 is slightly more than what we just finished on 17 and 18. The remaining work will get tackled in February and March. The Sabot team got after another drainage project on...

  35 degrees brought some decent frost on Wednesday morning. This was the first day we had really seen any frost form on the fairways, although it was light. The bermuda may finally start turning its winter color, despite the inch of rain Sunday and more rain today. With the winter solstice only 30 days away it is time to start limiting cart traffic where we can. Next week we will put out small posts in the fairways that will mark where to retreat back to the path. The geofence will be just behind the posts and will slow your cart if entered. Please try to spread your wear with the carts as the bermuda has already started its 6 month slumber. Beating up the same area over and over (like at the end of the post in the picture) only results in thin and/or dead turf in the spring. On to the fun stuff. On 12 Sabot the drain basin where we wanted to connect our new french drain to turned out to be clogged. After some digging on Friday last week, we found the pipe went right under a junky...

  We are grazing high temperature records and now going on close to 40 days without any real rain. We are running water where its needed but the bermuda is getting closer and closer to turning off color and going dormant for the winter. Here on 9 Manakin it is easy to see where we cut the roots of this pine tree when we were running irrigation wire last winter.  The dry weather reduces complications when it comes to project work. With the new fiscal year upon us the Manakin crew jumped right into renovating their remaining bunkers. All the sand and old drainage pipe and gravel is removed and the original edge of the bunker is re-established. Most of these bunkers have lost 18-24" off their bottom edge over the past 20 years. The old drain lines are dug slightly deeper and the bottom of the bunkers are shaved down at least 2 inches to make room for the permeable concrete liner. You can tell it was the first week of winter projects since the guys got about twice as much done as ...

  With the driest October on record (can't be drier than 0" of rain) the leaves have gotten crispy up in the trees. The wind started howling yesterday and the oaks are starting to let loose. Normally it takes to the end of November to get all the leaves down but we may finished with them by Thanksgiving this year. The dry weather and lack of bermuda growth has simplified bunker maintenance this month for sure. The Manakin crew was able to edge the bottoms of their bunkers and get that 1" lip re-established this week. Next week they dive back into bunker renovations. November is here and that means a new Capital budget so it is project time. This winter we are aiming to complete all the Manakin bunkers with new drainage, liners and sand. On Monday we will start digging out 18 greenside bunkers and work backwards from there until it gets too cold to pour concrete. The remaining bunkers are 11, 13, 14, 16, 17 and 18. Once the weather turns colder we will slow down on bunkers...