Hermitage CC Golf Course Management

  The bermuda is attempting a wake up thanks to a little bit of rain and some 80 degree temps. Cooler weather and some frost is in the forecast for next week however so the mowers are still in a holding pattern for the time being. No matter what the weather does, it is nice to see some green color out there! We are getting closer and closer to completing our bunker renovations. Another two and a half trucks of concrete were poured into the bunkers on 14 and the back bunker on 16 on Monday afternoon. These projects put stress not just on the staff but also on the equipment, the cartpaths and the surrounding turf. We are excited to be close to finishing! This week we had 9 seasonal staff return from prior years and hired just 1 new seasonal staff member. You can see the relief in the full time staffs eyes as the fresh muscles jump in to move concrete around and start to help clean up from the winter. Having so many returning staff is a major benefit for our department. New sand is be...

  The bermuda is trying to green up thanks to some periodic rains but these nighttime temperatures in the 30's are not helpful. If you are looking for any kind of quick bermuda growth while the pears, cherries and forsythia are blooming, it just is not going to happen. Soil temps will come up as they always do and we will be mowing some grass later into April. Last week the Green Committee met for the first time and we took a look here on the right of #2 Manakin. A zelkova and a red maple have been there a few years and made it difficult to not only see where a drive to the right lands but some significant erosion underneath the trees was starting to take place. The Committee agreed on some addition by subtraction. The two trees were removed, the stumps ground and both entire areas were sodded over thanks to a little extra bermuda sod from Kinloch's range tee project. Now we have an unhindered view of the giant willow oak here on #2 and you should also be able to see where your...

  The rain tried to slow us down a little Monday morning but our double aeration was completed easily by Tuesday afternoon. In front of the aeration pictured above we pulled small 1/4" cores out of the greens and blew off the debris. A heavy dose of sand followed and then 1/2" solid tines opened up more holes for the sand to fall in to. This mixture of different methods allows for a little less disruption while still removing organic matter and getting a large amount of sand introduced into the profile. The past few springs we saw about 25 tons of sand go in to the greens but this year we wanted to get back to something more aggressive. Close to 70 tons of sand was put on the greens this week to ensure every hole was filled to the top. More holes and more sand should lead to a drier, firmer and more consistent surface this season. The greens have been rolled a few times, including with the asphalt roller. We are looking forward to some rain this afternoon to wash some more sa...

  The dry weather has kept both Manakin and Sabot teams working hard on the remaining Manakin bunkers. All 5 bunkers on 11 are ready for concrete this coming Monday. Sand was removed from 13 fairway bunker this past Monday. The clay under this bunker was particularly soft but as we put the new drain in it hardened right up. The two inches of permeable concrete in the bottom will raise this floor up slightly but no, the face is not being modified to make the approach shot any easier. The sand from the greenside bunker was removed by hand and once the excavator finished the fairway bunker, it was brought up here to dig in the new drainage. We hope to have all these bunkers on 11 and 13 filled with concrete by the end of the day Tuesday next week and then get moving with fresh bunker sand. Once 13 is finished we will start digging again on 14 and then finally 16. All of the native areas have now been given their spring haircut. We will keep these areas low for a few weeks while we app...

  It was a cold and slightly frozen 20 degree start on Monday to the last leg of the Manakin bunker project. The sun popped out however so the sand started moving quickly out of the first fairway bunker on 11. This 20 year old sand is complete trash and just used to build up a few areas around the shop for expanded storage. Just like all 100 bunkers before this one, the sand and old drainage are removed and new drainage goes in. The smaller bunkers up by the green are attacked by shovels to get the sand down off the face to make it easier for the excavator. Both fairway bunkers should be just about ready for concrete by tomorrow. We would consider all 5 bunkers on 11 ground under repair. We are going to continue removing sand and installing new drains all next week and then have concrete set up for March 17th and 18th when the Manakin is closed for aeration. That week we hope to get both 11 and 13 completed and then just have 14 and 16 left to go. We did go ahead and sneak a light ...

  Last week was not very conducive for digging holes but we did manage to get most of #3 completed. The higher February sun angle did a nice job of melting the snow off so come Monday the guys were determined to finish 3 and 4 this week and that is just what they did. Every remaining head to be wired was dug up before lunch on Tuesday. The last few heads getting plowed in by Wil and Kevin. We had wire and solenoids to spare which is a good thing. Our 30 year old repurposed water wick drainage machine survived the task of plowing 80,000 feet of wire in the ground, that is just over 15 miles! Roberto had the honor wiring the 1,260th head into the new wire path. This was a cold and wet winter to be fooling with stripping and connecting wires. Not a day went by where all these guys didn't have a smile on their face making this project happen. The happy group behind the final hole on 4 tees. Another 600 heads this winter were excavated, wired up and backfilled giving us a total of 1,260...

  The courses were actually drying out nicely on Monday and Tuesday. It is always great to see prior drainage work sucking down water in the winter months. As we cycle through these wet and drier times, it only makes sense to keep carts on the path in a conservative manner. This also includes remote control carts. We will have the golf shop differentiate between walking manual push carts and remote control carts on some days. These days are where it is still soaked and the remote carts can damage turf in wet swales. In general, people pushing manual carts will avoid these wet areas so we are happy to allow them out. With an absolute mess of snow and rain was in the forecast, so we hustled the entire crew back out to #2 Manakin and kept on plowing wire in on Monday. Every remaining head on 2 was dug up except for around the green. The guys even picked off a few on 3 tee and got them back filled (over 50 heads total) before the snow started to fall on Tuesday. There are less than 90 ...