Hermitage CC Golf Course Management

  We know the crew at CCV is happy that frost has yet to form this week. The forecast temps have been 39/40 but we have been coming in to 42 degrees each morning. A few of us have been helping out in the early mornings for the Dominion Energy Classic. The River Course looks fantastic! Hopefully we can make it through the next few days and keep the frost away because next week again looks amazing and we don't mind the leaves hanging in the trees a little longer. We have started swapping out the summer annuals with our winter plantings. Not much more than snapdragons and dusty millers go in the ground this time of the year. Anything else just becomes rabbit and deer food! Dunstano and Carlos have been making some headway on their mechanics shop renovation. The second lift is in place and ready to be wired up. They are certainly enjoying the added space by moving the parts room to where the old lockers were. We are patiently waiting for November 1st to roll around so we can get moving

 The golf courses are in beautiful shape once again thanks to some sun and finally some wind. Enjoy while you can and before the leaves really start coming down!

  The last two weeks have now been quite wet on the golf course. We accumulated a little over 3.5" of rain this week from left over bands of rain from Helene. In the last 90 days we have only had two other days where we received over an inch of rain at a time, let alone 3. Of course we are no one where near what people in the true path of Helene are dealing with, 20" of rain and hurricane force winds. We should consider ourselves lucky that we are still out here playing golf and have a house to go home to. Mushrooms have been popping up in peoples lawns and on the golf course also. The wet, cloudy weather is a perfect breeding ground for fungus. Again, be thankful we are managing mostly bermudagrass. Cool season courses are ringing up the fungicide budget this year for sure. The golf course was looking fresh and beautiful after the mowers were forced to stay in the shed for 5 days. Since our dry and cool spell in early September the warm nights have come back along with some

  We are still out here mowing a ton of bermudagrass at the end of September. The warm nights and constant moisture have everything looking plenty green as we head in to October. After this next hurricane comes through we will be back to some normal fall weather with cooler nights and drier air.  The constant mist yesterday allowed us to see everyone's traffic patterns in real time. This spot on 1 green Manakin between the green and the bunker has always been a high traffic area but we probably didn't realize how high traffic it really is. We have been supplying extra nutrients here and it actually looks decent this season. As we go dormant this area will most likely be blocked off. Some courses go so far as promoting taking the push carts across the greens surface in order to spread wear........not a terrible thing in the cooler months. The guys ground through the drizzle the past two days and got a few more areas of cart path patched up with hot asphalt mix. In the new capita

  With a low pressure system bearing down and packing plenty of rain for Tuesday, we setup all three aerators and knocked the Manakin greens out before 3:00 on Monday. 1/4" cores were pulled out of the greens profiles, removing a little bit of thatch and gunk build up, making way for some clean coarse sand. The cores were quickly blown off and picked up by a team of 8 people while the rest of the crew mowed fairways and approaches on both courses in preparation for the rain. Our normal calcium, potassium, humic acid and zeolite clay amendments were spread out and then dry sand was laid on top and brushed in. The greens were rolled out and the storm dropped a slow 1.5 inches of rain on top, washing the sand in nicely. The greens will be  mowed tomorrow and either rolled or mowed through the weekend. This will be our final core aeration until March of next year! Behind the mowers Monday we were also able to put out our fall potassium application to help the bermuda build up some str

 Another week of excellent weather is upon us and the golf courses have again firmed up nicely for the 3 day Men's Member Member. The Sabot being only 17 days removed from veritcutting and aerating has recovered pretty well considering there have been 0 nights above 60 degrees in September. Next week we will lay down a little more fertilizer along with our first big round of pre-emerge herbicide for the fall/winter germinating Poa annua. The bunker noses may of received their final mow of the year. We are excited to keep going with the Manakin bunker renovations this November and keep swapping out dirty sand in other bunkers and checking depths as mowing demands subside. We have been fighting tire marks on the greens from the sprayer all year. We had blamed high iron in the water and a variety of different products with some sort of salt content. This week though a lock nut on the front tie rod worked itself so loose it became obvious that the front end was way out of alignment and

  Who knows what October will bring but we don't see any temperatures above 83 for September and that is amazing. The greens are filling in nicely a week out from their aeration. For the first time ever we will not have any fans on for September and they will be coming down next week. The Manakin greens continue to be topdressed and now lightly brushed in on "Monday's". They are rolling great and the Sabot greens will be catching back up very soon. Manakin greens will receive the same aeration as Sabot on Monday and Tuesday September 16 and 17. There is a significant difference in verticutting recovery between the Vamont and a newer bermuda. The Vamont needs another week of growth, especially in the shade. While the greens are enjoying the 50 degree nights, the bermuda is slowing down quickly. This Sabot verticutting will move to June for next year. Sloan put out some selective herbicide in the native areas Wednesday aiming for bermuda. Our normal procedure has been t