Hermitage CC Golf Course Management

  After an absolute scorcher of a week last week we finally saw some clouds form up Sunday night and the thunderstorms starting taking a few direct hits on property. The .17" that fell Sunday night was burned up quickly on Monday and then a monsoon took shape Tuesday night bringing plenty of wind and close to 2" of rain through Wednesday at lunch time.  The rain on Sunday was the first in 10 days with multiple 100 degree days in between. The bermuda, cared for by our rock solid irrigation systems, could not be happier, rain or no rain. This past Monday the Manakin team took advantage of our normal closure and went ahead and lightly verticut the approaches and topdressed them. About 40 tons of sand were quickly brushed in around the greens keeping those surfaces tight and firm. The battle begins now for quality of cut and keeping the bermuda mowed out in between thunderstorms. Over on the Sabot Monday we finally made the call to remove the large oak to the left of 3 black tee....

  On May 29th we were worried as the forecast for June did not have a day above 90 degrees in it. Here we are a month later sitting on a 102 degree high from Wednesday and the bermudagrass is loving life. In less than 6 months we get to manage turf on a 92 degree wide spectrum! All 20 fans made their way out to both courses last week and as of today we have 19 out of 20 running with 3 Sabot just waiting on a new oscillator motor. These 20 fans remain imperative to our bentgrass greens health. On these greens with naturally less air movement the fans drop surface temperatures up to 10 degrees and keep soil temps generally out of the death zone. For this summer we have 4 new moisture meters made by the USGA. The meters connect via bluetooth on your phone and then show you every moisture reading as you work around the green poking it with the meter. Anything under 15% is going to wilt pretty quickly and anything over 30 is probably too wet. The different undulations in the greens will...

  The warm humid weather has finally made an appearance and our bermuda is back in action. Growing degree days are basically a measure of heat units needed to grow grass, the more the better for bermuda. Look how we fell behind last year at the beginning of May but we are projected to catch right back up now. Don't mind the cold start to the year either! The last of the winter damage is being patched up this week. The color in the bermuda is here and we can finally look forward to a great summer. The blue and black tee on 13 Sabot have been sodded out to Zeon zoysiagrass. These tees don't get more than 5 hours of full sun even in the longest days of the year like we are in now. The zoysia can handle the shade and wear much better than bermuda. This week we ran right into our scheduled post Men's Invitational cultural practices on both courses. All 39 greens were topdressed at a medium rate and then solid tine aerated with 3/8" tines. This is the last chance we will hav...

Usually by June we are pretty happy with how the property has shaped up. A few more 49 degree nights this past week has put us behind on the bermuda but the greens really could not be better. The rollers and growth regulator are out and our cool season turf is loving life. The Manakin short grass got a dose of Nitrogen on Monday but these cool nights still has the Latitude behind where it could be. We will continue counteracting the cool weather some more nutrients next week. The native areas are just now going to seed and the guys have the bunker surrounds dialed in nicely for this week. When the sun is shining both sides give some hints at good a season ahead. We made another lap around the property cutting dead pine branches out of damaged trees from the winter. Our final load of sod will come next week and maybe then we can put this past winter behind us. Our seed is starting to pop up on the dredged material on 16 Manakin. This is about the only area that is enjoying the moist coo...

  We do not need any more rain, that is for sure. Temperatures in the low 50's (it was 49 Sunday morning) have absolutely halted any kind of bermuda growth. Clouds and rain are preventing any progress as well. We may go as far as to say we were greener a month ago than we are today! June temps do not look like they are bringing anything in the 90's at all. The long range forecast says July 7th is the first 90 degree day between now and then!  Any energy the bermuda is actually churning through is being put towards seed heads right now anyway. This is truly a year where this turf isn't going to get moving until July 4th. Hopefully the summer will stretch long and we can fit a few good growing months in. At least the greens are happy but even they could use some more sunlight. On Tuesday we applied some soil nutrients along with wetting agent to help keep moving the rain down.  We also dusted the greens with sand for the first time since aeration. Most of this was washed in...

  Our main priority this week after Senior Member Member was to poke solid tine holes in all the bermuda short grass on both courses. This is only a once a year event, mainly because of time. These extra holes will help water infiltrate a little faster and promote new root growth with the bermuda. In addition to the tractor aerator we had 5 walk behind machines helping do tees and approaches as well as larger fairway areas. The guys persisted through the rain on Wednesday to get all 85 acres of short grass punched.  Next up was getting our summer pre-emergent herbicide application down on not just the short grass but the entire property, about 200 acres. We start with two different herbicides close to the green and then work our way out wall to wall from there. This application was watered in nicely with the rain and should protect us for 3-4 months against crab and goosegrass. The compost is out across most of the rough on both courses as well. The rain has knocked down the s...

  Three inches of rain came down pretty much the entire day on Tuesday. This oak was already leaning slightly on 5 Manakin but the rain softened up the soil enough so the heavy oak leaves and branches pulled it all the way down. The rain is great for the bermuda, especially the new sod, but it delayed us getting some more sod out on the remaining winter kill areas. Sodding will get back on track early next week. Also next week we will be implementing our annual solid tine aeration for the tees, fairways and approaches. This is really a non-invasive practice but it helps us loosen the soil up a bit for some healthier root growth. We will also being putting out compost in the rough next week so be prepared for the healthy scent! We are fortunate to have the right tools to clean up a big tree like this. Doing tree work in house does wonders for the budget and having this mess cleaned up before golf play is often an overlooked benefit. The BENTGRASS is just now breaking dormancy on the...