Hermitage CC Golf Course Management

 This week has really been our advance week for the arrival of the true Virginia summer we knew would be here before long. Monday marked a very exciting day for the maintenance team—it was the last Monday outing for a couple of weeks! We have a regular maintenance Monday this coming week, followed by Sabot verticutting and topdressing, an outing on July 13, and then a break from outings until mid-August. Before Monday's outing, we were able to complete a lot of prep work for the heart of the summer season. The greens were lightly topdressed, followed by a foundational nutrition package of calcium (Ca) and potassium (K). These nutrients help strengthen the plant's cell walls and aid in stress recovery—two things that are essential for maintaining quality playing conditions throughout the heat of the summer. The greens were a little softer and slower than they've been in some time, but this is an acceptable byproduct of the much-needed rainfall we received early this week. To...

The weather finally delivered some much-needed rainfall this past weekend, followed immediately by the heat and humidity that Bermudagrass loves. The response on both courses has been noticeable. The Bermuda is showing its appreciation, and many of the areas we've been working so hard to encourage are really starting to dial in. As the Bermuda continues to gain strength, one of our primary areas of focus over the coming weeks will be the green collars. These areas remain some of the most challenging turf on the entire golf course. We are essentially managing cool-season bentgrass greens surrounded by warm-season Bermudagrass collars, which creates a unique set of challenges. Many of the herbicides available to control weeds such as Poa annua and goosegrass have the potential to move or track onto bentgrass putting surfaces. Because of that risk, we are extremely cautious with any herbicide applications made directly adjacent to greens. At times, that means we tolerate a little Poa ...

The end of last week brought the conclusion of our much-anticipated Member-Guest Tournament. The shootout was truly something to see. Every cart on the property—plus several rentals—was out on the course, creating quite a scene. It was exciting to see such a large number of our members supporting one of the club's premier events. Following Member-Guest week, we completed a scheduled venting of the greens followed by a light topdressing application. It was a well-deserved spa day for our bentgrass greens. They certainly performed during the tournament, and now it's time to prepare them for the summer battle ahead. On Monday, the crew began placing all 27 TurfBreeze fans across both courses. The Sabot remained at 10 fans, while the Manakin received seven additional units, bringing its total to 17 fans. Tae, Wil Lannon, and Brent were able to sneak away to Federal Club on Monday for the Virginia GCSA Assistants Forum, where they attended an educational session presented by McDonal...

  Member-Guest Week! The golf courses are dialed in! The weather has really cooperated with us this week for once. A couple of inches of rain the week before, and some possible rain the week after—the stars are finally aligning. Conditions are firm, and greens are rolling anywhere from 12'8" to 13'3" this week. The heat, dry conditions, and properly timed wetting agent and growth regulator applications have both Sabot and Manakin greens playing at a top level. Our tendency is to find things wrong with the golf courses, complain about them, freak out about them, obsess about them, and then execute a plan to improve those conditions. That's the round robin that goes on every week at the maintenance facility. Every once in a while, it's important to appreciate the view. These couple of weeks are always a whirlwind, but when you step back, it's easy to appreciate the results of all the hard work. Ben Longest, along with his assistants Tae Kim and Will Holc...

Talk about a role reversal this week! HCC received over 3” of rain this week from what felt like some sort of weird tropical system…in May. That 3” was actually more rain than we had received over the previous 3 ½ months combined! Desperately what we had been wishing for…just not seven days before Member-Guest. Good thing we got all of our plant protectants out on Tuesday on the greens and a fertility package applied to all of the short grass. It was refreshing to get a maintenance day to do the things we needed to do. We have been double cutting greens, topdressing, and rolling to combat these wet, humid conditions while still maintaining green speeds and firmness. We’re really happy with where the greens are at after all of that moisture, especially with regards to firmness and speed. The accelerator will be pushed to the floor through next week…should be fun to see where we can get them. The fairways on Manakin have not been mown in seven days. Manakin’s Latitude 36 is a much denser...