Hermitage CC Golf Course Management

We have been surviving the battle with the geese so far this winter. We have green star shower motion Christmas lights plugged into every irrigation box possible. The lights are pointed towards fairways and greens around the lakes. The lights turn on at dusk and immediately irritate any geese in range forcing them to fly over to Kinloch or somewhere better. During the day the lights are useless so we just have to hustle around and make sure the geese at least stay in the water. Once we get them in the water the proboat goes to work. 30 mph of yellow fury heads towards the geese and they are up and out again. It is a constant battle and we are staying on top of it as much as possible. The bluegrass enjoyed the warmer temps last week and is enduring the cold quite well this week. The color is great and we should have full turf cover in very short time this spring. The frozen ground has helped yield plenty of tree work this week on the Sabot. We are finding plenty of old...

We started the week off at the Goochland high school career day. It was great to get in front of over 1,000 middle school and high school students and give them some idea of what we do on the golf course every day. Our job pool is thin and not many people know how involved and fun working on the course can be. The guys jumped into the left bunker on 11 Sabot on Monday as well. The forecast was warm early in the week but we needed to get lucky with the rain. Unfortunately an inch of rain came down hard and fast Monday night and halted out efforts for the week. We need a stretch of 2 days above freezing to get the capillary concrete floor installed here on 11 to finish it up. This may not happen until February! We will not be digging out any more bunkers until the weather shapes back up. With cold weather on the way a big priority will be working on trees. The 3 bald cypress left of 10 Sabot were removed this week as well as a few pines behind 1 green Sabot. Our direction wi...

The sand is in the chipping green bunkers and has been holding up beautifully against the recent rains. Even through heavy downpours the sand does not wash down the face and the water drains out perfectly. Feedback has been solid from people trying out the two different sands. It is relatively tough to tell a difference but overall the physical properties of the right (Manakin) bunker are a little better and ultimately this sand is more cost effective so that is the way we are leaning. We have had some cold temperatures but we have also had plenty of nice days with way more golf play than should be normal for early winter. We wanted to relay a quick update on what to do with your divot. No matter the season it is important to replace your divot when possible. This is always the first resort. If the the divot explodes and you can't get a hand on it, then go for your sand bottle and fill it in. These voids that are only filled with sand will not recover until mid season. The ...