Hermitage CC Golf Course Management

  Our verticutting process got started quickly this past Monday. We made it through 14 before the rains came on Tuesday and brought this beautiful weather in to town. The verticutters were set about an inch deep. The process tears old thatch (dead stems and roots) out of the surface which is essential for healthy bermuda growth. The cleanup process is an amazing chore considering we verticut all 55 acres of short turf. Blowers move the debris into the rough and then our sweepers pick up the windrows and it is transported to the dump. A little over 400 tons of sand was spread out evenly through the fairways, approaches and tees. The sand fills in the verticut lines and helps keep the surface firm and water moving quickly. When the sun is out the sand dries quickly and brushes right in. The turf is again blown off, then lightly watered (or rained on!), then blown off again and then mowed. The finished product is beautiful from an agronomic perspective. From the golfer perspective things

  Here was the scene Monday, after 4 inches of rain the week prior, we were finally able to get the mowers out Monday to start hacking down the fairways and rough. With moisture in the ground and some heat the bermudagrass is moving in all directions nicely. This week has been beautiful with some cool dry nights although we did get another .2" of rain that brought in the cool weather Tuesday.  The bentgrass is never going to enjoy getting pounded with rain in the summer. This week we worked to get all of our 15 fans up and running. Only 3 fans were left out for the winter so that meant 8 older fans were brought out and 4 new fans were mounted and tuned in for the season. Installing the fans is quite a chore. You saw a few weeks ago where we ran power wire for the 4 new fans. A 40" deep hole is also dug so that the ground pole can be concreted in. Then we search for existing irrigation wires so that we can control the operation of the fan with our phones and the irrigation com

  Men's Member Guest week is here and we could not be more thankful that it is at the beginning of June as opposed to the end of July like last year. The heat is here and the bermudagrass is loving life. Click here for some drone shots from this past week. This week has also coincided with the first week of being fully staffed for the summer. We have about 8 high school or college students on board now which brings our crew grand total up to 43 (including 4 women), the most it has been in quite some time. With every blade of grass now growing full speed, it takes some serious organization to get things trimmed up and kept under control. After sitting in front of their computer for the last year, the summer help was almost happy about grabbing a weedeater and getting some exercise! Besides having the edges tuned in, the main focus for the week is putting green quality. With the humidity in the air more or less at a maximum, the plant is holding on to more water than we'd like.

  A gentle two inches of rain fell down over the weekend along with the temperatures. We may have seen the last of the 50 degree nights for a few months, it is time for summer. Thankfully our maintenance day was moved to Tuesday this week. Being able to close until one o'clock allows us to accomplish a number of things like mowing the entire golf course out, edging the greens as well as lightly topdressing the greens. The sand has to go out on to a dry surface and then the sun can quickly dry the material out. This is an impossible task in the mornings because of the dew. We started brushing the greens just after lunch. The brush moves the sand into the canopy and helps stand the grass up for a nice cut the next morning. The light amount of sand helps smooth out incorrectly fixed ballmarks  and protects the crown of the plant from foot traffic, all good things as we head in to the heat of the summer. We also continue to topdress the tees and approaches on the Sabot course. The Lati