Hermitage CC Golf Course Management

 More rain is here and some crazy cold is coming! Please enjoy the holiday season and we'll see you in 2023! Click here for 105 random pictures from another fun year outside!

  The sun came out Monday and some breeze finished drying out both courses nicely which allowed us to button up the bunkers on 2 and 3 this week. Grant and the guys blitzed the right side of 2 green, digging it out and putting a new drain in before the Capillary concrete started to show up Tuesday morning. The first nine yards of concrete filled up the back bunker on 3 and got the front bunker started.  The second nine yard truck finished up 3 and started the bunker on two. We were about 5 yards short here so we called a third partial truck in and finished off the right bunker on 2. Initially the 2023 budget called for the bunkers on 2, 3, 8, 9 and 10 to all be completed this year. All that remains now are 4 more bunkers on 2. We'll see how the budget shakes out and see if we can squeeze a few more in but this is certainly the furthest along we have been in December compared to past years. Sand is in on 3 and the rain is packing it down. We'll continue checking depths through ...

  Monday was the Hermitage department wide holiday party at Hardywood Brewery. Attendance was excellent and it was great for our staff to be together outside of work and win a few prizes for Christmas. Monday we also let the deep tine aerator loose on all 30 in play greens.  The half inch solid tines were going down about 9 inches through the profile. These deep holes will continue help us get water through our sand based system and also create a nice column of air for roots to fill into all winter. The greens were rolled behind and while the holes are visible there is really no impact on putting.  The main line on Sabot has made its way up 14 and it getting close to 15. The rain early in the week certainly slowed down progress here. Another small storm is on the way this afternoon and then we'll try to dry out some until the end of next week. On Tuesday we ran up to Farmington CC to catch the second day of our state superintendents annual conference. Pete Wendt, superint...

  We finally got the first cut down on the new Sabot back nine greens this week. The mowers are set to .200" and will stay there for a while. All the greens are rooted in besides 15 which was the last to be sodded. The few 20 degree nights last week didn't help anything but we have plenty of time to grow these greens in. The irrigation team has reached the pipe behind 12 green that we bored under the Starwood driveway last year. There was plenty of hand digging here having to avoid the existing main line, the power to the well and the power to the fan. Nelson was up ahead fusing pipe for 13. They should be close to 13 green by the end of the weekend depending on what more rain does on Saturday. On Monday the majority of our two crews did a blitz on 10 Manakin green bunkers. All three have now been excavated. The 20 year old drainage is pulled out and new pipe and gravel are put in. The old pipe was very shallow so all the drain lines have to be dug deeper. The floor of each bu...

  Landscapes Unlimited is on 12 Sabot now with the main line, cruising up the right side. The cold mornings haven't been pleasant but the sunny afternoons have made backfilling go smoothly. The 3 inch main line that started on 10 has meet with the big 8" main now behind 11 green. To the left the 8" goes to 17 and to the right that 8" is going towards 12. The crew will be backfilling tomorrow and then be thankful for some rain on Friday so they can take a little break. Most will travel back home for Christmas to see their families.  Ben had the excavator up by the green on 12 early this week. Here is a before picture (always a rare site on the blog). Ben cleaned out the old bentgrass and tied the edges in better to the surrounding slopes. The right side has already been sodded with the left over zoysia from the greens slope project and the left will get some tall fescue. The plan will be to put 2-3 rock features here to create some pools. The well behind the green has...

  The last 10 pallets of Pure Eclipse covered up 15 Sabot on Tuesday before almost 1.5 inches of rain came down. This was another awesome team effort, sodding out all 9 greens, 60,000 square feet in 5 total days. We had two pallets left over so the nursery green by tennis was also re-sodded.  10 green is more or less rooted in already. We rolled 10 and 11 on Wednesday and they smoothed out nicely. The rest of the greens will have to go through some 20 degree temperatures this weekend before we get the rollers and mowers on them. Landscapes Unlimited has broken ground on 10 Sabot and we have new HDPE pipe going in the ground. Just like last year, the mainline pipe will go in the ground first, all the way around the back nine. The contractors will then come back and plow in the lateral lines and dig in all the irrigation heads. The pipe is currently being fused right in the bottom parking lot. The pipe ends are heated up and squeezed together creating a bead that is much stronge...

  Last weekends 80 degree temperatures have the fairways on both courses looking phenomenal. Looking at pictures from last year the color this year is a little better but some cool nights will have things looking differently towards the end of the month. The dry weather has kept playing conditions excellent for the fall. As the sod farm worked Monday on cutting our first load of grass to be delivered on Tuesday, we finished dialing in 12 green as well as prepped the fairway bunker on 10 for capillary concrete. Two golf course shapers from Landscapes Unlimited helped us with the finishing touches for 12, getting the grades to Andrew Green's recommendations, making a few adjustments and then doing a final rake for sod. We stole some sod from 16 approach (which will be modified this spring) and laid down the new collar. This left collar has been brought back to the original green cavity line which was almost 2 feet inside where the green used to be. It is much flatter now and raised u...