Hermitage CC Golf Course Management

  We have had quite a swing in the weather over the past 7 days. From being extremely dry and the mercury trying to touch 100 degrees last weekend, we now are on saturated soils and struggling to get to 70 degrees. The true mark of the growing season is seeing the pool open for business which happens this weekend. Our team finished up the annual flower planting at the pool last Friday, putting in a few 100 more warm season plants. The rains came on Tuesday and washed out our aeration and composting plan on the Manakin. The solid tine aeration process is a slow one so losing a day was not helpful. This is the only time during the year that we punch holes in the bermuda. We are at a thin gap between pre-emerge weed applications so we try to quickly punch some holes for root growth and water infiltration before crabgrass and goosegrass decide its their turn to cause trouble. The compost went flying first thing Monday and thanks to a relatively dry day, we got 11 holes completed. After...

  The bermudagrass is back and we are ready for it. This has been a cool and dry spring so we are ready to get on with it. Although the rough mower is out there basically chopping down Poa annua that has enjoyed a lack of competition, the fairways have filled in and woken up nicely. The warmer weather will now allow us to get out some weed control product for the Poa that will actually be effective in taking it out. What is left of the Poa annua on 10 fairway won't be around much longer. The vamont is greening up and continues to fill in every day. Why 10 fairway has to be thin and look terrible compared to the other fairways on the back nine we don't know. What we do know is that we will not be fighting with an overseed process this coming fall. This means our normal pre-emergent schedule can be followed and competition from the Poa will be downgraded to just annoying and difficult as opposed to impossible. One of the benefits of our new greens on the front nine was the virtua...

  Even though Eligio is bundled up for a blizzard, this picture is from this week. We averaged a balmy 57 degrees this week as we finished up composting the driving range. The temperatures have been abysmal but at least we saw some rain come down this past Saturday to help things out. There are plenty of 80's in the forecast starting Sunday. Monday May 23rd and Tuesday May 24th we will have the Manakin closed in order to solid tine aerate and compost the fairways and rough. After that we will be finished with the compost and hopefully mowing some pretty thick bermuda! The catmint around the clubhouse is enjoying the cooler wet weather. All 3,500 of our annuals showed up this week and have been going in the ground one by one. The bentgrass on the greens has also perked up some so we have been running our new verticutter over them every Monday. The vertical blades slice off any lateral growth and promote a healthier surface. The new greens on the Sabot are so incredibly dense already...

  The forecast was gloomy and wet this week but the sun powered through and helped us complete our cultural practices on the Sabot right on time. The new greens got their first light vertical mowing and then a light topdressing. The sand was brushed in to help keep the new bentgrass standing up and providing a smooth roll. Our new Assistant Superintendent, Tyler Edger jumped right in this week and is having fun. Tyler joins us from Belmont Golf Course, where Hermitage originated over 120 years ago. The solid tine aerators got started first thing Monday morning, poking holes about 2.5 inches deep in the bermuda. We have perfect rooting weather for the turf to fire more roots into these new holes and prepare for a strong summer. Our smaller machines aerated the tees and approaches. The aeration process is slow but we were able to punch all 30 acres of short grass in two days. The sand topdressers went ahead of the aerators most of the time.  Just about 200 tons of sand were spre...