Hermitage CC Golf Course Management

  After a very hot and dry weekend the golf course has enjoyed 1.5" of rain this week. The Latitude was dried down and playing fast but after the rain has greened right back up and is looking amazing. It was the Sabot's turn for verticutting this week. The two tractor verticutters made it through all 18 fairways on Monday before the thunderstorms came through. The vertical blades rip up a ton of thatch, making room for topdressing and helping keep our upper layer firm.  The tees and approaches were also thinned out with our triplex verticutter.  Cleaning up the debris is no small task. With the blowers, tractors and sweepers working hard it is nice to see fuel prices come back down a little. In peak summer mode we are using about 1,000 gallons each of gas and diesel per month. 200 tons of sand went down behind the clean up crews. This sand not only helps dry up the surface but it continues to build a healthy top layer that can support quality golf play year round. The qui...

  In the past July 22nd always used to be a monumental day to get the golf course through. The sun is still very high in the sky, the days are long and the temperatures are always HOT. The seasons have seemed to of shifted over the years, with slower springs and longer summers. Either way, we are walking past July 22nd in pretty good shape. All the greens across the property have never looked better for mid-summer, or any time of the year for that matter. The past few years of proper cultural practices, fan installation and proper water and nutrient management are paying some dividends. Anyway, back to tearing stuff up to make it better. On Monday we cut a 800 foot long trench in order to install some larger (000 Awg) wire to power the pump that is already in the water for 5 Sabot stream. The wire is buried and now we are waiting for the electricians to upgrade the power panel behind 4 bathroom. Of course now, (after 3 months) Dominion wants to upgrade their transformer as well so ...

  This past weekend has cool, cloudy and almost moist which was a great relief for mid-July. We like to use as little irrigation water as possible in order to keep things firm and healthy.  We have run into a variety of electrical irrigation problems on Manakin this season. Chasing miles and miles of wire around the course is no fun in comparison to the single wire path that is now on the front of the Sabot.  Our last batch of sod made it way around the back of the Sabot this week. The vamont is finally trying to move laterally in spite of the shade and dry weather back here. The front nine fairways are in excellent shape thanks to the absence of dealing with an overseeding procedure.  Where the deer don't have access to, our flowers look pretty decent around the club. Out in the open the deer continue broaden their appetite and limit our options for annual plantings. They even mowed down the pots in front of our break room which is in the middle of a huge asphalt pa...

  We were more than ready for our Maintenance day this past Tuesday. The short week meant we just went after an easy large area on the Sabot, 16 approach. The vamont has been slow to fill in back here in the shade so we are taking the opportunity to just change the whole approach over to the much finer Northbridge bermuda. 9,000 square feet was stripped up and ready for sod by about 10am. You can also see Sloan on the green spreading our normal gypsum and potassium application. The greens also received a root zone fungicide application as well as a light topdressing.  The entire team worked quickly to lay the 20 pallets of sod. The Northbridge comes from the farm in much better shape than the Latitude and if you put them side by side it is hard to tell the difference once grown in. The sod around 12 approach is filling in. We will continue topdressing and mowing to get the height down to normal conditions around a half inch for the fairway and a little tighter for the approach...