Hermitage CC Golf Course Management

  Both golf courses showed very well for some of the best Virginia state amateurs this past weekend for the Valentine Invitational. Even our own Ben Longest, Sabot Superintendent, put his skills to the test and came out in one piece. The feedback was excellent and the value received from some high level players appreciating the work we have done over the past few years was rewarding. But as the clock struck August 22nd, it was time to pull the first cores out of the Pure Eclipse. Small 1/4" cores were pulled on 1.5" (close) spacing across all 20 Sabot greens.  The team worked hard as usual to get the greens blown off and cleaned up. Even though the holes were small, we were still able to get about 30 tons of sand down on to the surfaces and brushed in. Last week the forecast didn't have much above 82 for this week, but here we are with a full week of 90 degree weather. The greens have done fine and we are already mowing them in the morning. It is easy to tell the differen...

  Cool, fall like temperatures are here already, and they might even stick around! We have been able to mow through these smaller rain storms and overall the golf courses could not be happier. We anticipated some rain on Monday afternoon so all 39 greens were mowed and then topdressed with a medium amount of dry topdressing from our fancy dry sand bin. Wetting agents to keep water moving through the upper profile along with the fungicides that have been keeping our root pythium at bay this year were sprayed right on top of the sand. An eighth of an inch of water was applied immediately behind the fungicides so that they would not dry on the leaf and allow them to get into the profile where they can protect our bentgrass roots. The sand washed in as well thanks to the irrigation and the following rain.  You can still barely see the topdressing on the greens. They have firmed up a bit with the change in humidity and that is already making a big difference in ballmarks and playab...

  Something we have wanted to define for a while now was the difference between an unrepaired ballmark and a properly repaired one that still ends up creating a void. This mark was created on Monday and fixed immediately. It was wet and >90 degrees. The mark bruised up Tuesday and was dead by Thursday. Going back to the other weeks blog, there is just not much you can do for cool season turf when a golf ball slams into it. These marks will recover slowly depending on the weather. Bottom line is when you see these marks on the course, they are not from "people neglecting their marks", they are just from people playing golf!  We were able to get some dry topdressing out on Wednesday before the storms rolled through. Some cooler night time temperatures will bring some relief for the bentgrass. Overall our greens have performed well this summer despite the heat and heavy rains. Yesterday we were again able to go to the research field day at NC State. Their research backs up th...

  Two heavy thunderstorms last weekend soaked us down nicely and the bermuda is back to loving life after the tenth driest July on record. On Monday we brought the small verticutter back out to the Manakin and removed a large amount of material from the approaches. We topdressed right up to the edge of the green and brushed in the sand. This process will help the Latitude not get so puffy as we work through the second half of summer. The sand worked in nicely and a dry cut was applied afterwards. The bermuda has greened right back up and will play great for the weekend. We are mid-summer on bentgrass greens so its easy to hear comments about ballmarks. We always try to find a way to manage golfer expectations. Last month on the Manakin we saw almost 3,000 rounds of golf. At one point or the other 3,000 balls hit every green. Now just imagine yourself laying out in the hot sun and 3,000 golf balls are hit at you. Yes, the balls are going to make a mark. Yes, we need you to find and ...