Hermitage CC Golf Course Management

  The fall leaf drop is in full swing, especially with the breeze that picked up today, Thursday. We have finished our Poa annua pre-emergent applications for the winter season. Poa is a winter annual so that means it is trying to germinate now, survive the winter, thrive in the spring and then die in the summer. Overall both courses have been pretty clean so far and these pre-emergent applications should keep it that way. The vamont on the Sabot has remained green and is playing beautifully. With no overseed process this year you've been handed wonderful conditions on the Sabot for the month of October as opposed to major disturbance from trying to sow a winter crop.  We were able to sneak in one more core aeration on the new greens on the front of Sabot this week. These new tines are even smaller than the 1/4" cores we used for normal aeration back in August.  The cores dried out quickly and were easily blown off the green and picked up. We ran up to Sunbelt and picked ...

  Some temperatures in the low 30's have brought some frost into the rough this week. That 52 degree soil temperature is still at about 8am so that keeps the greens, tees and fairways warm enough to not have frost form yet. The cold air wraps around the taller canopy of the rough so those poor leaf blades are frosted easily. The temperatures should come back up for the end of the month and we'll even have some more tropical moisture this weekend. The courses are greener now (thanks to the rain) than they have been in two months! All of our pipe, sprinklers and the last of the fittings arrived on Wednesday which you can see in the lower parking lot. All of our supplies were ordered this past August so that they would be here in time. The irrigation company is now looking at a mid-November start as the rains have slowed down two other projects where our crew is currently working. Our greens resurfacing is still set to begin October 31st however, as all that sod work will be done ...

  After a few beautiful days this week we have finally seen some much needed rain come out of the sky. The days continue to get shorter and we even saw some patches of frost last weekend. Soil temperatures will continue to fall as more cold air comes in next week. Cold air sitting on top of still warmer (60's) soil temperatures produces the morning fog. All the greens fans came in this week for the off season. This is the first time we have brought in all 19 fans for the winter. This fan on 12 Sabot will get moved towards the back of the green a bit this spring as we modify the low area on the left side of this green with the upcoming project. The fans are hauled in slowly on the back of a progator with their own respective pallet and mount. Our five older fans from the Sabot will finally be replaced with the newer, quieter, and more efficient direct drive (no belt) fans next year. This is also the first time that these fans will spend the off season under cover thanks to our new o...

  The golf course sucked up a little less than 2 inches of rain from Hurricane Ian. The slow rain left the bunkers alone and the guys were back on the turf blowing debris around by Sunday. A quick dip into the 40's combined with the previous dry soil has the latitude on the way to dormancy. This year we have only seen about 37 inches of rain as compared to last years 52 inches which was very close to the annual average. The area on 3 Manakin tees dried out early in the week and we finished prepping the new black tee Wednesday morning. 9000 square feet of Latitude36 sod covered up our void here. This will be just about the last of bermuda sod laid until spring time. There is the new view from 3 black tee, about 15 yards further back and now playing 375 yards. This now takes Manakin over the 7,000 yard mark from all the way back. The tall fescue up the right side of the hole is rooted in and received its first cut today. We would consider this area in play now save for some relief if...