Hermitage CC Golf Course Management

  Another massive low pressure system dropped two inches of rain on Sunday but that didn't slow down progress on the Manakin two wire system install. The soil has gotten a little crusty on the top but nothing that stops a shovel or our plow.  Another 70 heads were dug up here on 8, wired up and backfilled this week. The rough heads that run through the oaks on the right of the hole will need a trench cut for their new wire which will happen in the next two weeks or so. We plan to get the roller back out on 10 and 8 on Friday and smooth everything out again. 11 is up next after the rough on 8 is completed. That will leave 5, 6, 7, 12 and 13 to be done in the new year. The two par 3's in there will be a welcome change! The paddle sports permit did come through just after we posted the blog last Thursday. Luckily the county inspector was able to meet Friday morning to approve our silt fence and let us get moving finally. The stumps were the first thing in the way so we got the ex...

  The week started off extremely saturated with a "beautiful" snow sitting on top of 2.7" of rain from Sunday night and early Monday morning. We stuck with our plan of starting to wire up around 10 green though and kept on moving. There are only so many boring pictures you can take of digging 70 holes in a week and then filling them back in with a new wire path. The guys are out here grinding away and making it happen. The sun has been out all week now and if it is any consolation the temperatures are perfect for some serious manual labor. We knocked out 80 more heads this week which leaves just 462 left to go! Out of 67 heads on #10, 22 of them did not work because of previous wiring issues. Finding all these heads and getting them wired up to the new system is extremely gratifying.  We had to cross the power wires for #10 green fan 4 times this week. The fan gets its power from behind 18 green. Starting at the green and working towards the tee has helped reduce the imp...

  As we have discussed, really over the past two years on the Blog, the Manakin irrigation wiring system has been failing at an unacceptable pace. Installed in 2003, every one of the 1200 heads on the Manakin has a dedicated red station wire and then another common wire hooked to it. The wires are run back to the gray satellite boxes around the course and the boxes communicate via radio back to the shop. So wherever a head is, a red wire runs back from the head to a satellite. This means there are miles of red signal wire in the ground and over the past two years it has begun to fail and break and cause major headaches in the way of repair.  After watching the new Sabot irrigation system go in the ground we felt confident that employing the same electrical system on top of the existing piping and sprinkler heads would be a smart move and allow us to push a full scale irrigation system renovation down the road a bit. This upgrade for the entire Manakin will only cost $300k wher...

  We took our shot at a giant live Christmas tree this year. A decent looking cedar was plucked from behind 1 Sabot green Monday morning and hauled up to the plaza with the excavator. The tree survived the wind on Tuesday and our team has been attempting to decorate it all week. It's not perfect but it is something different and should spark some conversation during the holiday season! We got the excavator back into its proper position quickly on Monday and dug out the left bunker on 12. This will most likely be the last bunker we renovate for a while until the weather warms back up a bit at night. The capillary concrete showed up Thursday and was laid out as the sun and temperatures rose back to comfortable levels. All finished up and ready for sand. The sand trucking company has been a little slow this week as we are still waiting on sand to finish up the right side bunker. We are due all 4 loads of sand today and tomorrow so these bunkers should be back in play early next week. ...

  Here we are in Mid-November and all of the fairways still have a pretty decent green color. Looking back at pictures from last year however it seems that we are almost exactly in the same position color wise. The weather has been dry and beautiful this week even though the leaves can make things interesting at times. November 15th, 2022 The Sabot greens have had a great year and continue to roll nicely into the fall. The greens were again topdressed this week and lightly brushed. With little growth happening it takes a few days for the sand to work in. Some rain is finally on tap for next week which may soften things up a little. Bunker work has been the focus of the week on Manakin. We crossed over the 200 ton mark of sand installed. The crew started off by finishing off #4 on Monday. The greenside bunker on 6 and this fairway bunker on 6 received its Capillary concrete on Wednesday afternoon. This week was tough with the concrete scheduling as we were only able to get a few aft...

  The weather has been nothing short of spectacular this week for golf. Most of the fairways fought through the two quick frosts last weekend and remain green. The sun has been out and both courses are playing plenty firm for November. Bunker renovations on Manakin kept on moving this week in the sunny weather. The capillary pervious concrete was laid in the front bunkers on 4 on Monday. The concrete trucks pulled right up to Quail Run to make laying this 18 yards of concrete pretty simple.  3 more trucks carrying 27 yards of mix came in Thursday which allowed us to finish off the back bunker on 4, the right bunker on 6 and almost finish the front left bunker on 6. More concrete is scheduled for next week after the 30 degree nights disappear again. We hope to have 6 buttoned up next week. New sand was hauled to the front bunkers on 4 this week and both are back in play. More sand will head to the right of 6 tomorrow and and all next week. Putting these bunkers back in to play ...