Hermitage CC Golf Course Management

  April is always a frustrating month for bermudagrass. It greens up and then just sits there thanks to cooler temperatures and this time around, dry weather. This year is actually the first year in a long time that the back nine of the Sabot has come into spring without some sort of overseeding. The bermuda on these shaded holes is inherently weak thanks to that over seeding history and then combine cleaning out the Poa in March and here we are. The temps will come and by the time the kids are ready to jump in the pool at the end of May we'll be off and running. The newer variety of bermudagrass on the collar on 7 Sabot decided it didn't want to survive the winter.  This area was sodded last spring after the greens renovation. Just the small difference between height of cut on the collar vs rough was enough to make a difference in resilience and getting through the winter. We stole some sod from left of the tees on 17 Manakin to get this area back into play quickly. Sod from ...

  We handed all 18 holes on the Sabot back over to you this past Tuesday. The Pure Eclipse sod has been on the ground only 160 days, and every one of those days could be classified as out of the growing season. There are a few small seams here and there but the golf course is more than playable. The back nine greens mowing height is now at .135" compared to the front nine that is at an equivalent .110". We will take our time dropping heights on the back nine as the sod continues to smooth out and acclimate to the growing environments they are now in. Speeds will slowly start to match up as the season rolls on but for now just get ready to hit it harder once to make the turn to 10. The new greens are beautiful and we want to keep them that way. Please continue fixing your ballmarks and urging your playing partners to do the same.  We had a small sink hole pop up on the right side of 13 this week. This steel drain pipe is probably 50 years old and is rusted all along the bottom...

  We traded a few frosts early in the week for some 80 degree temperatures yesterday and today. The Sabot greens continue to knit together and we have worked the height down a touch more this week. You can still make out the sod lines but these new Pure Eclipse greens are more than puttable. We are happy to get this back nine of the Sabot opened back up on Tuesday the 18th. Remember your ballmark repair tool and enjoy a full 18 holes of Pure Eclipse next week! As excited as we are to open up our new bentgrass greens, we have to remain patient with the bermudagrass green up. Some areas green up quickly and as we have mentioned in a few recent blogs, other areas with shade, wear, and moisture issues will take longer to wake up. On top of shade, wear and moisture variances we also have to fight the winter annual Poa annua. This means always having a supply of pre-emergent in the ground from November through today. If you'll remember last year, the back nine of the Sabot was infiltrate...

  After some treacherous wind last weekend, the sun and heat showed up this week to get spring moving. Manakin aeration went smoothly, just pulling 1/4" cores out of the greens just like the Sabot two weeks ago. The cores are easily blown off the green with little damage to the turf. The idea of being able to limit abrasion during this aeration process goes a long way in being able to recover with little to no extra fertilizer input. Limiting inputs helps reduce our organic matter and keep things firm and healthy. Our amendments were all spread out in front of the topdressing and then brushed in. The Sabot greens have healed up nicely after two weeks from their aeration. The back nine is down to .170" height of cut and moved over to out aggressive fixed head mower. We will probably open them up at .150" on April 18th while all the other greens are at .130".  We continue to tweak the new pinsheet system, especially along the edges. We wanted to start with having pins...