Hermitage CC Golf Course Management

  We are in our normal holding pattern for spring now. The fairways have greened up nicely but there will be no exciting amount bermuda growth for a bit, even with 90 in the forecast next week. The soil temperatures rise slowly, just as the water temperature does. Above 80 degrees makes it close to comfortable to jump in the pool and that is when the bermuda will start moving. We are hovering in the mid 60's right now. In the meantime enjoy the bouncy golf course and lack of rough! We were able to knock out our final bunker renovation of the season on Manakin this week. Joe and Sloan scrambled the guys on Monday and excavated the 20 year old sand and drainage out of 15 fairway bunker. At 2,800 square feet this is no small bunker. Two trucks with 18 yards of concrete total were laid out perfectly on Wednesday on top of the new drainage pipe and gravel. The guys are filling it up with new sand now. Between excavation and installing the new drainage, concrete and sand, over 100 trips

We were back up at the Pickleball courts this week to take another stride towards completion. Another section of silt fence was pulled up and the soil was graded out. A truck full of tall fescue and bermuda arrived Wednesday for a variety of areas but the first stop was the Pickleball berm. 5 Kousa dogwoods and Korean Spice viburnum now line the top of mound. A healthy amount of flowering trees and perennials were added to the newly shaped plant bed at the entrance what will most likely be called the Fitness and Racquet Sports Complex. We should have a variety of color supplied to every season here once it all gets rooted in. River City Tennis has been on site all week working on the net post holes and the light pole footers. You should see some things starting to get vertical next week and then hopefully some paint will hit the asphalt. Once that happens a firm opening date should be able to be spread around but Cinco De Mayo is looking pretty good. The stream on 16 Manakin was button

  With all 3 aeration machines in action on Monday the guys ran through all 19 greens on Manakin before 3:00. The upper profiles of these Manakin greens continue to become healthier. The plugs contain much more sand than in the past, with plenty of new root growth already taking place.  The quarter inch sized plugs are relatively easy to blow off the surface, eliminating any abrasion during the clean up process. Our zeolite clay along with some calcium, potassium, magnesium and humic acid were all applied to the open holes before close to 40 tons of sand was spread over the green. This is our one chance to get a significant amount of beneficial nutrients into the profile before they are sealed up in front of the bulk part of the season. Grant got everything brushed in as the moon moved across the sun.  The Sabot greens are trying to fill in after two weeks from their aeration. With 80 degree temps next week we should see some significant changes across the whole property. Steve Corwin

  We were almost dried out this past Monday but a quick shower on Tuesday and a deluge of water on Wednesday soaked us down with another 1.3" of rain for the week. The only good thing about the rain is that it is keeping frosts away but that may also change this weekend. The fairways may be green enough to power through some low thirties but we will have to wait and see. The Sabot guys continue to pick off small drainage projects like here along #1 cartpath. More drainage was added to the walkpath to the right of 3 approach where the spring seems to of expanded some. This french drain should help dry up the access to 4 tee. Trinidad and Eligio even made it up to the entrance road to remove a few years of build up along the parking lot drainage. The sprayer snuck out on Monday to apply a new to the market Poa annua herbicide. "Poa cure" has been in development for over 15 years and now can be applied to golf courses. It will act as both a pre-emerge and post-emerge herbic

We have seen a solid 4 inches of rain come down since this past Saturday night and that puts us well past the airport total of 7" for the month. We'll go ahead and place ourselves in the 8th place spot for wettest March on the books. The rain continues to wash the chaff off the bermuda and despite a few speckles of frost here and there it continues to green up slowly. Monday was a beautiful day however so Joe went ahead and knocked out some additional drainage on 15 Manakin blue and white tee.  Grant, Dillon and Bobby continue to dial in the Manakin irrigation system. All of the part circle out sprinkler heads have to be checked to make sure they are not watering the wrong way and into the fairway. The heads along the native areas have to be adjusted to ensure no water is wasted on the fescue. The goal is to have the natives thin enough to find your ball but dense enough to filter rain water and keep weeds out. The Sabot greens have not moved much with the cool weather. We put

  The guys got started early on Monday with all three of our greens aerators. 1/4" cores were pulled out of the top two inches of our greens profile on all 20 greens before the end of the day. The absence of the dryject combined with smaller holes at a tighter spacing seems to put these greens through less of a shock in the spring. The performance of the surface through the season has improved with this aeration practice and recovery is much quicker than using the dryject and larger holes. We are still able to get about 30 tons of kiln dried sand into the holes on the greens. This periodic replacement of organic matter with sand helps keep the surfaces firm through the season and allows for consistent water penetration while also providing avenues for root growth.  The sand is brushed in along with a number of amendments. Everything is watered in and ready for play. Another large shot of rain is on the way Saturday so we should be back on a normal mowing schedule next week as the