Hermitage CC Golf Course Management

  Our main priority this week after Senior Member Member was to poke solid tine holes in all the bermuda short grass on both courses. This is only a once a year event, mainly because of time. These extra holes will help water infiltrate a little faster and promote new root growth with the bermuda. In addition to the tractor aerator we had 5 walk behind machines helping do tees and approaches as well as larger fairway areas. The guys persisted through the rain on Wednesday to get all 85 acres of short grass punched.  Next up was getting our summer pre-emergent herbicide application down on not just the short grass but the entire property, about 200 acres. We start with two different herbicides close to the green and then work our way out wall to wall from there. This application was watered in nicely with the rain and should protect us for 3-4 months against crab and goosegrass. The compost is out across most of the rough on both courses as well. The rain has knocked down the s...

  Three inches of rain came down pretty much the entire day on Tuesday. This oak was already leaning slightly on 5 Manakin but the rain softened up the soil enough so the heavy oak leaves and branches pulled it all the way down. The rain is great for the bermuda, especially the new sod, but it delayed us getting some more sod out on the remaining winter kill areas. Sodding will get back on track early next week. Also next week we will be implementing our annual solid tine aeration for the tees, fairways and approaches. This is really a non-invasive practice but it helps us loosen the soil up a bit for some healthier root growth. We will also being putting out compost in the rough next week so be prepared for the healthy scent! We are fortunate to have the right tools to clean up a big tree like this. Doing tree work in house does wonders for the budget and having this mess cleaned up before golf play is often an overlooked benefit. The BENTGRASS is just now breaking dormancy on the...

  17,000 square feet of bermuda went down again this week, getting us much closer to patching up all the winter damage. The sod is fertilized and watered immediately. The turf from last week is rooting in and will start to be mowed early next week. The rains are helping us and it is nice to see some more regular dew forming in the mornings as opposed to the dry air the last two weeks. Next week we will tackle 13 Manakin and then evaluate what is left to sod.  The local reports have rolled through and we are certainly not alone in seeing damage from winter temperatures, snow and shade. Above is an excerpt from our regional consultant who also called the damage from that winter a 1 in 10 year event. This means that replacing bermuda in the shade that didn't survive with bermuda again isn't necessarily a bad idea, especially with continued tree and drainage work. Only having to replace 1 acre out of 200 across both courses really is a decent turn out. The other 199 acres of turf ...

  We have had a handful of warm days now and it is easy to see where some bermudagrass is not greening back up. The combination of cold January temperatures and shade from trees are the simple culprit. On January 6th we got a few inches of snow. Most of it melted the next week but the shaded areas did not melt fully. Temperatures plummeted January 19th through the 22nd creating ice and direct cold stress. Four days of the high not getting above freezing and the lows dropping to single digits dinged up our shade areas.  We manage 200 acres of bermudagrass. We are going to sod out 1 acre. That is .5%. Do you want to imagine what we would look like after that winter if we had not been so diligent with tree removal and drainage work every winter? As the temperatures continue to warm and we finally get some rain, the sod will root in and we will be back to normal before the end of May.  Not a single patch of sod going down sits in a full sun situation. We do basically everythi...

  Two days out from the 125th Anniversary Gala here is your 302nd blog post in Hermitage history. This property continues to get better every day. Not many clubs can say they have been associated for more than 125 years, we are all lucky to be a part of it! We do have some unlucky bermudagrass that has struggled this spring from a tough winter. Almost everywhere that has not greened up yet is in the shade. Some areas are wet all winter and some are dry but shade continues to be the common dominator. Most spots will continue to green up but we will start laying some sod down next week in the worse areas. We budget for a tough winter so tossing a few trucks of sod out to replace weak bermuda is certainly not out of the ordinary. The fly mowers and rough mowers made their first appearance in 6 months after a long winter. We have been running irrigation into the warmer dry weather to try and keep the bermuda moving. Both courses will change quickly over the next month as soil temperatu...

  The weather decided to cooperate this week so we have been able to finish our 103rd and final bunker here on 16 Manakin. We picked up some sod and wrapped the bunker on Monday. The concrete showed up Wednesday and 5 yards was the perfect amount to finish this bunker off. Most of these guys have been here for the past 5 years of bunker work. This is the last concrete they should see for a while which was a welcome comment after 75 trucks and close to 700 yards of concrete laid. All smoothed out and ready for sand. Having 36 holes and over 100,000 square feet of bunkers be bulletproof against heavy storms and washing out is a massive benefit for our golfing membership. This is something that is easily forgotten about when 5 inches of rain comes down on a Friday night and the bunkers are playable for Saturday. The infrastructure is there now and will forever be appreciated by our team. The smaller bunker will give much better access to the green here on 16. The sand is in and tamped...

  It has been a long time since we have been rained out of an aeration but this past Monday that is just what happened. 1.5” of rain soaked the campus all day Monday so Tuesday the aerators started making noise at 5am. Just like on the Manakin, 1/4” cores were pulled out of the greens first then blown off and cleaned up.  A variety of different amendments were spread out and then the greens were topdressed heavily. Another two aerators equipped with half inch solid tines went over the dry sand and created nice channels for everything to fall into. This is at least double the amount of sand that was used in past springs which will go a long way in keeping our organic layer functioning properly and allowing water to flow down through the sand based system.  The greens are brushed in, blown off, rolled and then sprayed with a foliage fertilizer package to help them start to recover. They will not be mowed this weekend and will receive their first dry mow on Monday.  The...