Hermitage CC Golf Course Management

  The humidity is back but at least the high temperature has only gone above 90 once this month, on Tuesday this week. Our normal high for August starts at 88 and drops to 84 by the end of the month. Our warm season turf continues to love life and the greens are getting their footing back for the Valentine. All 39 greens were topdressed again on Monday with kiln dried sand. We have done this 3 times now in August and it has helped tremendously in firming the surface back up. The less aggressive triplex verticutter made its way around the Manakin approaches on Monday as well. This will most likely be the last time we verticut the latitude this year as the sun angle continues to drop. Around 40 tons of sand went down after the verticut on the approaches and on some select sod areas from this past spring. The belt topdresser is used to get close to the greens and in tight areas. All of this sand dried quickly Monday afternoon and was brushed in and any left over debris blown off. The ...

  Both courses enjoyed some time at 59 degrees this past weekend at night. Before the weekend the low had only been below 70 three or four times in the past 60 days. A nasty stretch for bentgrass and humans for sure. The bermuda is performing well though and the Latitude on the Manakin was ready for the VSGA State team matches this week. Grant had his crew ready for the week and the double tee starts. The fairways dried out nicely on Tuesday for the first round and a quick morning mow of 60 acres had the Manakin shining through the rain Wednesday. As the ladies finished up Thursday we were locked and loaded with another round of topdressing sand for the Manakin greens. We will hit them again on Monday as they start to grow a little more through some summer stress. The lower night time temps make a big difference in bentgrass health which is very welcomed as we prepare for more heat and the Valentine. With a full golf course this week in the afternoons the Manakin guys took some tim...