Senior Member-Guest weekend is here!

 

A couple weeks ago we had a site visit from the Audubon agency to maintain our certification here at Hermitage. Every 3 years to maintain status you must complete a site visit. The Audubon International Golf Certification is important because it validates a golf courses commitment to environmental stewardship, leading to benefits like improved water and air quality, habitat conservation, reduces maintenance costs, and enhanced public image. It also helps courses implement sustainable practices in areas such as water, wildlife management, and reduction of pesticides and fertilizers. Ensuring the long term health of the eco-system and golf facility. 

Senior Member-Guest week kicked off with some bunker work on both golf courses. The Manakin team started by giving all the bunkers a fresh edge, then used the Sand Pro to fluff up the sand. We also took some time to push sand around in the bottoms of the bunkers, especially in the areas where it’s clear most of the shots are being played from.

The Sabot team took a similar approach in their bunkers this week, but they also broke out the fly mowers, hopefully for the last time this season. A quick fly mow, fresh edge, pass with the bunker machine, and some final leveling wrapped up the process. It’s a repetitive task we tackle all season long, but it’s a necessary one to keep the bunkers in playing condition.

Rosa and Angela have been patiently awaiting the arrival of our winter annuals order, which we’re expecting sometime today. In the meantime, they’ve been busy cleaning up around and underneath a few of the cedar trees along the club entrance.

We’ve continued scouting for any potential fall armyworm damage. Even though we made a preventative insecticide application earlier this year, we’ve still seen a few breakthrough areas. Between holes 8 and 11 rough on the Manakin, you can see what some of the affected turf looks like. By scouting daily, we’re able to identify these spots early and make quick follow-up insecticide applications to eradicate the pests before they cause significant damage. 

Here’s a picture of a fall armyworm. This is what we’re looking for when looking at the turf up close, we can confirm whether the damage we’re seeing is truly from fall armyworms.

I’m sure everyone has noticed the cooler weather lately, especially the lower overnight temperatures. With that, the Bermudagrass isn’t recovering quite like it does during the summer months of July and August, particularly the Tahoma on the range tee, which takes a beating day in and day out. Our plan is to continue using the lower portion of the grass range tee until we run out of viable hitting locations. Unfortunately, the upper portion of the tee is unlikely to see any more use this season. It’s difficult to pinpoint an exact date for when we’ll transition to mats only, but we anticipate it will be sometime next week. Of course, if the weather cooperates and we can squeeze in a few more days on the upper tee, we’ll gladly take advantage of that opportunity.

The greens are tight, and the weather is perfect for this year’s Senior Member-Guest. We hope everyone enjoys what’s shaping up to be a beautiful event and an even better weekend!