Hermitage CC Golf Course Management

 Oh, what a week it’s been, December has not been kind so far. We were hit with another light dusting of snow Sunday morning, forcing the courses to close yet again for a few days. While it was the least amount of snow we’ve seen all year, not even totaling an inch, it stuck around longer then our previous storms. Temperatures dropped into the teens Monday morning, effectively freezing what little snow we received.  We were able to open 18 of the 36 holes early in the week, and by Wednesday all 36 holes across the property were cleared of snow and open for play. Winter golf is officially in full swing! With temperatures well below freezing Monday morning, we wanted to give everyone a chance to warm up by taking out a few trees and feeding them into the chipper to the right side of 12 Manakin green.  After speaking with our neighbors along number 12, we were able to remove approximately 15 trees to allow more sunlight to reach the right side of the hole. The primary reason...

So far, winter weather has remained undefeated. We’ve now had 18 straight days where daytime highs failed to reach 50 degrees, and overnight lows have dipped below freezing on 17 of those days. Last Friday’s quick snowstorm cleared out just in time for mother nature to drop another five inches across the club, keeping the courses closed for most of the week.  Today, we were able to open the front nine of the Manakin course and the back nine of the Sabot course. With another round of winter weather forecasted for Sunday morning, we’re hoping to dodge the worst of it. Continued snowmelt today should allow us to have both courses open for the weekend. We’ve been waiting on the arrival of our ground poles for the new fans that will be installed around most of the remaining Manakin greens. The plan was to begin setting poles early this week, but the weather had other ideas. We’ll head out next week and get as many poles in the ground as conditions allow, with plans to continue the work ...

Post Thanksgiving week began with stump removal on both courses. We continue to contract out this work for efficiency and cost. There isn’t enough justification to spend roughly 60k on a stump grinder to keep on property when we can bring in a stump removal service three times a year for a fraction of the cost. This approach allows us to keep removing trees as needed until enough stumps accumulate for our contractor to make a full day of grinding stumps on the property. Afterward, our team cleans up the grindings which fully completes the tree-removal process. Continuing on the tree-removal topic, we were finally able to take down the last tree needed for the Department Maintenance team. If you remember from a couple posts back, we had to remove several trees next to their building. This was to make room for a new lean-to that will be used to store the smoker and a few other miscellaneous items. This added storage space will be a great benefit to their department and the club as a whol...