A Long Freeze, A Fresh Start

 

Wednesday marked a milestone for 2026 as the golf course finally thawed and reopened after 26 consecutive days of closure. While the course remains saturated from snow melt and 1.6” of rain this week (and growing), both courses are holding up reasonably well.

The Sabot tends to stay wetter and is more prone to tracking from cart traffic, largely due to the Vamont Bermuda. It is an older, thinner variety—especially during winter dormancy—which makes it more susceptible to damage this time of year. Latitude on Manakin handles excess moisture better because of its much denser turf canopy.  That being said, both courses are extremely wet right now.

One thing we are careful to avoid this time of year is opening bentgrass greens while they are partially frozen. After an extended freeze, the top inch can thaw while the middle of the greens cavity remains frozen. This creates soft, mushy conditions until the entire rootzone thaws and water can properly drain through the profile. Thankfully, everything has fully thawed. We were able to roll greens on Wednesday to smooth them out and mow on Thursday to clean them up.

Hopefully spring is right around the corner so we can transition back into our normal maintenance routines.

This week we also worked on two significant projects:

First, we installed a mainline isolation valve at the Sabot putting green. This will allow us to isolate that green and the surrounding area in the event of a future issue—similar to the July ’25 leak—without shutting down the entire pump station serving both courses.

Second, we began running wire to all Manakin greens that will receive new fans. This is a major upgrade for maintaining playability and plant health during the summer months. While fans are not a silver bullet for summer survivability, they are unquestionably one of the most important tools we have for maintaining bentgrass through the dog days of summer.

We have also started applying summer pre-emergent herbicides and non-selective products around greens for Poa control. Poa populations are most concentrated immediately adjacent to bentgrass greens because the most effective chemistries are not safe for direct use around bentgrass. These non-selective applications are our best opportunity to control Poa while Bermuda is dormant and unable to uptake the herbicide. We hope to expand applications across the rest of the course once conditions are dry enough to operate sprayers.

Hermitage CC and its members are fortunate to have an experienced team of true rockstars on the golf course maintenance staff. This is a tremendous group of professionals who take great pride in delivering exceptional conditioning each and every day. It’s shaping up to be a great year—we’re ready to get fully underway and just need the weather to cooperate. I’m excited to be part of such a motivated and dedicated team.

I look forward to meeting many of you out on the golf course and around the club in the coming weeks.

Brent Graham (The New Guy)