Hermitage CC Golf Course Management

 I feel like this blog has turned into a weekly recap of the wild weather swings here in Richmond… and, well, this week is no different. This was aeration week for the Manakin greens, scheduled for Monday and Tuesday. In true spring fashion, the weather had other plans. We worked around off-and-on rain Monday (more on than off) and kept a close eye on the tornado warning that evening. Thankfully, we avoided any touchdowns on property, with just a few trees down to clean up. To stay ahead of the storms, the team got a jump start Saturday night by completing deep tining and a roll. That decision paid off, allowing us to wrap up most of the remaining aeration work on Tuesday while also tackling storm cleanup. The Manakin greens received deep tines, ½" solid tines, and .3" cores, followed by topdressing and a nutrient package. All things considered, the process went as smoothly as it could given the wet conditions. With several cold mornings this week, recovery has been a bit ...

 

 The weather lately has been about as Virginia as it gets. We went from conditions frozen solid like a rock, to a week of temperatures in the 80s with a high pushing near 90, and now we’re looking at snow falling on Friday. It certainly keeps us on our toes this time of year. We successfully completed all of our summer pre-emergent applications and sprays targeting poa in the bermudagrass. Interestingly, we’ve seen quite a bit of green bermuda popping this week. While it’s encouraging to see some life of spring, we’re keeping our fingers crossed that the upcoming cold snap doesn’t turn that green grass purple for a bit. Bunker detailing continues on both courses. Recently, the team began brushing some of the compacted sand in the lower areas of bunker surrounds. This work will continue as we move through the spring. Tree work is also nearing completion for the season. We only have a few more removals scheduled before we call it finished for the year. One of the projects complet...

 This week started a little cold and a lot wet. Things are finally starting to turn, and we’ve now had two straight afternoons where short sleeves were the uniform of choice. The heavy fog this morning didn’t help with drying things out, but we’re hopeful to soon have both golf courses completely out of CPO for the first time in quite a while. Grant has been working hard on his creek project on #14 at Manakin. After quite a bit of digging, a Facebook rock purchase, and about a pallet of concrete, things are starting to come together. He has a bit of dredging left to do and a few minor adjustments, and it should be just about wrapped up. We understand that periods of CPO can sometimes lead to more unfilled divots in the fairways, so we sent out a little help this week. Please remember to fill your divots, especially now that carts are back on most of the fairways. We also finalized bunker adjustments on Sabot this week. We still have the back nine to work through on Manakin, but w...