Hermitage CC Golf Course Management

 On Monday and Tuesday this week we core aerated the Sabot greens. We would have liked it if the heat index wasn't over 100 all week but the calendar wins the argument of when to aerate most of the time. With the sod project looming on the Sabot front nine, we wanted to take the opportunity to pull out as much anaerobic material as possible. The actual act of aerating does not injure the bentgrass, it is more about what happens afterwards. By using blowers to move the plugs off and into the bermuda for cleanup we limit any kind of abrasion. Trying to fill the holes with sand is where it gets difficult to limit abrasion in the hot weather. Each day we just worked on 9 holes and tried to finish the entire aeration, cleanup, fertilize, topdress and brushing process before 1:00 pm. If it wasn't for the new sod headed our way in two months we probably would not have been this aggressive. The greens were brushed in two different directions, rolled and then blown off again. You will s...

  We have been getting pummeled with rain this week. Torrential thunderstorms soaked us down this past Saturday and Sunday and then another two inches of rain crushed us during the day on Monday. Thankfully the sun came out on Thursday but there are still areas of fairways and rough that we have not been able to mow since last Friday. In some areas we have even broken out the pushmowers to knock down the rough. Almost all the green surrounds on the Sabot got mowed by hand this week. The fairway mowers have gingerly made their way through the Manakin but even with raising the height up we needed to blow the grass clippings left behind. Hand blowers tackled a lot of the work in the wetter areas as opposed to putting the tractor blowers out. No doubt the moisture and humidity has greened up the bermudagrass. The newly sodded areas on the Sabot are rooted in nicely. Good luck to the players in the 79th Valentine Invitational this weekend. If we can get the rain to hold off tonight we m...

  The golf courses continue to shine through the heat this summer. The rains continue to come in almost a timely fashion, even though we could of used a little less than 5 inches on Saturday this past weekend. As about 10 of our crew members cycle back to school, we looked to tackle a few projects this week. All the approaches on both courses were topdressed and brushed in once again this past Monday.  A new gold tee was shaped in on 7 Sabot. This tee will play at 75 yards as opposed to the old tee at 130 yards. It is nice to be able to start using some composted soil from our own dump area for these improvements. We also cut up a few thin spots on 1, 14 and 16 fairways where the vamont nor the bluegrass wanted to provide a nice surface for the summer. The bentgrass tee for 15 blue was also swapped out for new bermudagrass. The only bent tees we have left now are on 5 black tee. Those tees on 5 black will be pushed back and rebuilt this winter after the new irrigation pipes go...

  After 2 inches of rain came down over the weekend, we have been privleged to some gorgeous weather this week. On Monday we were able to get some growth regulator out on the Manakin short grass. As we enter in to late summer the bermudagrass likes to get puffy and starts to scalp. The regulator slows the turf down and allows for a much better cut with the mowers. The Manakin crew has been working on some serious bunker detail this week. They continue to check depths, pull out expired liner and then wet down any new sand that is added. We'll be excited to start replacing the sand and drainage in some of these bunkers this winter. Over between 8 and 11 Manakin, Julio tossed in another set of pavers on the edge of the path. This section was worn out since it is pretty difficult to harness the power of the golf cart upon exiting this turn past 11 green! Over on the Sabot we continued work on dressing up the walk paths between holes. Behind 7 green we stripped up the old gravel that wa...

  Two years ago our priorities were a little different on the Manakin! The latitude bermuda continues to hold up well to cart and golfer traffic in the summer heat! Our bentgrass greens have figured out the heat and humidity this year as well. You can see the tire marks from the sprayer on Tuesday morning from the pervious Monday morning spray. Our closed until 3pm Mondays are giving us a chance to wash in a fungicide application as well as some topdressing sand. Both are adding up to a better quality putting surface this summer. The new fans on 6, 7 and 14 Sabot as well as 2 Manakin have made a night and day difference compared to last year. Our new bentgrass nursery green has been seeded between the tennis courts. The pure eclipse bentgrass will match the new greens on the Sabot. We should see germination by this time next week. The lower parking lot walkway and steps are all finished up. Over behind the pumphouse we have two 14" pipes that allow water to flow into the pump stat...

  We went out and made ourselves a mess this week on Sabot! All the fairways, approaches and tees were vertically mowed, just like the Manakin was a month ago. The difference is that the vamont bermuda here on Sabot is incredibly coarse and thick. The latitude bermuda is much finer on the Manakin. The  texture difference combined with the simple age difference meant that the vamont produced an amazing amount of material for us to clean up. Thankfully we have had some dry days and the clean up went relatively smoothly. There is no doubt that we pulled more material off 25 acres of the Sabot than we did over 55 acres on the Manakin.  Once cleaned up we moved on with the sand topdressing. The vamont ate up the sand as well and we needed about 4 extra truck loads (100 tons) to finish up the fairways, approaches and tees. The result of all this work will be a slightly better textured surface, but certainly firmer, thanks to the sand and reduced amount of thatch. The results ar...