Hermitage CC Golf Course Management

  Cold temperatures, snow and ice do well to keep golfers off the course which means we are full speed ahead in the bunkers on the Manakin. We still have work to finish on the right of #1 but 8 green proved more accessible this week. Tae jumped in the excavator and chipped away the old frozen sand. We will let yet another batch of winter storms through tomorrow and then get both these bunkers drained and ready for capillary concrete next week. With the Manakin guys mostly occupied in the bunkers the Sabot team took to the "close to the path" list. This high traffic area by the putting green was spruced up a bit with some more pavers. We have two opposite curbs here now on each corner apex, ready for all you F1 drivers that are trying to get the most of your cart through this grandstand turn. The weather has definitely slowed down the irrigation company but that is expected in January. The real work has started now. Every 70 feet or so, the mainline is dug back up and the late...

  The main line has made its way back to #1 tee Sabot! In total for the mainline we have seen about 14,000 linear feet of pipe go into the ground. The HDPE pipe is really efficient to put together. Instead of wrestling with gasketed fittings and glue, every 50 foot long stick of pipe is fused together with this machine. The ends of the pipe are heated up to 425 degrees and then the fusing machine pushes the two ends of the pipe together. An 8 inch pipe is fused for 8 minutes. The result of the butt fusion is a joint that is stronger than the pipe itself, ensuring that this system will be in use for a very long time. Each fusion is dated and signed before it goes into the ground. We should start seeing the new heads being plowed into the ground next week. The main line was hooked into this stubbed valve behind 9 green. This valve was put into place almost 18 years ago in anticipation of this new system going in! The dormant fairways on the front of the Sabot have held up extremely w...

  Pretty close to 8 inches of snow fell relatively quickly on Monday. 2022 is starting out cold and saturated, a major change from the past few months. The "warm" water from lake gave a picturesque scene on Tuesday morning. The snow provides an almost welcome change of pace. Any desires to do more drainage or bunker work are put on hold but it is nice not have to rake bunkers or change cups for a few days while you golfers are stuck inside. The blanket of snow was also welcome before the temperatures dropped Monday night. The latitude was greening up last week like it was late March. You never want the bermuda green going into freezing temperatures so the snow added a layer of protection this time. A few more inches is expected tonight to cover things again before temps drop again. Only time will tell if this few weeks of whacky weather will delay green up in the spring. Tree damage wise for the most part we ended up unscathed. A few cedar branches here and there along with a...

  With such pleasant weather the holiday's are coming up fast. The team continues to churn out projects as we head towards the end of the month. The deep tine aerators sped across the greens at .9 mph early this week. Half inch diameter tines went about 8 inches down into the profile. These holes help create more air space for root growth and water infiltration. The greens were rolled twice this week and then mowed so ball roll now is not impacted. The tee surround on 3 black tee and the surround for the new black tee on 5 Sabot we sodded with zoysia last Friday. This will most likely be the last bit of sod from a sod farm for a while as we enter the depths of winter. The biggest project for the week was installing more drainage around 16 Sabot tees. This area is nasty old gray clay that water will never move through. Another 400 feet of drain pipe was laid in and then topped off with gravel and sand. The new greens on the front of the Sabot are looking great. Rooting has been impr...

  We have been waking up the neighbors for the past two weeks over on 16 Sabot. This week it wasn't just the wood chipper, it was the trencher. First thing Monday we cut a 400 foot long trench on the right edge of the fairway to help catch runoff from the properties to our west. From there we tied the trench back down to existing drain basins in the middle of the fairway. We borrowed a smaller tractor mounted trencher that throws the soil directly into the trailer to help quickly cut in some lateral lines. Each trench was filled with gravel, perforated pipe and then capped off with sand. We will probably end up sodding some of this area in the spring but for the most part these lines will fill in over the summer just like they did on 8 Sabot last year. All in all about 800 feet of pipe went into the ground this week on 16 fairway. Click here for a higher resolution panoramic of the action.  More trees continued to fall off the edge of the wood line here on 16 this week as wel...

  The dry weather has kept us very productive this "off season" so far. On Monday Ben and Sloan took the excavator over to 5 approach and cut in a new drain here. The new bermuda approach did well here last season but some extra drainage in the bottom will help it through any wet periods. The trench was filled up with gravel, pipe and sand and then sodded back over. The greens are looking great and rooting in very well.  It is difficult to pull any sod back up at all as we cross over the 1 month mark. Here are a couple of interesting photos from the nursery. We have saved some bentgrass sod and kept it growing on plastic just in case we needed it. This is the old L93 from 8 green. It has been dry and in true nursery area form, this sod has been neglected. Not much rooting going on with the L93. The extra pieces of Pure Eclipse have had the same amount of water as the L93 and still look great. And the rooting is strong! This is what you are getting in the new greens, new genet...