Hermitage CC Golf Course Management

  We continue to get hit with rain and it has now been over a month since we have had more than 3 days in a row without some sort of precipitation. This week we got fed up with 13 fairway not draining and just went for it in the face of mother nature. Using our fancy plastic mats we laid out paths for our trencher and progators and went to work. Last year we had put drainage here in 13 fairway but it was with a smaller trencher that went shallow and we tried to just use gravel and sand, no pipe. This area has proved to be extremely wet this year so we went back in with the big trencher, cutting a 20 inch deep trench. We have tightened up the spacing of the trench lines and expanded outwards as well. This work will continue into next week as we cut some more lines on the left side of the fairway in order to answer any questions about this area being wet ever again. Water has been pouring out 13 fairway since we started cutting trenches. The drain lines will be filled up with gravel ...

  It has been tough to get a full break from the rain the past few weeks. As soon as we get close to drying out the rain comes right back. None of that is unexpected however so everyone is just grinding away. The irrigation guys have moved on to Sabot 17, digging holes, running laterals and installing new heads. Our 20 year old skidsteer was retired this week. After 4,000 hours this machine has served its purpose unloading sod, loading sand and gravel, moving around fertilizer and who knows what else.  Another Takeuchi rubber tracked loader has taken its place. The rubber tracks give us more versatility than rubber tires and this machine also came with a grapple that will help us move logs around much more safely than just a set of forks. The tracks allow us to do more soil work like building tees and modifying things around the course. We now have two of these machines so service and operations is easy on the crew. This is another great piece of the capital renewals and repla...

  After a quick break the irrigation company was back at it and finished up the mainline loop this week. The two mile loop of 8 and 6 inch HDPE pipe ended up back here left of 10 black tee where it connected to our feed pipe from the pumphouse. With the mainline complete the real fun begins with running all the 2" lateral pipes to the sprinkler heads. The 2" pipe comes in a 1,000 foot roll of pipe which eliminates any and all connections besides where the heads tap in. Each lateral pipe is measured and then hooked to the vibratory plow and pulled through the soil as opposed to trenching like the larger mainline pipe. The wire (it is really two wires in one casing) is pulled right along with the pipe. Luckily we ended up with a brand new plow this year so the heaving is a little less than last year. The crew will work 18 backwards to 10 and take about a week per hole depending on the weather. It is a giant mess! 18 is one of the more complicated install holes with 7 of the 20 ...

 More rain is here and some crazy cold is coming! Please enjoy the holiday season and we'll see you in 2023! Click here for 105 random pictures from another fun year outside!

  The sun came out Monday and some breeze finished drying out both courses nicely which allowed us to button up the bunkers on 2 and 3 this week. Grant and the guys blitzed the right side of 2 green, digging it out and putting a new drain in before the Capillary concrete started to show up Tuesday morning. The first nine yards of concrete filled up the back bunker on 3 and got the front bunker started.  The second nine yard truck finished up 3 and started the bunker on two. We were about 5 yards short here so we called a third partial truck in and finished off the right bunker on 2. Initially the 2023 budget called for the bunkers on 2, 3, 8, 9 and 10 to all be completed this year. All that remains now are 4 more bunkers on 2. We'll see how the budget shakes out and see if we can squeeze a few more in but this is certainly the furthest along we have been in December compared to past years. Sand is in on 3 and the rain is packing it down. We'll continue checking depths through ...

  Monday was the Hermitage department wide holiday party at Hardywood Brewery. Attendance was excellent and it was great for our staff to be together outside of work and win a few prizes for Christmas. Monday we also let the deep tine aerator loose on all 30 in play greens.  The half inch solid tines were going down about 9 inches through the profile. These deep holes will continue help us get water through our sand based system and also create a nice column of air for roots to fill into all winter. The greens were rolled behind and while the holes are visible there is really no impact on putting.  The main line on Sabot has made its way up 14 and it getting close to 15. The rain early in the week certainly slowed down progress here. Another small storm is on the way this afternoon and then we'll try to dry out some until the end of next week. On Tuesday we ran up to Farmington CC to catch the second day of our state superintendents annual conference. Pete Wendt, superint...

  We finally got the first cut down on the new Sabot back nine greens this week. The mowers are set to .200" and will stay there for a while. All the greens are rooted in besides 15 which was the last to be sodded. The few 20 degree nights last week didn't help anything but we have plenty of time to grow these greens in. The irrigation team has reached the pipe behind 12 green that we bored under the Starwood driveway last year. There was plenty of hand digging here having to avoid the existing main line, the power to the well and the power to the fan. Nelson was up ahead fusing pipe for 13. They should be close to 13 green by the end of the weekend depending on what more rain does on Saturday. On Monday the majority of our two crews did a blitz on 10 Manakin green bunkers. All three have now been excavated. The 20 year old drainage is pulled out and new pipe and gravel are put in. The old pipe was very shallow so all the drain lines have to be dug deeper. The floor of each bu...