Hermitage CC Golf Course Management

  It is possible to have too much of a good thing, and in our case now it is rain. We made it through the June drought without much issue but when the rain keeps falling out of the sky we can only rely on existing drainage instead of the irrigation system.  Rain has gotten our moisture levels back up as well as the lake level. While the bermuda can take either dry or wet, the bent starts to get tired when saturated conditions persist. Daily mowing and golfer traffic combined with high nighttime temps and high humidity put a burden on the bents ability to photosynthesize and respire (read: stay alive). The fans are a massive help in reducing leaf moisture and humidity on the greens. This is easily a year where you could justify a fan on every green, especially the putting greens! With rain on the way this week, Amelia and I snuck out of the house on Sunday night and were able to spread some sand on the Manakin greens. Topdressing this time of the year helps the surface dry up a...

  A few sunny 100 degree days were just what we needed to get our annual verticutting and topdressing done on the Manakin. We are smack dab in the middle of bermuda growing season now and the Latitude was just starting to get aggressive and scalpy. This procedure helps thin out the turf and ensure a quality surface for the rest of the season. The first step is taking off some extra leaf material with the mowers, scalping the turf down slightly. The verticutters followed behind the mowers and cut lines just shy of 1 inch down in to the thatch layer. Since the bermuda grows laterally, each cut on a stolon creates a new growth point which then creates a more dense and high quality surface. The subsequent debris and "sprigs" are blown off into the rough. Two debris sweepers have been running non stop all week collecting spoils while the trailers haul the debris to the dump. It is a dusty hot mess! With the debris out of the way the topdressers made their way out to sling some san...

  The temperatures again this week have been stout, with highs deep into the 90's and the real feel temps bouncing off 115 degrees. After that rain on the 4th of July the humidity has been pretty oppressive. More rain is on the way and we have yet another stretch of tropical temps early next week. The weather could not be much better for the bermudagrass. Our irrigation system has kept us right on the line of firm and healthy. Our mowing frequencies are up in order to combat the ever growing thatch growth on the bermuda but that leads us into our annual verticut and topdress next week. The Manakin will be closed for three days starting this Monday the 15th. All 55 acres of short grass will be vertically mowed in order to rip some thatch out and replace it with sand. This will help prevent scalping from the mowers the rest of the year and send us in to the fall looking great. Our bentgrass greens are still performing well despite the tropical bermudagrass weather. Sure there are ple...

  Grant Lowery's reign as Manakin Superintendent has officially begun. We ushered Joe out with a banana boat from Mister Softee this week and he is already over at Dominion Club making a positive impact. Mid summer transitions are rarely preferred but in this case everyone has been more than ready to make things happen. We have finally broken the drought pattern and caught a few nice rains. The bermuda is glowing and the greens are enjoying some relief. The lower pH of the rain helps wash through some salts that generally accumulate over periods of drought, a large benefit for all of our turf. With the early season of Monday outings finished we finally were able to get some sand topdressing down on the greens. The sand was followed up with a soil nutrient and fungicide spray and then watered in. This sand, along with a change in soil wetting agents should help alleviate some of the ballmark impacts. We were also able to get another topdressing down on the Sabot approaches. Remember...

  The last two weeks have been pretty special as summer has come on quickly. 14 out of the 24 days in June so far the temperature has clicked above 90 and two of those we were at 100 and 101 degrees. This is all without any kind of significant rain in the past month!  The thunderstorms were cruising north last night as we went to sleep again with no rain hitting the turf. We did however wake up this (Thursday) morning with close to a half inch in the gauge and clouds in the sky, a welcome relief to the past few weeks. The pumphouse has been cranking water out each night and we are using all of our irrigation system to the greatest of its ability. Water consumption thanks to all of our recent irrigation renovations has drastically decreased while accuracy and consistency has gone way up. The results are great looking golf courses while your lawn has long entered dormancy. The dry weather has allowed us to reduce mowing frequency and get a few more people on hoses to hit localiz...

  Congratulations are in order for Joe Wagner as he has accepted the Golf Course Superintendent position at nearby Dominion Club. Joe has been the backbone of our operation over the past 5 years, first coming on as Sabot superintendent and then now finishing his Hermitage career on the Manakin. His diligence, communication and agronomic skills will now be transferred down the road and put to excellent use at his own property. His understudy, Grant Lowery will step in the Manakin GC Superintendent role. Grant has been taking on more and more responsibility over the past year so this timing will be perfect for his career progression. We are happy to continue graduating managers in house. Just as Ben Longest moved up to Sabot superintendent two years ago we are excited for Grant to do the same all the while finding new levels of excellence along the way. Please wish Joe a farewell as you see him over the next two weeks! The temperatures are starting to heat up although the humidity h...

  The weather over the past week has been outstanding for golf. Member Guest shaped up perfectly with firm fairways and greens that provided a fun challenge for all. We worked hard Saturday and Sunday to get a little moisture back into the greens before the aerators came out for their post MG venting Monday. Tiny 1/8" cores were popped out, providing excellent opportunity for our bentgrass to take one final breath and shoot some roots down before the hot and humid weather rolls in. The tiny cores were simply blown off and scooped up with a shovel. No additional sand was applied but we did put down some gypsum and potassium and washed it into the profile. All 39 greens were aerated, rolled, amended and ready for play Wednesday morning. The greens are all putting great again already. Our small holes are major insurance for a successful summer! You may or may not see some talk about the USGA GS3 ball this week during the US Open. We have been using it for a few months and it provides...