The beginning of the week the course was drying out nicely, we managed to cut the entire golf course including the rough. By Wednesday it was starting to feel a bit like spring was in the air with mowers on the course and soil temperatures up to 7 degrees meaning the grass has started to grow. The course looked so much better for the cut but not quite like Augusta just yet, sometimes I wish I had their 150 greenstaff and warm weather though!
Towards the end of the week the rain came and soaked us once again bringing 20mm in 24 hours but I saw this as good news, the fertilisers we had put out on the course required a touch of rain to bring them to life and finally get the course growing following A LONG WINTER.
Also this week we had our first visit from our Agronomist Phillip Armitage. Philip works for the European Turf Specialists.
The Agronomist's job is to come to the course and take readings and samples from the greens and other playing surfaces to improve our data to aid future works. He discusses what we have been doing to the course, plans for the future and gives his advice.
The visit was very positive, Phillip was impressed with the amount of work carried out to the course considering the winter we have had. We also collected data from the greens including moisture, smoothness, firmness, compaction, light, height of cuts and cut quality. We also took samples from the soil and checked thatch levels.
All of the results were good, it was evident the amount of sand in the soil profile has improved. This means we are slowly moving away from the clay bases. After our discussions it was agreed to carry on with our maintenance plans that we have for our greens this year with a slight change to the amount of scarification required as our levels of thatch are under control.
Other works during the week- We applied fertilisers to the tees and liquid fertilisers to greens and surrounds. Sprayed the bases of the new bunkers. We also repaired bridges, re turfed the drain line at the 2nd and spotted loads of toads in the ditch crossing the 11th. So be aware it's not just your golf balls in there!!!
I hope you all enjoy the Masters and the warmer conditions over the weekend as this means the golf season has started, Yeeeesssssssss!
Please see the photos below
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