What a difference a couple of weeks makes. The sun has been out with temperatures reaching 30 c. This weather has been along time coming. It is great golf and sitting on the patio afterwards with a cold drink weather. It's everything we missed from last summer so I m enjoying it.
We have been busy preparing for tournaments like Swing for Sammy, the Club Championships and Mid Am.
Along with our daily set ups there has been a lot of detail work being carried out and now we are dealing with heat stress on the plant. I will talk more about that later but for now I will blog about the swing for Sammy week.
Swing for Sammy was held on the 5th July. This is a great day for our membership and a fantastic way to show guests what a great club Muswell Hill is.
The format of the day is simple- teams of four, best two scores. We have a Pimms tent, a trick shot challenge on the 10th, trick shot show followed by BBQ, prizes and auction.
This day is particularly close my heart as Samantha Trow (who the charity day is named after) was my wife's best friend. She used to live with my wife and I during the university days and would stay with us most weekends after that had finished. Sam went on to marry Ben Trow son of Paul ( our board member and next years captain) following meeting him at one of our party's. Paul Trow along with support from a lot of people has made this day a huge success year after year and this has become a day for everyone to give money to Cancer Research because everyone knows someone effected by this.
Here's is a picture taken the morning of Swing for Sammy.
The day was a huge success with over £16,000 being raised with a bit of help from donations and auction prizes. This takes the total over the last six years to over £90,000 for cancer charity's. so thank you all for your help and we hope you enjoyed the day.
The course in the sunshine on the swing for sammy morning.
During the week of Swing for Sammy all the fairways, tees, surrounds were fertilised with liquid fertiliser and growth regulator. This growth regulator basically slows the plants metabolism down so it doesn't need so much energy (or water) and this is why it was sprayed the week before the forecast for high temperatures. It also allows the plant to thicken up giving a better surface to play from and less cutting is required.
The fairways looking fantastic following a hard winter and spring. With a bit of help from the management plan and the members divotting day.
Also as the busy period at the club gets underway our hole changing has increased to help spread wear around the greens and give a different challenge to the players.
Something that is very pleasing to see for us the greenkeepers is the root development under the greens. This has improved greatly. Please see the photo below. All the aeration work, sand injection, plus correct moisture levels have really helped. Also the soil nutrition tests and soil analysis tests carried out at the begining of the season have helped us taylor the correct feeding program to improve our deficiencies.
Good root develoment is so important as this helps the plant to be healthy, this inturn will help lower the disease risk, improve grass coverage and keep the plant alive longer during drought.
On top of all the extra cutting other areas of work included topping up pathways around the course.
And detail strimming work! Below are examples of this.
Before
After
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