In the last blog I spoke about the bunker works at the 5th, the pathway works around the course and talked about some of the drainage work we have done.
This blog I want to cover several other points and talk about some of the day to day stuff we are doing along with the project work.
During the summer the schedule of works is worked out to try and maximise the work during the winter months. We take into account the 'normal weather conditions' and plan around this. We look at four main areas: renovation and maintenance, construction, other (lead clearing, ditches etc) and woodland management.
All these works are in place and once complete the spring season should be upon us, sometimes we have to move the schedule around slightly but this at least shows our goals. What is not included in this is the daily/weekly set ups.
Below is a screen shot of this years schedule.
More winter works
Okay, back to the winter works that have been going on.
Winter Mats
Not only have we been working on pathways, bunkers and drainage we have also increased our number of winter mats on the course. This is thanks to the 125 'Winter Mat' golf day and the last of donation fund from Mick O'Leary. This was a superbly run day by Jim Milligan along with the volunteers who helped raise around £5000 towards the project.
Winter mats are used during the winter months as our tees are very small compared to new build golf courses as mentioned in prevoius blogs. The lack of land (as we are close to Central London) does cause these such issues at certain points of the course especially as golf is now played 365 days a year but golf has been played at Muswell Hill since 1893 and these 'modern' clubs would give anything for our history. Especially being a Willie Park Jnr design, with James Briad making further changes! Our aim is to protect the turf tees for the up and coming season, while giving a good level tee for winter use. Let's also remember that even St Andrews use mats for all shots during the winter.
We have complete new mat complex's at the 5th, 6th, 8th, 14th, 15th and 18th this winter.
The base is dug out using a digger and the spoil is taken away.
Danny Rowlands again has been the main man in this by making the shuttering edges and concreting the bases level. The hitting mat is then added to the middle!
The astro turf edge is then added once the wooden shuttering has been drilled back on top, the edges are just used to walk on and off I must say, not play off. As you can see above at the edge of the mats in wooden shuttering over concrete. The astro turf we use on the edge is 9mm thick... 9mm! No one should hit from this edge or the gap between the two mats as this could cause injury or break your club as you will be hitting concrete!!!
The mat in the centre (which is the same size as the driving range mats) is 25mm thick and can be played from all over. Short wooden tees, stepped tees or rubber tees are perfect off of this mat.
We are now placing the markers on the tees to stop golfers from playing from the edge because of what is mentioned above. Anyone moving these markers are changing the course without permission and will face the appropriate penalty.
The new mats are essential for us and more will be added next season as the improvement they give to the grass tees going into the new season are unequivocal.
Woodland management
Over the winter months we get chance to carry out some woodland management to the course. These works are essential if we wish to produce good quality turf swards and keep woodlands on the golf course for future generations. This work is just like pruning back the garden but on a much larger scale.
(Above the oak on the left was reduced back to allow the golfer to see the fairway and hit the shot, this is done every 4 years on average. The hawthorns in the ditch were in a pretty bad way so these were removed. This also allows us to maintain the ditch better from now on).
(Thinning at the rear of the 1st: lifting tree crowns, removing bramble, reducing Gorse, oh and finding hundreds of balls!!)
Lifting trees to the crown to allow air underneath or removing scrub or dying trees gives the stronger more natural species a chance to thrive and develop. Sometimes reductions are made for golfing reasons but in the main we are doing the work to protect our greens, tees and woodlands equally.
Any limbs that are big enough to be logged are stacked to encourage wildlife. Scrub and debris are shredded or taken to composting areas.
We also carried some flailing along the fence lines this year as the scrub and suckers have been encroaching year on year. We gained back over a metre of land some areas. Not a lot I hear you say but after 10 years this could have 3 metres, after 20 years 6-8 metres!! Now that's a lot of land and a lot of scrub to loose a ball in! This is something I m gong to added to the schedule year on year as we will produce a better cut the more regularly we do it.
Gardens
Another job this winter was to modernise the beds at the rear of the clubhouse. The old rose bushes were looking a bit weak and 1970's, not the look for this forward thinking club plus it was high maintenance.
We decided to change it to a low maintenance modern look.
We planted box hedge balls, these are slow growing and low, meaning a great view from the clubhouse still. We then added bark to all our beds around the clubhouse to act as a mulch.
We have been carrying out plenty of vibration across the golf course.
This is included Verti draining fairways, draining approaches and surrounds.
Greens were getting slit and sarel weekly until wet conditions stop this in December.
We then shock-waved greens to try and get aeration into the soil without opening the surfaces. Below
Some of the wetter greens have since been aerated using the pro core to try and get more oxygen into the soils following the heavy rain
What do I mean by course set ups?
Course set ups as I call them can include a mix of cutting green, tees, aprons, fairways, semi and roughs, hole changing, moving markers, bunkers, blowing greens/tees etc. Below Martin is blowing the 17th green off (again) during the morning set up.
It's worth noting that during the winter months we walk around the course as much as possible (and sometimes without a choice) to reduce damage around the course. Add to this the change in daylight hours, it means getting around ahead of the golfers is a real test, especially at weekends.
For example when the sunrise is at 8am we only finish working on the last green around 10am- 11am. At weekends the competitions maybe off by then and we have to make decisions while the golfers are out there regarding greens in play and only know the true picture at the state of the course by the time we finish. Please bare this in mind and give way to the greenstaff at all times.
During the winter months we try reduce the amount of cutting due to the lack of growth and the wet or cold conditions.
We cut greens using walk behind pedestrian hand mowers this is unlike our triple machines we use in the summer. This reduces the weight on the key playing areas (greens and tees) but is more labour intensive. Four greenkeepers take 3 hours (total 12 hours) to hand cut (including machinery after care) v the summer of 1 greenkeeper 2.5 hours.
Above Graeme carries out cutting greens for his first time.
And lastly, the never-ending leaf clearing job!! Has nearly been completed, just a couple of pockets still left to collect.
No comments:
Post a Comment