The longest day....

So here we are on the 20th June, the longest day and the start of the British summer. There is talk of a Strawberry moon, the tennis at Wimbledon is around the corner, final Open qualifying is under way & the Euro's continue to delight/frustrate (delete as appropriate...)
On the golf course the forecast for the day was poor, and the forecasters were spot on.
I thought this would provide a good opportunity to look at how some of the surfaces around the golf course cope with heavy rain downpours.
To begin with amounts, from 7am this morning we had 18mm of rain until 2pm. Compare this with the June average rainfall of 54.2mm, we had nearly a third of the months average rainfall in 7 hour's. Obviously the surfaces are going to be wet. The question I'm interested in is how quickly the water moves off the surface & then how quickly the water moves through the profile.
The way to get good infiltration rates, the rate at which water moves off the surface,  is to have good grass sward coverage, reduce thatch levels and create & maintain a well aerated rootzone. Ways we strive to achieve these conditions on the playing surface's are sound agronomic practice's including aeration & top dressing.
Once water has begun to move off the surface the ease & rate at which it moves through the profile is determined by the underlying soils & the drainage capabilities of the soils.
As Muswell Hill golf course is built on heavy clay soils we need to install drainage systems to help dry out the surfaces. The recent greens drainage works carried out are helping the percolation rates of water being able to move through the profile which will help us to provide drier playing surfaces.

We can compare this to images of the 17th green below, taken at the same time that show more surface puddling, meaning it's taking the water longer to work through the profile as the soils stay wetter for longer.

A little rough around the edges....

A big part in presenting the golf course, and enhancing what we have at Muswell Hill, is the way we present the areas around the golf course which aren't directly in play. There are numerous reasons why some areas are allowed to grow up. One is to help define different areas around the golf course and increase golfing strategy, another reason is to try and reduce the amount of time we spend cutting the rough areas of the course. At times during the year we can spend up to 32 hours a week cutting rough areas of the golf course. One of the biggest challenges we face, and something that is an overriding factor in the management of the rough areas is not making them to penal and for them not to have a negative impact on the speed of play.

At this time of year when the growth potential of grass is at its premium these areas become long, and as some might say 'juicy!!!' So how do we manage these areas?
One thing we have to manage is the woodland areas around the golf course. By thinning out some of the woodland copses as part of our woodland management program it will allow us not to have areas that are both dominated by areas of trees & rough, getting a balance by preserving the woodland areas we have and making these areas easier to maintain so we can get machines in to cut the areas.
Another maintenance practice we carry out is cutting down the longer rough areas to help thin them out and develop theses areas so the grasses become finer and ultimately it's easier to find any golf balls that dare to stray in there.
Having longer, eco-rough areas around the golf course also helps us provide area of importance for wildlife habitats.

Another area we have developed this year is round some of our bunker faces. This is again aimed at helping to preserve grass coverage around these areas which suffer from loss of coverage due to sand splash from the bunker sand and also too add an extra aesthetic edge to the way the golf course is presented.

So if you happen to be out on the course in the thick stuff this week, it could be worse. The rough prepared for this week's US Open at Oakmount is by all testaments 'brutal'. Thick, lush and lots of it coupled with greens stimping at over 15 should make for some interesting scores.

You can hear the grass grow.......

As the month of May has been and gone and June is now with us I'd like to give you an update on what's been happening on the golf course.
The long hard days & nights of the winter seem like a distant memory now as the temperatures have now increased, the rains have come and the grass is quite literally growing behind us.
As a Greenkeeper the importance of water cant be overstated. Either in the winter trying too work out how to get water off the course to the summer months when the different challenge is to make sure the moisture levels in the playing surface are correct. Keeping the levels correct will help make the surfaces receptive to the golf ball and adequate levels will help reduce drought stress on the grass plant. The way we check this is using a moisture meter, this device measures moisture content that is available to the grass plant.

The recent spell of wet weather and warm conditions has led to perfect growing conditions.
This leads to some playing surfaces being cut every day, with us using varying different techniques to help improve the playability and also using products to help us regulate the growth of the grass and improve the texture of the surface.

 
Since the last post we have been working on the playability of the putting surfaces. We measure the performance of the greens not only by the speed but also by how the ball rolls across the surface, the smoothness and the greens receptiveness to golf balls. Works we have carried out have including top dressing every two weeks, aeration works and nutrient input. During the season we will apply nutrients to the greens every 2 weeks. This form of nutrient input gives the grass plant just enough of the nutrients it needs, it is sometimes referred to as spoon feeding. By feeding the greens this way it helps us have a better control of growth and this will hopefully lead to better, more consistent putting surfaces.

Over the last few weeks the level of course presentation has increased. Presenting the course at this time of year is a real joy and the Greenkeeping take great pride in how the course is presented. The majority of our this time is spent cutting, with the various mowers we have putting the hours in to help define the different areas on the golf course.

 
Work will now continue throughout the season maintaining and improving the quality of the playing surfaces and continuing with all the attention to detail jobs around the course.
I'll give you an insight into all these jobs in one of the next posts.
Happy golfing.