Winter solstice

I thought I would just do a little blog and talk about what sort of things we have been doing lately. 

The leaves have finally fallen so the autumnal views have subsided for that wintry feeling. Added to this the rain has decided to start falling at high rates again. We ve had over 66mm in one week. That's more rain than we got in November.

(Above you can see the short day light hours). 

It's not all bad news, the winter solstice has gone. On the 21st December at 5.11pm the sun 'stood still' and then started to move north heralding longer days in the northern hemisphere.

Bring on the lighter evenings!! 

Leaf clearing has been going on all over the place all the little corners have been cleared. There may be some woodland areas that will need attention in the new year but a lot have been collected. 

Clearing around the car park and trolley sheds.

Ditch clearing seems like a daily task at the moment

The compost areas are looking pretty full too

Greens

More hand cutting of the greens

Followed by an application of dew cure. This is a great product which reduces the dew on the greens. A dew will normally form around midnight and sit on the leaf making it wet until we brush them off in morning. This can increase disease risk. So when the growth rates drop off we apply this product which coats the leaf of the grass plant with a wax like product, making the leaf shed the moisture. Leaving them dew free for up to two weeks. (See below, even during the fog this helps keep the moisture at bay and reduces the disease pressure).

 

 

Repairing fox damage to the 13th green has been a daily task. We are now spraying the greens with a chemical to change the scent to try and stop this behaviour. 

I wish I could spray something to stop these being left behind :-) another daily repair unfortunately 

In other areas

Cutting broken branches that were hanging over the 14th green

Roping wet areas off to try flow course traffic away from wet areas, this keeps the golfer cleaner and reduces damage to the course. 

The leak on the drinking fountain has finally been fixed now it's been drained down for the winter.

You may have also noticed the new winter mat base on the 4th (we are still waiting in the mat after a manufacturing fault) but have you noticed our first movable bridge on the 9th. This allows us to shut the other bridges/ pinch points off to reduce damage and move the bridge around meaning we are spreading the wear. 

I think it looks great and does a perfect job. 

This is just a trail one built by our very own members Danny Rowland and Terry Ray. Good work guys. 

That's enough from me, I m going back to look at the weather warnings.

Matt