2014 Winter review!

I cannot believe 2014 has ended, what a year it's been. From the wet start to the year to a normal summer with great weather. We experienced hosting some great golf events, we witnessed some fantastic team performances and individual winners both on and off the course.

I am sat here writing this blog the winter solstice has been and gone. This being the darkest day of the year can only mean one thing... From this day on the daylight will increase and soon (not just yet but soon) the summer will reamerge from its hiding place and we will be playing in t shirts and hitting the ball 350 yards!! 

I thought this would be a god time to review what's been happening this winter out on the golf course. I am sorry we didn't get time for my Greens Forum. This was delayed due to our new daughter arriving in the family and it was decided to hold it in March 2015. 

However I did leave information up on the greens board about the works going on if anyone wanted to read about it.

Winter Projects 

New bunkering 5th hole 

In line with our course development plan the bunkers at the 5th and a mound placed to the right of the hole have been completed. This was our last hole of our immediate works required to improve health and safety not only for our golfer but our neighbours. 

The entire area was stripped and the old two bunkers removed. 

Then the new bunkers were shaped and drainage added. A new ditch was cut into the trees on the right of the hole to provide an outlet. 

Once the drainage works were complete, type 1 was added to the base. We use this to give a firm base for the bunker blinder. This allows the water to move through the blinder and into the drainage with contamination from the clay soils. 

Next the bunker blinder was added. The base is made from rubber grumb (imagine the play park bases). This is applied using a double action mixer and glue, it's then shaped with a trowel just like how plasterers would. 

The revetted turf is then applied and the top soil which was stripped at the start and mounded up is redistributed out evenly. At this point we need to add some extra top soil to help the shaping process. 

Once the topsoil was in place. The area was turfed. At this point I got asked a lot of questions on why we strip such big areas. 

This is to allow the area around the bunker to be shaped. It shapes away unwanted water from the bunker but allows the bunker to gather golf balls from shots that are to close to

the bunker ( said in an evil villain voice from James Bond). 

Here is how they looked once turfed. 

 Once the turf had rooted we started to edge and flymo the bunkers. 

The first few loads of sand have since been added but work has halted due to the wet conditions. There is no point in damaging the surrounding areas, especially after the amount of work that went into shaping them until the area is dry enough for the extra sand to be added. Once it's dry enough these bunkers will open asap. 

I must say the architect and the shaper have done a great job. The mound to the right of the hole, really shapes the shot and adding a new bunker back left and moving first the bunker further right have transformed the hole. 

Pathways 

Thanks to 125  (fund raising project for the 125 anniversary) we have been carrying out work to some of our pathways. The pathways are essential for a site situated on clay like us to improve the golfers experience in the winter months. The down side is the amount of work these require due to washout from heavy rain and the look they have when this happens. We are looking at different options at the moment as to how we improve these. 

This year we are re-edging some of the existing pathways and will adding subtle 'sleeping policemen' style humps in them to shed the water off to the side to those pathways with that constantly wash away. 

This should stop the water building up volume  and carrying the path material away. We had looked into draining across the pathways but after speaking to other golf clubs and getting there feedback on how they need to be constantly dugout we decided to try the above option first. 

Work has been carried out on 2nd, 5th, 6th and 7th. 

The pathways start by being dugout to about 10 inches below the ground level. Stakes are then added to the sides for the boards to be added onto. 

Below the experts (Danny and Terry) were called into make sure the levels were correct as they put the boarding in. 

They even lent us a hand to start getting the type 1 in place before the rain came!! 

Above is the new pathway from the 6th green to the 7th tee. 

An extension  was added on the end of the 7th pathway and the low point was lifted up to stop this holding water in the winter months.

This required us to move over 60 tonnes of material to shape the banks to hold the pathway in place. 

The banks were then turfed. 

The end of the pathway will have extensive drainage added to it once the course drys out enough for the trencher to work. Once this is complete we will have a nice try walk from the 6th green, 7th tee to the the 7th fairway. 

Other pathway work has included digging out the edges of existing pathways so we can add a board to the edges. 

On the 5th we added drainage to the pathway edge as this is a particularly wet area. We are hoping this will stop some of the water encroaching across the pathway. The path will now be topped up with type 1 and shaped as explained above. Then the red pave topping will added to finish. 

The pathway extension on the 2nd was added late to our plans. Mainly as the area next up the ladies tee was getting worn out due to the wet conditions. This has now been completed. We hope this will now allow the area around the tee to improve. 

You may have also noticed we have added honey cone matting to the ends of pathways and bridges. This is an on going process but has helped to keep damage to a minimum. The great thing about this product is it allows the grass to grow through in the summer but be a hard wearing base in the winter. 

Drainage 

Drainage has to be one of the most important course improvements we need to be implementing. This has always been hard due to costs but the purchase of the trencher machine and converyer system for our top dresser has made this task more achievable. All the drainage works we have carried out in the past age been funded through the levy money or from our top dressing budget. Meaning reducing dressings to achieve this. 

However this year the board and greens Commitee worked hard to raise the funds to allow us to have a drainage budget within our yearly maintenance budget. This over time will see a so significant improvement to the course. 

This year we planned to hit the areas causing us the most issues in the previous years. The 4th carry from tee to fairway, the bottom of the 11th, areas in the 7th fairway. 

We also planned to add a ditch to the right of the 9th fairway in the woods.

This will catch a lot of the water that flows from the 4th hole down towards the 9th. The scrub was cleared a head of the digger and this was completed in December. The next stage will be digging out all the old existing drains in the woods to link up with this new ditch. Don't worry, this ditch isn't in play unless you hit it 60 yards off line (I can do that)! 

In November the 4th carry was drained. We put in place a herringbone drainage system with 5 m laterals. 

We added a gravel base with 60mm pipe on top and covered this with 50mm of 3-6mm stone. 

Once the pipe was covered with the gravel the rest of the trench was topped up with straight sand. We used this because it's in the rough. It's a cheaper product as retaining moisture in the summer months isn't as critical as the likes of the aprons. 

The difference the drainage has made to this area is huge already. We will be adding a secondary drainage using a gravel bander in the coming months. This will improve it even more. 

The remaining areas in our plan will be done this year. We were beaten by the weather at the end 2014 as it's now to wet to trench. I think ideally all our drainage work should be carried out in August/ September. That way damage to the course when hauling heavy loads will be a minimum and we will get the full benefit that winter. 

Other areas of drainage have included the simple tasks of digging out the bull rushes from some of the ditches, leaving some as so not to totally destroy as these are great for ecology but enough to improve the flow rates in the ditch.

And hand digging drainage from off the green through the apron and joining it into the pipe work laid previously. 

Above is a photo of the back of the 9th green. This little task has made a difference so we will look to carry out more from now on. 

I think this is enough information for one blog. It's taking forever to save as the file is getting to big!! I will add another with the rest of our winter project works and other jobs that have been getting done over the last few weeks. 

Hope you all enjoyed your Christmas and new year! 

Matt