Course update

Just a quick blog and review of what has been happening out on the course lately. 

So like I said the spring was slow but we still needed to aid recovery and get the playing surfaces back. A lot of work from the team went into this. Including major aeration with both the verti drain and pro core. We also hollow tined particularly bad areas to create soil exchange. 

Meaning soils that were compacted with no porosity (spaces between particles) were exchanged for fresh soil with the correct air spacing. This also removed thatch and improved drainage. 

We also Dryjectted the greens again. This was a great way to help break up the compaction layer created this winter. We noticed the difference in the surfaces straight away. Interestingly our surfaces hardness readings were very good during the following weeks but much better compaction readings further down the soil profile. This is a good thing as the surfaces will be firm and fast but the areas around the roots are de compacted which lies for new root growth.  

Other works have included:

Lots and lots of topdressing! 90 tonnes so far this year. This not only smooths the surfaces out and improves drainage, it also increases tillering and makes the new grass species grown from seed to be stronger and healthier.  

We also spent many hours over seeding weak areas and then top dressing these areas by hand (see below). This helps the soil to seed contact and allows the holes made by the seeder to be filled, leaving the surface smooth an little chambers of seed ready to grow in the coming days. 

The fairways got there spring scarification and have been getting regular feeds, growth regulators, herbicides and wetting agents (helps water through the surface and retains it by the plants roots) to help keep there colour and award coverage. They have held on remarkable so far during the long dry spells and still look healthy to date.   

We spent time working on the bunker shapes by removing more of shelf like areas to allow the balls to come to rest easier at the centre. Each year we need to do this on the old style bunkers as years of edging and the clays changing shape as it fills and drys out over the winter months makes this a requirement. 

Another task we needed to do this year was hand mow the weaker greens longer into the season. We normally hand cut all winter but this is very labour intensive especially during the growing season and at weekends is hard to achieve with limited man hours, so this normally ends in April. Extending the hand cutting allowed us to reduce the compaction and allows a better quality of cut on these greens. It allowed us to reduce wear on the weak spots to allow the seeds to come through without leaving the rest of the green long. 

The result in the combination of all of the aeration, hand mowing, over seeding and    Specialised fertiliser program allowed us to get the surfaces back to were we want them even during this awful, cold, dry spring. 

Below is photo of our Hand mower trailer purchased this spring, this saved countless man hours and allowed to hand mow a head of play. 

Other works including lifting the willows, hedge cutting, divotting tees, marking hazards, flymoing and strimming ditches have also been getting carried out none stop over the last few months. 

Robin has been grinding machinery and carrying repairs. Martin has been working on re planting the flower beds for the summer. 

The work never stops and the list never shorter as we keep looking to make improvements all around the course. 

And lastly I have spent a lot of time with Kev as we have worked on the handover making sure he has everything he needs to get off to a flying start. More on this in the next blog!

Anyway enough of my ramblings again. Just wanted share some pictures with you and talk about some of the stuff that's been going on this spring. 

Matt