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.