Snow days

What a difference a day makes! yesterday we were laying the blinder and today the snow has started to fall. The course will be closed while we have snow coverage. The main reasons are for your safety, to reduce the damage to the grass plant and a the fact you would not find your ball! During the snow the greenstaff tend to be working on machines or refurbishing the course furniture.

Bunker Blinder

After an investigation in to the new bunker base product called the Blinder Bunker Liner but bunker blinder to all the greenkeepers that use it, a decision was made to trial this product on our worst bunker. It was felt that the 14th green side bunker was the worst or at least the one that has never been 'quite right'.
The product is a rubber base liner that lays along the base about 25-35 mm in depth. This is very similar to stuff in the kids parks or rubber pathways on the golf course. The main difference is its porous and can cope with over 2400ml an hour as long as the drainage is right!
The benefits of this base are :-
1) Easier to maintain the bunker as less sand wash out after rain
2) No contamination of clays or stones
3) Better drainage
4) Less sand required
5) Better playability

Below are the pictures of this week so far

17th Green Drainage

Drainage work has been carried out on the back of the green at the 17th. This part of the course sits in a bowl shape and has sat very wet all year. The drainage that was laid some time ago had silted up and needed replacing. We have not only replaced the pipe work and stone but we have added four gulley pots around the green to allow us to move surface water away quicker.

Another new addition

The next new addition to the course is our new bunker on the 3rd hole. The 3rd has not had a bunker for many years but this new green side bunker will be there to catch any shot going left or short of the green. This bunker has been designed long in shape so there's room still to attack the green from the right hand side. The sand will be added once the turf has taken root. This latest addition will make a tough hole even tougher...

New Bunkers on the 4th

The new green side bunkers and the newly placed fairway bunker on the 4th have now been turfed and are looking great. Work has also been completed on the 3rd and now on to the 14th for something different. I will keep you posted on the new developments and maybe I will add some pictures of the construction for those of you not venturing out this winter !

The next phase!

Following many months of deliberation the greens committee, myself and the board finally agreed a set of five year plans (+). The design work was carried out by creative golf design with imput from the above Commitee's. The creative golf design team are Ken Moodie golf course architect, John Nicolson tree specialist and ken Brown PGA golfer/ BBC commintator/ Ryder cup player.

This winter the first phase will include work on the 3rd and 4th holes. These are high risk health and safety holes and the plan will reduce the risk to our neighbours greatly.

The 3rd will have trees removed from the right hand side of the hole so we can push the fairway over and create a better dog leg. We will also be adding a bunker to the approach to try and keep the 2nd or 3rd(in my case) shot away from the houses.

The 4th hole- we will move the fairway bunker back to the landing zone on the left and clearing trees on the right again to take the drive further right. The landing area for the bigger hitters will be less, this giving a real problem to risk or not. We are rebuilding the two bunkers either side of the green and developing the shapes back to gather the balls easier from wayward shots!!

We hope you enjoy the new look holes. But please be patient while the works are carried out. Thank you

The never ending spring!

Since Thames water introduced it's hose pipe ban on 5th April we have had record rainfall making it the wettest drought ever but there is a problem with the wet. The growth rates of the grass on the course are incredibly high. We have applied Growth retardants on the main playing surfaces but have not been able to apply on to the rough due to costs. The course is looking greener than ever and playing long. The greenstaff have worked tirelessly to try and keep the course in great shape. This really does feel like the ' never ending spring!'