South England County's week

We had the pleasure of hosting the South of England County's week for the ladies from the 9th-13th of June. 

The tournament is held between 5 different countys. All playing 36 holes a day match play apart from the one rest day respectfully.

This was a great way for the club to show what a great club it is. The members who volunteered by welcoming, ball spotting and running the halfway house for all the county's top players was fantastic to see. 

The welcome they got in the clubhouse and the catering was great and well recieved, with lots of comments about how friendly the club is. The guys in the pro shop ran the range like true professionals. Even managing to clear the practice balls before we needed to cut in the afternoons between play. 

The greenkeepers story

We, the greenstaff loved hosting a tournament week. An England golf tournament is always something to get excited about. 

It also gave us something to work towards right from the beginning of the year. At that point we planned the fertiliser applications as best we could all the way back to the start of the season to make sure growth rates were not exaggerated during the week of the competition. We also planned to finish jobs off around the course and not take to much extra work on so as not to have works half finished around the course. 

We wanted to show the course in good condition and something the members could be proud of. 

The greenstaff started off by working extra hours in the weeks running up to the competition to get on top of the course going into the week. One thing we have to plan for is that no detail work using equipment like strimmers or flymos as the noise is very loud to be used during these events. 

All the staff came in for a full course set up on Sunday night. We were joined by Andy Hart a greenkeeper from Old Fold Manor GC, who volunteered to help us as we were one man short of being able to get the course fully cut. I would like to thank him for his help. It was appreciated. 

The rest of the week by doing split shifts of work. 

In the mornings we cut and rolled (ironed) greens

We adjusted the amounts of cuts daily depending on the green speeds to try and keep them consistent. 

We changed holes daily. This was done daily mainly so the team with the rest day would not be at a disadvantage against the teams that played the day before. Daily pin charts were produced. 

The bunkers were raked daily

We also divoted the tees daily and cut aprons

One issue we did have to deal with was the pollen from the poplar trees on the greens needed to be cleared constantly as finding your ball on the green could have been an issue :-) 

In the afternoon we cut and rolled the greens (again) and got the course cut.

We had some tournament support machines in (FOC) for the week from Toro. They were good enough to lend us a fairway mower (quicker than our second one) and rough mower. This allowed us to get the fairways and rough cut in record time along with our machinery for tees, semi rough, surrounds and tee banks.

The course presentation stayed high all week with the extra mowers! 

We also spent time keeping the moisture levels correct by hand watering areas that required that little but extra

We even let Adam Clark our new greenkeeper (who's not a bad golfer) have a putt ;-) just to give us his point of view (along with David Wilton the clubs pro). 

And finally here's a picture of the team, who worked so hard, I was very proud by the level of professionalism and dedication they showed during the week. It was great being part of something different and something the club could be proud of. 

Just an insight to our week. 

Matt 

Playing the growth and task game!

Firstly I would like to apologise for the delay of my updates. We have been extremely busy out on the golf course and the time has just flown by! 

What a month this has been. It feels like we have been playing a game of cut (because of the growth) and then trying to get a task done (see below), growth, task, growth, task. I think it's to much to put into one blog so I will try and spread it out. 

Growth rates 

The growth rates at the start of the year were very high and have helped with the over seeding and divotting around the course. The strike rate (how much seed came through) was very impressive indeed and allowed to start presenting the course a lot earlier compared to last year. (Below you can see the light green seed coming through a divot).

One thing I have been looking into this year is GDD (growth degree days) and during the summer months growth potential. Both of these systems use maximum and minimum daily tempratures, minus a base number (which is the default temprature the plant starts to grow) to give you a number.  These numbers are used to help guide our fertiliser, growth regulator and applications of chemicals to plant by predicting low growth or high growth flushes. 

This year greenkeepers from across europe sent their figures in to a company for the data to be analysed between January and April. 

So I sent our figures in and got an almost instant e mail back asking if I was in Spain (ha ha) and the scientist was so interested in our figures that he was going to look into it further. Why? Because we had the highest growth rates in the UK and most of Europe. 

This is the GDD graph sent out. If you see we are down as North London. We had 383 GDD compared this to the highest in other parts and it's a big difference. The closest amount of growth to us was in Frankfurt,Germany! 

So why is this? (Below is from Mark Hunt Technical Director of Headland) which may help to explain it simpler!  

So that's why we are top of the pops as they say. Ok, now your thinking what does this have to do with the golf course... 

Well, there's two ways of looking at this! High growth rates mean more cutting than other clubs at the start of the year meaning our projects need to be done earlier because we have less time available at the start of the season to complete. This is something I have always said but it's been proven that we need to plan to finish things earlier in the year so when the growth comes we are ready. 

The upside to the growth being high, is the greens become smoother quicker than other parts of the country, the course can repair from the winter months and presents better at the start of the year.  Meaning we come out of winter quicker...surely that's got to be good for our golf swings:-) 

That's enough on GDD and growth rates. 

What else has been going on-

Divotting 

We held another divot day on the bank holiday Monday with 10 holes being divoted again by the member in 45 mins followed by some golf in the junior find raiser. The remain holes were divoted on the Wednesday evening by the Roll up and the greenstaff the following morning. I would like to thank all those involved again. 

All hands on deck to make up the 225 buckets again. 

Woodland management  

The greenstaff have been busy lifting trees around the course. This not only improves the view, allows us to get machinery in under to cut these areas, improves air flow but it also speeds up play as the golfers can see there ball easier. 

The oak at the bottom of 7th lifted

The willows around the course were given there haircut also! 

The hedges around the course given there first cut of the year. Many other areas were trimmed back or tidied up. With walkways, bridges and encroachment on tees all being addressed.

We also finished off the last of our shredding of the piles from the winter woodland work. These were left in areas around the course due to course being to wet in the winter months to get the chipper out to them. 

After. 

Pathways 

The pathways around the course were edged. This is very, very time consuming for the staff. 

The low points on pathways were then topped up with type 1

Then topped up with red pave 

And then wacker plated in to try and keep in place. With over 106 man hours just used on the worst pathways this is one of our most laborious tasks on the golf course but they look great when they are done.... Until this 20mm of rain in a couple of hours and they wash away! 

 

I must admit this is frustrating but we will not be beaten so we start again :-)

Thankfully most of the paths have stayed in place but we are looking at designs and other alternatives to improve these areas around the course. This will make a huge difference in the long term. 

Bunkers 

The bunkers were given another top up. Bunkers with enough sand were given a renovation with the sand moved to the correct levels across the bottoms. This is always on going process as the rain or irrigation can move the sand following a shower. 

Our daily repairs to the bunker faces has also been a challenge over the last couple of months. We know who's playing these games with us, as he likes to watch us repair it :-)

The ditches 

The ditches around the course have had there first major cut back of the year. These play an important roll with in the course strategy and the drainage of the site.

Once the strimming was complete broken or faded hazard posts were replaced.

We then clearly marked hazards, GUR and boundarys. 

Irrigation

Irrigation repairs have also been carried out. The picture above is of the new valve assembly to the right of the 3rd. This has been a troublesome box over the years so it was decided to replace it all once and for all rather than just to keep repairing it. 

Some of the sprinklers arcs (the areas covered by the irrigation system) were also re-adjusted ready for the dry spell ahead. 

Gardens

Since Dukey the clubs gardener retired last year, it's been a bit of mix of members and staff to try keep control of the gardens.

This year, the greenstaff, Ollie (from the pro shop) and Barbara Jackson (past chairwoman) have been involved in improving the feel around the clubhouse. I would like to thank Barbara (who is a keen gardener and who opens her garden for charity every year) for all of her time and expertise. 

The detail stuff 

Some of the yardage stones were moved to their correct positions. The difference now is that yardage stones are placed using GPS. In the past the stones were set out using a wheel and tape. The trouble with that, is the wheel and tape have to go across the ups and downs of the course so you don't get a true reading. 

New towels were placed out on all the ball washers. 

Robin Toovey, our mechanic/greenkeeper also gave the machines a sharpen up on the grinders. This improves the plants health as it creates a clean cut on the plant rather than a ripping effect which can cause diseases to get into the plant. The main thing from a players perspective is the greens increase in speed without lowering the height of cut. 

(Below is a unit being sharpened along the cylinder). 

I think that's enough for now. I will blog again soon and talk about the South England County week plus lots more. As you can see it's been very busy but also rewarding getting all these tasks done along with getting the daily cutting and play set ups completed with the golf course growing like crazy. 

I hope your all enjoying the sunshine and playing as much as you can. 

Matt 

 

The season has started :-)

You may have noticed out on the golf course there is a hive of activity from the greenkeepers at the moment. This is because it's that time of year when we are trying to finish all those winter jobs off our snag list, we are setting up for the season ahead and the golf course is starting to grow like crazy. 

Now don't get me wrong we are busy all year round but this is a transition phase and all transition phases make it feels like we have millions of jobs being done all over the place. 

It's been great seeing the golf course come back to life and to see the work carried out through the winter taking shape. 

Greens 

The greens are performing fantastically well considering the winter. Our latest visit from course agronomist went well with a Phillip Armitage testing the greens for agronomic and playability performance. We still have work to do to increase infiltration and percolation rates on one or two of the greens but the OM levels are down to a good level. Firmness was good, speeds over 10ft were just where we want them at this time of year. Moisture levels were pretty consistent over the majority of the greens with one two localised areas need some work. 

Phillip was very happy with the greens performance and we will carry on with our micro managing of individual greens with regard to their make up to give us a consistent performance across all 20 greens. 

We looked at the 12th green which doesn't perform as we want it to during very wet periods. If you look at the two soil samples below one from the front of the green and one from the back. 

You will see a distinct clay layer (the old green make up) at two different spots one at 120mm the other 180mm. 

The rest of the profile is made up of top dressing and rootzones added to the greens over the years (the top four inches work well on both), but the difference between the two causes the green at the back (shallower rootzone) to get wet quicker. This is caused by the clay soil profile slowing down the water going through the profile and it's nearer the top compared to the front. This is when we get that line of two half's through the green. This will be addressed as we look to even up the flow of water through the green. This us just one example of the things we look at on our way round during a visit. We like to share ideas on how to correct any issues. 

Back to the daily greens work. Cutting, brushing and rolling have increased with the warmer weather.  

Light top dressing have been the order of the month plus alot over seeding of small areas ( pitch mark damage etc) see photo above of light dressing and bent seed (looks white). 

We have now applied over 67 tonnes to the greens already this year. 

When over seeding we spike/slit the area (see below) as the seed must have soil contact and be set a certain depths. This is why we use a rootzone in a divot mix rather that just adding seed. We could just add seed but would have to open the surface up first with little holes or slits. These jobs are done by hand and are very time consuming. 

Also weekly venting or aeration of the surface have been carried out, along with a light Verti cut to help smooth the surfaces. 

We are now liquid / folliar feeding as this helps us keep growth rates at a manageable level. 

Bunkers

Topping up the old fashioned way! 

Firming in before raking

Topping of bunkers has been carried out. Extra sand has been added to those that need it, to bring them in line with the others. We used over 40 tonnes of sand. We will be giving a final top up in the coming weeks. 

The new tees 

The new tees opened for the captains qualifier with additional works being carried around the tees. This included lifting of trees now that they have come out in leaf. Doing these final touches allows us to take out only the essential limbs of trees effecting ball flights or sun light. 

The tees all got another top dressing to help smooth them out and help break down organic matter. 

Other works included changing rotten sleeper steps and then astro turfing. Replacing the yardage stones and adding our new course furniture to the tees. 

Bits and pieces 

The course has been sprayed with a selective weed killer. 

Disc seeding has been carried out to areas of rough and all the tees. The grass species used varied from area but mostly dwarf rye, fescue and bent mixes. 

Tree stumps have been dug out and soil and seeded in the roughs. 

Clearing the piles of wood shreddings from the winter has also been done. These were moved into woodland areas and used as a mulch.

Our old course furniture has been replaced with new flags, pins and markers. We might even see the odd marker post for fairway lines added in the coming weeks !!!! 

Worn areas around the golf course have been rotavated, soil and seed added. These were then pressed down to dim the grounds up. 

Within days some of the seed has started to come through (let's hope the weather is kind and it continues). 

The mound to the left of the 18th has never quite sat right since we built it during the chipping green construction. The plan was the bank would protect golfers on the chipping area. David Wilton our pro found it hard to see people on the chipping area but found the mound didn't protect as planned. It was decided to reduce the height and shape with a more natural shape. This improved the line of sight for the pro, he can now see and shout should he need to during a lesson! 

This area was stone buried and over seeded with fescue. 

Once the grass sward come up this will be cut when required bit should make a huge difference to presentation of the hole. 

We also had a visit from a Health and safety consultant. He looked at various areas including the nets. All of which he was very happy with. 

We only 18mm of rain in April (so much for April showers) but on the 1st May we had 18mm overnight! That's the british weather for you :-) 

I hope this explains just some of the jobs that have been getting done lately during what seems to have been an endless four day week period (which I don't like) but the greenstaff have been putting extra hours to help get the work complete. I would like to thank them for their efforts. 

 

The golf season is underway, I hope you enjoy it !

Matt