2020-2021 Winter Season

WINTER SEASON WORK 2020-2021

As we approach the start of the season and the first shoots of recovery in what has been a very strange 12 months, this blog hopefully will give you a flavour of the kind of work the greens team have been doing throughout the winter.

Bunkers

One of the feature tasks has been the continuation of the bunker development scheme. Over a four year period, the team are attempting to reconstruct, drain, line and returf all the greenside bunkers. This was the second winter of the four year period and another 10 bunkers were done. Nine were fully reconstructed and one was filled in (the left greenside on the 10th).

The work carried out on the bunkers this winter focussed on the 8th, 9th 10th and, after feedback was considered from the members survey, the right bunker on the 15th greenside was remodelled and made bigger to help frame the green better.

Poorly draining, and non performing bunkers had to be improved, such as this to the left of the 9th green

The bunkers were dug out and a new basic shape was formed, before some work by hand was done to create the final shaping. 

8th Greensides

Although reconstructed around 10 years ago, in order to have consistency with the new builds, these four greenside bunkers were remodelled, although we were able to tap into the existing drainage.

Early in the reconstruction phase, turf stripped.

Planning the drainage inside the bunker

A contractor was used (Whitemoss) to install the bunker mat liner. This has several benefits. Firstly it prevents any contamination of the fresh bunker sand from below. It also helps stop the sand washing off the faces after heavy downpours. 

Bunker mat installed by Whitemoss contractor before final shaping of surrounding area.

Once the mat was installed a final layer of revet turf was installed on a ledge to create the bunker edge. Then the surrounding area was then prepared for turf. We have used turf containing Fescue and Crested Hair Grass so it will not be a heavy grower.

Shaping complete around the bunker edge, ready for turfing.

A big team effort in all the winter work!

Turfing around the 8th bunkers

Luke proud of his work!

10th Green

A similar process for the 10th green took place.

The old bunker to the right of the 10th green used to flood at the back edge and the front lip was brittle and breaking away.

Shaping the new bunker before drainage was installed

Turf and liner for the edge fitted before shaping the outside commenced.

9th Green

Left of the 9th before. Contaminated sand and bland!

Right hand side of 9th during construction

Left of 9th

Mat going into the 9th

Turf prep around the edges

Soil prepared and sand dumped in

Turf gone down in a day!

15th Green

15th extended and reshaped

Mat and soil work

In terms of filling in bunkers, we have removed one between the 8th and 11th, and then filled in the left of the 10th green, as mentioned above. 

Between 8 and 11th. Hardly ever used and added nothing to either hole.

After: Shaped and dress, the 11th green still visible from the mound

Some finished products, which look fantastic!

Once the sand was added, it was shaped and compacted with the plate

10th 

9th

15th

Drainage

Carrying on with the theme of, when a green is out of play carry out work to the bunkers, the 8th and 10th greens were drained using the same methods as before. The 9th also had another line put in.

9th Green additional line of drainage at the back of the green

Both greens have suffered with waterlogging over the years and it was decided to carry out this work in the same period as the bunkers. The original plan was to carry out the drainage on the 8th and 10th greens, before taking on the bunkers. The drain lines were trenched out using a hired trencher on the 10th but, before moved to the 8th, the trencher suffered a breakdown and had to be returned. Therefore the focus then turned to the bunkers as above.

All hands to the pump on frozen ground

Unfortunately during January, we faced major weather issues with snow covering the course until the 10th of January. We then had 8 inches of rain through the rest of the month which made working on the course very difficult indeed. The club was able to use the furlough scheme to keep two of the greens staff off work during this period.

So after some delay, the 8th green was drained with the trenches dug through the green and out between the bunkers to an existing drainage outlet. It was about this time that a major decision was made. Due to the course being closed again due to another national lockdown, we thought it was best to drain the 18th green also. This was because the 18th was the only green not to be drained on the course. The downside to the late decision meant that the green would be longer in its recovery. 

We had to clear the snow from the half of the green still to complete!

8th green was challenging due to the weather

Also, before any of this winter work was done, all the greens were spiked and scarified, apart from 10 and 8. As 18 wasn't in the original plan, it was given those treatments which meant the turf was very loose in taking it up and putting it back. We are doing what we can to bring the 18th up to speed as soon as possible.

18th green was left until last due to lockdown

Got there in the end

Other works

There have been plenty of other jobs around the course this winter tackled to try and improve things. Other drainage jobs, paths improved, tree branches cleared and general tidy up work, to try and make sure the course was ready for the reopening.

The path walking down towards the 13th fairway was a bumpy mess and dangerous. Now it has been turned into a nice walkable path, but still very much accessible for the public crossing their footpath.

Soon to be the new apprentice, Sam helped to construct the path extension

Sam compacting the hardcore and sand base

2nd tee path reconstruction. Base and drainage.

Crates and stone installed

The path up to the 2nd tee has been improved with the crate and gravel system again used, which will stop it washing away on the path. The large tree at the top of the path was deemed unsafe by a qualified tree surgeon and therefore removed on safety grounds. 

On the second tee, the old steps were removed and new ones constructed.

New steps, ready for painting. 

Old steps rotting on the 2nd tee

There have been drainage repairs carried out on holes 5,6,9,10,15,16 and 18 too. Little areas but all needed to be done.

On 11, as you walk from the tees to the fairway, there were a series of quite dangerous small holes which could lead to a nasty trip. These have all been filled in and returfed. 

On the left of the 10th tee there was a large area which was totally overgrown and is to become part of the site for the new clubhouse.

Overgrown area to the left of the 10th tee. What a mess!

The Flailbot

Much tidier

Therefore we hired a contractor to come in with his remote control Flailbot machine to clear the whole area. He will be coming back at the end of the season to tackle a couple of on course areas.

So as you can see there has been a great deal of work done over the last few months, often in quite challenging weather conditions. This doesn't include the extra aeration to the greens, the setting up of the course ready for reopening, all the machinery maintenance work, staff appraisals, and planning for the new season. There is still a lot of work to carry out but rest assured the team will be working as hard as ever.

On a personal note, as I leave to pastures new, may I wish the club the very best of luck for the future and thank the whole team for their hard work yet again,

 Steve Hemsley

Head Greenkeeper 

Greens Renovations

 

Last week we took the opportunity to carry out essential maintenance on our greens and tees, work which we would normally do in a May window. Carrying it out in mid February hopefully means we can be less disruptive at the start of the playing season, keeping any maintenance to a minimum.

 

Just one week previous and the course was closed, covered in snow. Once the thaw began, we could plan our maintenance



Poster in locker room

 

The purpose of hollow coring is mainly for soil exchange, pulling out poor quality soil and thatch which holds moisture at the surface level, as well as allowing air and water to penetrate into the rootzone. There is a poster in the locker rooms that further explains the process.

 

 

At the top, a core taken from a tee to help remove compaction. At the bottom, a core from a green showing the organic matter we wish to remove and replace

The holes created are then filled with a much more free draining material, so that the greens in the long run are firmer and therefore smoother. We have used a topdressing sand which has been dried to remove any moisture, therefore it can fill the holes much more efficiently.

 

Although it is a disruptive and lengthy process, we actually are only targeting around 5-7% of the surface area each time we do it. Ideally in a year you would try and remove around 20% material to maintain good quality surfaces. That is why regular maintenance is necessary. A granular fertiliser is applied to aid recovery.

 

The process starts with the efficient Procore pulling out the cores in a square pattern. These are collected and discarded.

The Procore was used on the greens, here pictured without the collection box

Then topdressing is applied with the truck mounted spin dresser. This is a very efficient way to distribute the dressing over a large area.

Topdressing applied

Spin dresser applying the dressing

After this we then pull the sweep and fill brush over the greens to fill up all the holes.

Sweep and Fill Brush

 





The greens are then rolled with the turf iron to smooth them out. Obviously there are a lot of machines going over the greens and so in the short term the surfaces have a lot of wheel marks on them. The iron helps to remove them.

 

As well as hollow coring we also hired the used of the Sandcat machine from the contractor Greener Grounds. This tractor mounted machine decompacts the subsurface by shaking the ground underneath. It also creates slits in the ground down to around 6 inches. The sand hopper then releases the dried sand down into the slits, helping to firm the ground.

 

The Sandcat, slicing, decompacting and filling

 

We used this machine on the 2nd, 15th and 17th greens, which had been cored earlier. They brought a drone to illustrate how the work looks from a different perspective.

 

Sand slits. Moisture in the ground meant excess sand was brushed after

Hopper carrying around half a ton of dried sand

 

Greener Grounds' Drone to illustrate the work

 

 

The greenstaff would like to thank the members for their patience during this time. This kind of work is essential if we are to maintain our greens to the highest possible standard. With spring around the corner, recovery should be pretty quick.