Greens Update

The renovation work done to the greens this week has been a great success and recovery is well underway. The greens were scarified and we removed around 15 tons of material which was replaced with free draining topdressing.

 

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We have applied around 25 tons of dressing to the greens and this has been brushed and matted in. The down side to these procedures were twofold. Firstly the weather in the build up to it was not kind, in fact approximately 21mm of rain fell over the weekend before we carried out the scarifying.

 

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This obviously had an impact and the greens have softened up in the short term. It goes to show that this kind of work is very important to the general improvement of the putting surfaces and more work is needed on a regular basis.

 

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The other short term issue is that putting down the amount of dressing we did then blunts the blades of the mowers. This leads to a poor quality of cut. Together with the softer feel the greens do slow up.

 

Today after cutting the greens the mower has been sharpened and cutting heights lowered so that they perform better over the weekend.

 

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We thank you for your patience during this period as we have been on the greens quite a lot recently but the work is essential in improving the greens for the future.

 

Greens Renovation

Greens Renovation

On Monday the 24^th August we will be carrying out our annual summer greens renovation. The whole process will hopefully be completed in one day with all the staff taking part.

 We will hire in a scarifier that rips out some of the thatchy material in the top 20mm of the sward. This material is the main culprit for soft greens, holding onto the moisture like a sponge rather than letting it drain through. This is collected and discarded. We replace this with a more free draining topdressing material that dilutes the thatch so that the greens continue to become firmer and more playable all year round.

The dressing will be brushed in with the sweep and fill brush and then the greens will be cut after. Every day after this the greens will improve and we will keep the disturbance level down to a minimum. The greens have received a specific granular feed already in time for these procedures so that they will recover as quickly as possible.

This is the right time of year to be carrying out this type of process as the warmth in the soil gives the greens the optimum amount of recovery time.

 We appreciate that this work can be an inconvenience but it is of paramount importance for the continued improvement of the putting surfaces.

 

Steve Hemsley

Head Greenkeeper