Maintenance Week

This week the staff have worked hard to perform as much tasks as possible, despite over an inch of rain falling on the course. This put paid to any chance we had of coring the greens. Before the week started we looked at the forecast, the soil temperature, the golfing calendar and the expected recovery time and we took the decision that hollow coring was not the option at this time.

 

We tried to use the weather to our advantage as we knew that the heavy rain would wash in the topdressing nicely. So on Monday we solid spiked the greens with 10mm wide tines (on the new Wiedenmann GXi8) down to a depth of 6 inches. We followed this up on Tuesday by firstly brushing the greens with the sweep and fill brush to stand up the grass. Then they were cut before topdressing commenced. The topdressing went on fairly heavy in the rain so much so that when we were dressing the bottom four greens, the dressing on the top greens had almost been washed in already. This meant we were able to put more on straightaway. The dressing was then run over using a dragmat to help with smoothness. 

 

On Wednesday and Thursday we then spiked the greens again with the Procore using 8mm tines down to 4 inches. This was followed by more dressing, matting, brushing and cutting. On Friday the greens were cut and ironed to help bring the pace up a touch as carrying out this kind of work always drops the pace off. We have managed to put around 25 tons of material onto the greens this week which is a really good effort considering the challenging start to the week and the lack of growth. Soil temperatures are now up again to a respectable level and so with another feed due on the greens next week, we should see an improvement in their playability once again. Regular light dressings, brushing and cutting will be carried out to inprove smoothness.

 

Also this week we have took the opportunity to spike all the tees and approaches with the 10mm tines as well as fertilising the tees with a slow release, season long granular fertiliser. The fairways and roughs were cut too to help improve presentation. As growth continues the golf course will continue to come to life.

Cold Spring Course Update

As we enter May you would expect the normal spring growth kick to be well underway by now. However that is not the case up on the course at the moment as a week of extremely strong easterly winds has played havoc with both playing conditions and any potential for decent growth. Patience is really the key at the moment for all concerned.

The greens have really suffered in these conditions as they have dried out and firmed up significantly. With a mixture of a lack of rainfall together with heavy winds, there is no wonder that there has been a significant lack of growth. We have fertilised, topdressed, brushed and generally done everything we can to assist making decent putting surfaces and now we just need a bit of help from the weather to help us on our way.

We have been using the irrigation system on a regular basis, however there is an issue which is affecting the bottom part of the course, specifically greens 4,15,5,14,3, and 13. This issue should be sorted out in the next few days. These greens haven't received the same kind of moisture inputs as the others which again affects their appearance but this is a short term issue. The winds have really affected the direction of the spray from the sprinklers. I'm sure you will notice from the direction of the winds how some greens will be dry in one area and normal in the other. Some bunkers have received a real soaking due to the wind strength taking the spray away from the designated area.

Another negative of the heavy winds this week is that we haven't been able to use our new sprayer (other to spray a bit of water on the bottom greens) as there was no way we could control the chemical feeds being applied to the surface. The winds are due to die down Sunday and therefore the sprayer will be used next week.

Another hot subject matter at the moment is the bunkers. Whenever we add new bunker sand to the bunkers there is always comments about too much sand or the wrong kind of sand. I can assure you that the sand recently added is exactly the same consistency as the previous stuff. The problem with new sand is that when it is powder dry or soaking wet it doesn't perform to its capabilities. It just needs a little more time to settle.

http://weather.headlandamenity.com/2017/05/may-2nd/   

I have attached a link to an interesting blog which goes into the lack of growth and moisture in more detail. It shows in greater detail the struggle many golf courses throughout the country are facing.

As I said at the start, patience is the key...