The Challenges of Weather

We have lots of tools and machines at our disposal in order to maintain and present the golf course to its maximum potential. However something which is out of our control is the weather conditions that we face on a day to day basis.

This year has thrown up some very interesting weather patterns but overall the amount of rainfall has been very excessive, making our job even harder.

In an earlier blog I have talked about rainfall levels and the effect it can have on surfaces. The rainfall figures for this year make for interesting reading. Some months are way above the normal average when others are way below.
 



This chart illustrates the amount of rainfall and the number of days it has fallen

The rainfall has been excessive but the number of days of rainfall has been, in some cases, quite low in comparison.
For example, if you look at the chart above, the highest month so far, March, recorded 163mm of rain over 17 days in the month. July, posted 132mm for only 2 days less.

So as we entered September the golf course was already showing signs of being wet underfoot after the main "summer" months of June, July and August totalling a massive 359mm of rainfall. That fell over just a total of 41 days.

Ditch on left of 13th fairway burst its bank, resulting in the green flooding

So what we needed was everyone saying let's hope for an "Indian Summer". Unfortunately that's not been the case as, at the time of writing, we have had 111mm of rain in a 9 day straight period at the start of September. That is 13mm more than the whole of August.
 

As you can imagine the course has struggled to take this amount of water, especially the heavy downpours and we have had to experience some course closures. However, it has been very welcoming to see how the course has drained in many areas once the rain has stopped.

The greens remain firm and that is testament to the ongoing renovation work, most recently carried out in August. The more dressing we can put onto the greens, the firmer they shall be. This bodes well for the winter time and work will continue in this vain. The club have rightly continued to invest in as much dressing as possible for the greens to improve them to cope with such extreme weather patterns.

Greens Topdressing Applications

 

Over the last 5 years we have applied 640 tons of topdressing and that is one of the main reasons why the greens are the condition they are today.
 

 

Procore was used this week on the greens (this is the 12th tee!!)



This week the greens have received a needle tine to allow them to breathe after all this rain. It will help to shed the surface water and allow toxic gases to exit the rootzone. It is very important at this time of year to keep the surfaces as open as we possibly can to help prevent disease taking hold.

 



18th Green after a spike and cut



The greens were handcut also for the first time in a long time. The weight of the machine is a lot lighter on the green surface and also it is safer than driving the triple mower around in the very wet conditions.

  

Also we have had several pleasing comments to say how surprisingly dry the course is considering the amount of rain. The fairways have been spiked and scarified during the summer period and they are receiving the benefit from that. This work will continue in the Autumn.

 

To make the fairways even better, like the greens, in an ideal situation we would like to commence topdressing the fairways. Obviously this would come at a significant cost due to the size of the area needed to be covered. However in the long run it would mean the fairway condition would improve drastically, resulting on firmer, tighter cut surfaces in a condition to be played all year round.

Youtube video: Look up "Verticutting and topdressing fairways"

 

 



So we will continue to present the golf course to our best ability as we head into Autumn. The temperatures are still reasonable and hopefully with a bit of luck from above we can all look forward to the golf course being back to its best as soon as possible.