Maintenance on the course is always an issue for the golfers, especially when the greens have been in such good condition this summer. However, in order for us to keep the greens in the best possible condition throughout the whole year, as golf is played all year now by the majority of members, it is necessary for the green staff to carry out some major renovations on the surfaces from time to time.
Having been discussed at committee level, it was decided that by completely closing the golf course on the Monday, it would give the staff the best possible start to their maintenance plans going forward. The cooperation by the members on this matter was greatly appreciated by all the staff involved.
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| Spiking deep |
As the course was very quiet on the Sunday evening, we actually started spiking the greens then, only doing six so that we could be ahead of the rest of the tasks come Monday morning.
After Sunday evening, all the greens received a deep spike using the Wiedenmann GXi8, punching holes of 12 mm diameter down to a depth of approximately 8 inches. This is a vital aeration procedure to help alleviate a lot of the compaction which builds up after a summer of play and machinery use.
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| Greens dressing |
This was followed by giving the greens a roll with the turf iron to firm up the surface. The greens were then topdressed, which was followed by another spiking operation, this time with the Procore, using 8mm tines down to 3 inches. This operation not only helps to close up the larger holes, but also assists with working the dressing into the greens profile.
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| Procore spike on the dressing |
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| Dragmat use |
The dragmat was then used to move the sand around nice and evenly. We then decided to lightly use the sweep and fill brush to try and work the sand in a bit better.
Finally on day one we gave the greens a little bit of water to aid recovery after all the disruption. Again, this all wouldn't have been made possible without the course closure.
Onto the Tuesday and we started with giving the greens another dressing, this time a lot lighter as well as applying bent seed to the greens. This was mixed in with the sand and distributed in the dressing for better coverage.
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| Bent seed |
Then the greens were spiked again using the Procore, this time only punching down an inch. Again the greens were then matted and, in the dry afternoon, were given a cut.
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| Not a bad finish after the procedures |
Tuesday also saw us start to carry out procedures on the tees. The front nine tees were spiked with the Procore, this time using 15mm solid tines, dressed, seeded and brushed. The back nine tees are then done the same on the Wednesday.
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| Tees dressed and seeded |
As you can imagine it has been a very busy week so far as not only have we been carrying out all these procedures, we have also been cutting tees, approaches, fairways, semi rough and rough, spraying bunkers for weeds, as well as spraying the greens, approaches and fairways with feed.
We have also resumed out rough management work with the Super 500 going out and cutting down a lot more areas which were unplayable. These areas will be raked through so that in time more playable, wispy rough will take over.
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| 17th rough removal |
The staff have all worked hard to keep disruption to a bare minimum and we do appreciate the patience of the members during this time, especially during the course closures.
