Course Update 10/11/2017
When is the winter arriving? I thought it had arrived on Wednesday as it was -1 degrees on my way into work, Then today we are back to double figures!
I thought to start I would let you know where we are at with our winter heights of cut.
- Greens - 5mm
- Tees - 12 mm
- Approaches - 12 mm
- Fairways - 16 mm
- Semi Rough - 1.75 inches
- High Rough - 5 inches
- Winter Greens - 10 mm (This winter we are trying to give these some extra TLC than in previous years)
Winter Projects
The grass growth is slowing now which is giving us a chance to begin our winter projects. You may have seen we have so far replaced 4 bridges along first brook with new RSJ's and sleepers.
I will be putting a gripper on the sleepers to stop any of you slipping.
You will have seen the new 5th tee that I feel has blended in really nicely and the widening of 6th tee beginning. By the end of next week both tees will be ready for irrigation to be installed. After the irrigation, the tees will then be laser levelled by a machine to give us a perfectly level tee apart from a slight fall of 1cm in 200cms front to back to aid drainage. This should hopefully then be ready to turf by the 1st week of December.
I feel the golf course is holding up well going into the winter with the playing surfaces in a better place than they usually are in November. This weather may be nice for you guys but it's a recipe for disease for us greenkeepers with the warmth and moisture in the air not a good recipe for all of us looking after golf courses. We have applied 3 Fungicides so far with a preventative product applied 2 weeks ago which will be keeping the greens and collars clean of .disease. Due to cost we do not apply fungicides to tees and approaches but we have used iron which dry's the plant out and hardens up the cell walls.
Apart form high disease pressure, the only other concern for me is the 2nd fairway. With the amount of rain we have had since July, the water table is very high and it doesn't take many damp days for this fairway to become muddy. We are going to do whatever we can to improve this situation with next weeks dry forecast hopefully allowing us to do some extra aeration, which will hopefully improve the situation and mean we don't have to rope off some of the worst areas. I have to say though, aside from this fairway, the rest of the course is actually pleasingly dry, helped by the aeration work we carry our regularly through the rest of the year.
Not too much to say about the leaves. They just keep falling!! We spend an unbelievable amount of hours tidying up the leaves, we hope to keep as many as possible away from playing surfaces to aid your enjoyment of the course.
The Temporary greens have gone in well and its nice to here some of your positive feedback on them. Can you all just remember to lift and drop from them as divots are not nice to putt over. They are clearly marked with white lines.
Lots of people have said that they do not like all the posts and ropes out on the course. I understand that they are unsightly in certain places but they do help us spread direction of golf. You will see that we have purchased some green and white posts that are on 5th slope up to the second part of the fairway. I am going to see how these work for a few weeks then possibly introduce them in to some other areas.
Many thanks for reading and please keep on top of your pitch marks and divots.
