Friday 14th September

Course Update

Hi all,

Since writing my last blog the course is losing that amazing heathland brown and if I am being honest, I am not a lover of the two tone look of the fairways at the moment but that's my opinion. I am almost certain that we are not going to lose much grass on our fairways from the dry weather but we may have a couple of areas where overseeding will have to be carried out. Apart from that we are very happy where the course is at are right now.

I mentioned last month that we would be over seeding via hollow coring (dimple seeding) A little write up about the coring was in last week's round up so I wont go on too much. It went very well and I hope it didn't impact on your golf. We had a great strike from the seed and we were hoping for a second pass of seed this week via the verti seed. This was not possible due to the windy weather conditions so it is now scheduled in for Monday 17th, as long as weather permits.

Seed coming through in the tine holes

The Autumn is definitely here. The mornings are cold, The grass is slowing up and it is dark when we are on our way in at 05.30. The biggest head ache for all of us over the coming months is that the leaves are beginning to fall, meaning lost balls for you and us blowing/clearing the same area day after day to try and help!!

Above was the first outing with the wooly hat on 

I have had a lot of members asking what we are doing on the old 16th green next to the 17th tee. In the picture below it shows the short journey we have currently taken. I decided that all the cores we remove from the green, it would be a good idea to build a green with the same make up of the greens on the course. We have old 9th but this green is used in the winter so I don't like taking too much turf from it. Whether it be from animal damage, a hydraulic leak or vandalism, this will give us greens specification repair turf feel at no extra cost.

The process starting top left -

• Rotivate the area
• Remove unwanted material
• Level off
• Place all cores from the greens
• Level off to 4 inch soil depth
• Compact with roller.
• Over seed with Bent & Fescue.
• Install New irrigation heads.
• Maintain as a new green. This requires more top dressing, fertiliser and a higher height of cut(10 mm)

Lastly I would like to say we are well aware of problems with bunker depths. I sound like I'm making an excuse but with the very hot summer drying the sand out, we have lost tonnes from the wind and are waiting on a delivery from our supplier. 20 Tonnes are being delivered on Monday and will be added to the worst affected bunkers around the course.

Like I have said before, I welcome your feedback on the course and I hope you all enjoy your autumn golfing.

Kind Regards 

Paul

Bunker depth