Friday 1st March

Course Update

At last the bunkers on 10 &11 have got sand in I hear you say!!!

We feel the same, there has been a lot of blood, sweat and a few tears (not me) to get this project finished, but we feel that we have almost got there. We have put a couple of inches of sand in all the bunkers and will wacker plate before we add the final levels. We also have a few areas to tidy up including some loose stones in the heather and some tyre marks.The heather that we have added to a couple of the bunkers will remain GUR whilst it is bedding in.

All the greenkeeping staff are very happy with the way the project has gone but are now looking forward to the warmer weather and a chance to cut some grass!!

A before and after shot just shoes how amazing the the two holes now look and we believe the bunkers will be .

10th

11th

There has been questions asked of when the two holes will be re opening. We have a lot of new turf around most of the bunkers which needs time to settle in and root. A decision has been made by Ed & I to open both holes with bunkers in play around the time of the Captains Drive In, weather permitting! All the new fairway height turf will be GUR with drop zones provided but the bunkers will be in play.

Moving on to other areas, firstly, you may also have noticed around the course that we have stripped some areas of turf. Don't worry, this is not for new bunker positions,  it is just high traffic areas that need turfing most years due to wear or direct sunlight issues.

With the start of spring now upon us, we are starting a few spring maintenance tasks across the course. We have decided this time to only hollow core the problem wet/poor greens which will be 1, 3, 4, 8, 10, 12, 16, 17 & the putting green. This will be done with the walk behind Pro-core with 7.3 mm hollow tines and then top dressed with a 70/30 fen-dress root zone. All greens will be deep tinned before the coring at 10 inches deep with 8.3mm solid tines.

  

After the very hot dry summer, like many courses (trust me, many are far worse than us) we have lost a little grass from the fairways. This was more through the shear heat of the sun compared to drought. We feel at Broadstone we have got off lightly and have a pretty good coverage of grass on the fairways. 

Over the next couple of weeks you will see the fairways being scarified at between 2 & 3 mm, to remove unwanted thatch and moss. We will then follow this up by seeding any areas that are weak. Above is a picture of a tractor mounted scarifier (ours is a little rustier that this picture, we would love a clean shiny one like this)! The picture below is the scarify blades that tear through the ground and pull out dead and unwanted leaf litter.

What a great time of year it is, the birds are singing at 5.30am and the golf and grass growing season is slowly coming. The course starts to lose its weary, wintry look and begins to come alive. Rain is forecasted from Sunday for a couple of days but lets just hope the temperatures rise and it doesn't snow like last year .

The past week has seen temperatures reaching 20 degrees but please take my word for it that is still very cold or even frosty in the mornings when we arrive at work early. The soil temperatures are still low and the grass is hardly moving. 

Thank you for reading my blog, like I always say, I'm always open to any comments or questions about the course. 

P.S. - please keep all your fingers crossed for Southampton over the next couple of months, we need all the help we can to stay in the premier  league!!