Course Update 10/11/2017

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.

Course update 29/09/2017

Course update 29/09/2017

Hello from another damp, dull, overcast and wet day. Not sure how you all feel but I have had enough of the rain and the winter isn't even here yet.

Mornings are closing in now and Autumn is alive and kicking. The trees are starting to turn and leaves have started falling.  Over the years I have heard members saying 'why don't you let all the leaves drop and then pick them up' that would be amazing if we could but unfortunately the grass dies under the leaves plus the amount of leaves in the trees would result in a lot of lost balls on the course.

Seeding on the greens.

In my last update we had finished 14 greens and completed the last few last week. At no point during the seeding was it ideal conditions but we had to get the seed down before October which we did. The ground conditions ideally would be dry but this is England and we are never sure what weather we will get. Due to these conditions, the disruption is slightly more than we would like but it has been a successful operation. We were able to get one pass of Brown Top Bent on to the greens and are starting to see the results coming through. The seed will start to germinate after 2 weeks and then its managing it to let the seedlings become established in to the grass sward.

I would like to thank all members for their patience during this vital work. 

Disease

With the warm temperatures and moisture in the air, it is wonderful conditions for disease. I have spoken to many other Greenkeepers around and we are all in the same boat. On Monday morning the Facebook page that Greenkeepers use was rife with people moaning about disease. Fusarium patch is the most common this time of year and if present on the green it is treated with the chemical iprodione.  Iprodione is a chemical that is due to be banned in the not too distant future and this is one of the reasons we are moving over to predominantly bent greens as bent grass is more disease resistant.

I hear you say, why are we getting the disease now we have bent greens. We are working on having predominantly bent greens and are not yet there. Some greens are further into they process because of ground, light and generally ideal growing conditions.

I am currently in the process off recruiting a deputy to assist me in the running of the golf course. The position is currently being advertised and I hope to have someone in place by the end of November. As I have already stated, this will be a person from outside will not only assist in the day to day management of the course, but also bring fresh ideas of their own as well as giving me the cover I need so that I can visit other courses and network with fellow turf managers to help broaden my ideas.

After another inch of rain and forecasts predicting it not stopping, unfortunately conditions are getting to the point where we may need to restrict buggy use. We will try our hardest to keep them on and assessments will be made through the day for the later golfers.

Last but not at all least, can we please keep on top of Divots and pitch marks? The greenstaff will have a smile on there faces if they see us all working as a team!

Thank you for reading, have a good weekend.

Paul





Course update 15/09/2017

Course update 18-09-2017

Hello, another indefinite few weeks of weather. Just under 3 inches of rain this month (69mm).

Please see below an update on a few areas around the course.

Worms

I have had a few golfers ask me about the worm casts on the fairways and asking whether I can do anything about it. My answer is not chemically! The product we have been using over the years has now been banned along with many other products that we use to control worms, grubs, leather jackets etc. In the absence of these products, to try and do what we can, we have today applied sulphate of iron to all of the fairways. We use this because of its acidifying effect on the turf surface, which can be quite effective in discouraging worms and reducing the number of worm casts as worms do not like the acidifying effect on the surface caused by this product.

Over Seeding

(Shaun Whittle seeding 18th Green)

As you may have noticed, we have starting seeding the greens over the last week, now the occasional day without rain has occurred. We only have a small window of each day to apply the seed as any moisture clogs the tubes that put the seed in the ground. The window is roughly between 11.30 and 3.30 meaning that, as mentioned previously, you may experience a temporary green over the next couple of weeks. Apologies if this affects your normal round.

We have currently seeded 14 of our 21 greens. we would have loved to get them all finished last week but due to the heavy afternoon showers we keep having, it is becoming an annoying slow process.

(Video of seeder on the chipping green)

And finally....

We are looking to use the top tee on 17th over the next few weeks, so if you cant find the white markers, they will be up on the very top tee.

With the wet conditions at present we are noticing a lot more people taking divots, please could you replace them as they will grow in a lot quicker that us putting soil & seed in.

PITCHMARKS, every golfer says they do their pichmarks. I'm not sure who is leaving them in the greens, maybe the deer are playing at night!! Please keep on top of yours and if you see others, repair them. Thank you, it is a massive help to us.

Thank you for reading

Paul

Course update 01/09/2017

Course update 01/09/2017

Hello all,

I would like to first say thank you to all the members that have wished me well in my appointment as Head Greenkeeper. It was a hard process, but well worth the wait. I am looking forward to the future ahead at Broadstone and I am itching to get started on helping the course reach its potential. 

Having worked here for over 10 years now and having acted up over this summer, I have many ideas and plans as to how we can improve what is already a wonderful place to play golf. It won't all happen overnight and I would appreciate your patience while we get some of the bigger issues sorted out, (yes, including the bunkers!) but I hope you have seen this summer that we are going in the right direction. 

I see this appointment as only being the start of the process, my initial focus will be to get the staff working well, (you are only as good as your team) and then to ensure we get this winter's projects planned and completed correctly. In the medium/long term, working with Ed, Gordon and the Committee to implement the larger scale improvements, whilst at the same time maintaining very good surfaces, will be the key goal. Alongside this, I am also aware that we must never stop learning and I am already planning various ways in which I can ensure we copy best practice and give members of Broadstone the very best golfing conditions. 

Managing such a high profile venue on such a big site, with the SSSI heathland areas as well as the golf course surfaces to maintain, is no easy task, however, it is a challenge I am up for and look forward to tackling. Thanks again for all your support.

First up on my to do list from Monday, weather permitting, will be re-starting our overseeding of bent seed into the greens.  When seeding, we need the conditions to be dry, meaning we only have a seeding window between 10am and roughly 4pm. This may mean you may have a temporary green at some point in your round next week, apologies for this, we hope not to cause too much inconvenience to you.

The process is not too severe,  the seeder will cut lines into the green at 5mm, the optimum height for successful germanation,  and leave bent seed in at this height. We will then apply a light dressing and cut after to just ease any disruption to the surface. Those of you with good memories will remember us carrying out this operation, with good success, in the Autumn of 2015.

As you may have seen I have removed all the leggy gorse and birch saplings left of 13^th green.  I have always wanted to cut this bank down and bring the old bunkers back in to play, albeit grassy bunkers. There is still work to do on the area,  but after the amount of balls we found in there I’m sure you will all be happy. Most balls will be donated to the practice ground. (I may have kept a couple of pro V1’s!)

Back to the course for this weekend, hole change, double cutting of greens and a bunker rake for all you medal players tomorrow, have a great game. 

Kind Regards, Paul Staples

Course Update 25/08/17

Course Update 25/08/17

With the rain easing the course is starting to dry and the surfaces are starting to benefit from the wet weather. I feel the course held up very well through this period and all the regular aeration and top-dressing has helped the surfaces drain and stay playable. I also played last Saturday in Adey Harris' pre wedding do and it was really nice playing with and meeting a few of you outside my working hours.

You may have seen us out on the greens this week, with the big tractor and verti-drain machine, punching rather large holes (19mm) in the greens. As you all know, I wouldn't do this unless it is a benefit to our greens. As I have mentioned before, air is a massive part of plant growth and with the verti-drain putting the 19mm wide holes, 9 inches deep into the greens, the bent grasses will have a chance to get their roots into the gaps created in the ground. We will not be top dressing the greens until Tuesday as we only wish to apply a light dressing, which would have been lost completely down the tine holes had we started any earlier. By Tuesday the holes will have mostly closed up and the dressing will just smooth the surfaces up.

You may be wondering why we haven't hollow cored all our greens and covered them in 100's of tonnes of sand like many other courses. We did hollow core some of the wetter shaded greens about 3 weeks ago due to higher organic content, but all the aeration, dressing, seeweed and low fertiliser applications help keep our organic numbers down which means we do not need to core, as it would be detrimental to our greens sward conversion.

Over the next month, we are going to re-start over seeding the greens with browntop bent grass seed, using 2 different cultivars of bent seed. You can see in the picture below that the two we have gone for, Arrowtown and Manor, are both at the top of the seed data performance charts.

Golfers will notice relatively minimal disruption during this verti-seeding operation with just small lines being visible, something golfers may remember from Autumn 2015 when a similar process was carried out.

Can I just ask that with this recent wet spell that is causing softer than usual ground conditions that you all keep an eye on your pitch marks and keep replacing your divots.

I would also like to wish Adey and Roberta all the best for their big day in Italy from all the greenstaff.

Many Thanks

Paul

Course update 04/08/2017

Course update 04/08/2017

Hello all,

I just wanted to start by saying how lovely it is to hear all the positive comments coming in from lots of you. I know there is still lots and lots to do out there but I feel we are heading back up the ladder.

I have to start with the weather.

On July 11th, I was moaning to Ed saying I need some rain. His reply was 'you shouldn't of said that!'

From the 12th July to 1st August we have had 133mm (5 1/3inches) of rain. The course has held up very well and all the top dressing, aeration and other practices we do are paying off.

I know the greens are a little slower than usual and every time I think they may dry and speed up we get another downpour. I hear some of you say 'get the roller out!' but this would be one of the worst things we could do when they are as soft as they are. It would be highly damaging to the turf from digging into the green as the roller has a lot of downwards pressure and therefore stressing the turf and then bringing on any unwanted turf diseases such as anthracnose.

I am trying to hand cut the greens as often as possible which I feel gives the green a great finish. The job takes 3 experienced operators 4 hrs (total 12) each whereas cutting with a ride on mower takes 1 man 5 hours, so you can see why sometimes we cannot do this. You will probably see that a lot of clubs hand cut tees and not greens but I feel that I would rather put more man hours into the greens.

You may have seen me over the last week out on a new machine, looks a little like a road sweeper!! I can assure you it is not, it is our new rotary cut & collect rough mower fitted with a heather kit. The heather kit allows us to cut at a higher height. This machine is used on nearly all heathland courses around the UK plus many more others. The machine will cut and collect the debris from 0 inches to 9 inches and from using it this week I feel this is going to transform our areas away from the main playing surfaces.

Ed and I have decided that this year we will top all the heather and gorse, just to tidy all areas up but not to lose the heather flower. We will then spend the next couple of months putting together a long term plan as to how we can better manage the heather areas all over the course, to try and remove the gorse and any unwanted weed in our heather. It will be a long process but we have to start somewhere.

In the picture below, we have cut the left side at 6 inches and the right side has not been touched so you can just see how at this height, we just tidy things up without yet going into it too deeply, that will come later. As you play at the weekend you will notice many areas we have cut over the course and will notice a difference in the appearance. Like I have said above, this is a tidy up job before we write a full heather regeneration project for Broadstone Golf club

Coming away from Broadstone, I played Ferndown last Wednesday in a Greenkeeper event and enjoyed the course. They have spent much time last winter refurbinshing bunkers, something I am very keen to progress with at Broadstone in time. Their new bunkers were settling in but I have to say we have a wonderful course at Broadstone and was happy to be back here! I enjoy playing other courses and always learn things both positive and negative, however, it also helps me appreciate what a special venue Broadstone is and furthers my desire to keep on improving it.

Many thanks for reading 

Paul

P.s Keep on top of your divots and pitch marks 👍

Course update

Course Update 23/06/17

What a week it’s been!!!

With temperatures hitting early 30’s this week it’s been a challenge. I have spoken to a few course managers around the area and they are all praying for a little rain.

With the very high temperatures this week I feel the course has held up very well. I have made a change in our fertiliser/wetting agent program over the last few months and feel we are benefiting from this, especially on the fairways where we have no irrigation. I say a change in our fertility program, meaning this is the first time since I have worked at Broadstone that we have applied a wetting agent to the fairways.

Wetting agent helps to 
• Reduce water runoff on sloped areas
• Enhance penetration and distribution of water, Nutrients and chemicals into the soil.
• Improve nitrogen efficiency
• Reduces the need of water to the plant by 25%

Wetting agent is applied throughout the golf course in conjunction with our fertiliser program.
These management practices are also seeing benefits on the greens, where whilst we are all sorry for any inconvenience caused by putting in aeration holes during the year, we are starting to benefit with the water, fertiliser and roots being able to get through the soil profile.

On the subject of greens, we are pleased with the health and ball roll on the greens, although we will continue to tweak feeding, watering and cutting practices to improve the consistency and speed. This has included some afternoon cuts, (although not this week due to the heat in the middle part of the day) and we will also start introducing the roller back to the greens for occasional use. Now that the health of the greens has improved, this useful tool for getting a little more pace and improving smoothness will hopefully keep the greens going in the right direction and also that little tweak up for the bigger events.

We will continue to look at all areas and improving the golfing experience. Next week, this will include dealing a bit of uneven growth on a few collars which is in hand with brushing, top dressing and extra fertiliser to bring the differential growth back together. The whole course has had a selective weed killer applied to it which will knock a lot of the unwanted weeds back. The greens are the only area that has not been treated as any weed is handpicked by the green staff.
I am trying to play in the scratch roll up on a Tuesday night most weeks and either on these evenings or at other times, please feel free to come and say hello as it would be nice to meet a few of you and listen to any comments or just speak about my plans for the course.

I will be putting the flag in old 9th for you to see our spare green at the weekend. This green as stated before, is where we are heading with our greens. It has a small percentage of poa in but is predominantly Brown top bent, which gives the ball a lovely roll