Friday 19 May 2017

Weekend Update

A busy week on the course with real grass growth throughout the course.
It's been our week of bunker & banking maintenance, which as you can imagine is a time consuming job. The rough has received a full cut with a few new areas being included to speed up play. The greens received an application of wetting agent during the rain on Monday, which was ideal for washing it into the profile.
All the work we have carried out on the greens is now starting to kick in, with a real growth spurt and seed germinating in all areas. The problem with these flushes of growth is slower putting speeds and also the Poa Annua taking on a brownish tinge due to fungal infection. It is not Fusarium Patch disease as we experienced in November, but a naturally occurring discoloration of the leaf and would quickly grow out. But following the impact of the attack last Autumn, I applied a systemic fungicide to prevent further discolouration.
To speed up the surfaces, we have reduced the height of cut and started using the brush on the greens mower. Reducing the height of cut has to be balanced against the needs of the new seedlings.
Matt Shimwell (the new Course Manager) has been working with us for 2 days this week, getting re-acquainted with our practices. This way, the hand over should be seamless.
Have a great weekend.

Mark & the Greens team.

Friday 5 May 2017

Weekend Update.

It's been a busy few weeks catching up with outstanding jobs and tidying throughout the course.
The dry weather really has really helped turn things round for us. The only downside is the strong easterly winds which never promote growth across the course. Great if your trying to catch up with cutting, but not so good when you need to promote growth on the greens to aid recovery.
The greens were over-seeded with 180 kg's of Fescue/Bent seed on Tuesday using a hired in machine. This was followed by a top-dressing of sand . The Irrigation system is now up and running, so we have been watering daily to wash the dressing in and stop the surfaces from drying out too much. The greens have been ironed and a liquid application of Nitrogen and trace elements has been applied. Now we wait for the seed to germinate and grow in. We will be applying another light sand dressing on Monday to further smooth the surfaces.
Another downside of the wind is the sand being blown from bunkers, we have worked really hard blowing the sand back in, but please be understanding if you do end up in a bare lie in a bunker.

Enjoy Captains Round 1 this weekend.

Mark & the Greens team.