Aaron Watkinson

After 5 years, Assistant Greenkeeper Aaron Watkinson has left the clubs employ. 
Aaron joined us from Rossendale GC and quickly became a key part of the greenkeeping team at Hopwood.  
He has had a long association with the club having been a member since he was a junior. His playing high point was being part of the victorious Dunham Forest team in 2012.
Aaron brought a single minded determination to all aspects of his work and was always professional in his day to day dealings with the membership. He will be difficult to replace.
We all wish him well in his new position as Deputy Head Greenkeeper at Bolton Old Links GC.

Greens drainage work.

To try and improve long term drainage on the greens, the club have purchased a power auger to drill vertical drainage channels on the greens.

First a bit of background info.
When the course was built in 1912, the priority for play was to provide good conditions during the summer months. The winter months were spent playing on links courses.
With this in mind, the greens were constructed to retain moisture.

The greens have a band of hard impermeable material at a depth of 500 -600mm. This traps moisture in the profile and increases the chance of water-logging during periods of wet weather. Below this (on many greens) is good quality sand.
To try and improve this situation, we drill holes (1200mm deep) across the putting surface. These holes are 90mm wide (same as a hole cup), so are easily repaired.

This pic shows the hole cut ready for drilling, with a board in place to prevent damage and aid cleaning.

     The above pic shows the dark, heavier soil below the turf roots.

This pic shows the sand below being removed (this is the back tier of the 10th green).

Once the sand and soil is removed and the hole cleaned out, we fill up to 250mm from the top with a 5mm gravel. This is then covered with 150mm of sand and then the plug is replaced.

On the 10th green we have drilled 150 holes, at 1.2m centres. We follow this with a Robin Dagger treatment, which fractures the soil underneath creating fissures for the water to reach the boreholes.
As you can imagine this is a slow, labour intensive job. The 10th green took 3 people, 3 days to complete. We have carried out this process on the 1st, 2nd, 9th, 10th, 11th & 16th greens so far, concentrating on the areas which flood or hold water.

   We will do as many areas as we can before the start of the season.

Recent course closures

The recent wet weather has now caused the soil to reach saturation levels. This is when all available space in the soil has been filled by water. Any additional rainfall just sits on the surface going nowhere. The above pic is the 5th hole on Tuesday 27th January. Only a sustained dry spell will reduce soil moisture levels, hence the restrictions in play on the course.

Tree work

It's that time again for us to continue with our tree and woodland management programme. I know this is unpopular with some of the members, so I have posted an article from Pitchcare magazine in November. This explains in great detail why we remove trees at Hopwood.
The auther of the article, John Nicolson is the person the club employed to oversea the planting schemes next to the car park and the 15th hole.

Pitchmarks

At this time of year the surface of the greens can soften due to rainfall and lower temperatures. Added to this, the lower temperatures result in little or no growth to aid recovery from any damage.
This is why it is even more important to repair any pitchmarks you make on the greens.
The picture below shows a fresh pitchmark and 2 unrepaired marks. It could well be April before they recover.

Agronomist's Report.

November 2013

It's been a busy month on the course. Our plans to drain the 12th & 14th greens have been put on hold due to the wet weather in October. There's no point in making a mess and the quality of the work suffering due to wet soil conditions.
We have plans to do some remedial drainage work on some of the greens in the next few weeks, but more about that next month.

                                            Trollies.

It has become apparent over the last few years that members trollies are getting heavier and bigger. During the winter months this creates many problems with traffic management and wear on the golf course. With golf being a 365 days a year sport, many heavily trafficked areas require a rest to help them recover. This is the reason we attempt to control movement around the course using white lines. Unfortunately, human nature always tends to take the shortest route.

         Worn area due to trolley traffic at the back of the 15th green.

Next week, we will putting out ropes to shepard golfers away from these areas. We know they are unpopular (they get in our way too),  but they are a necessary evil on an inland North West golf course.
We are not the only clubs who use them as the below pic from Royal Liverpool last week shows.

Another issue with trollies, are the smooth wheels which in wet ground conditions spin and smear the surface damaging the turfs natural           drainage. Many clubs have now introduced a winter wheel policy and it is the club's intention to implement this for next winter.

More information about this change will be posted on the club's notice boards throughout next year and Brian in the Pro's shop will be providing many options for trolley users.

Self Seeded trees.     

Due to the size of the site at Hopwood, the self seeded Birch and Oak trees can quickly get out of hand and before you know it large areas have become copiced. This year we have had a chance to dig out over 7,500 plants varying in size from 1 - 6ft high. The time spent doing this will have a major impact on the course in future years. We have to do a lot of work in this area just to stand still. The photo below shows the dip in front of the 5th tee's where we removed over 50 young trees.

                                                                    

Winter mats.

From Monday the 2nd December winter mats will be in use on the fairways. The 1st, 5th, 7th, 10th & 11th fairways must be played with a mat from the fairway. The remaining holes will be marked with white lines. Shots inside these areas must be played from a mat. This should help our fairways stand up to winter play and preserve the turf for next spring.