A truly horrible week weather wise, but despite this, we've managed to complete a few outstanding tasks.

The track down to the 15th is now clear and the toilet truck made it there & back safely. There is still some work to do on the surface of the track, but this will be carried out when some suitable material is available.

We had to rest the Air2G2 this week as the ground conditions were either frozen or saturated. But we did manage to start deep timing the greens on Wednesday using 350mm x 12mm tines. We have kept the spacings close together to give an even lift to the surfaces. This will be followed by a hand cut & iron tomorrow (Friday).

I also applied a liquid micro nutrient spray prior to the tining. This also included some Roca-stem which we use to maintain firm surfaces.

The winter greens have received a cut and light top-dressing. They are starting to show some worm activity, so we will apply some iron and suppressant next week.

We have carried on with leaf collection, but are hoping that we are coming to the end of this laborious task following the sharp frosts.

The area between the 6th green and 7th tee has seen a manhole installed. This area has heavy soil and the drains work well, but puddles are still slow to disappear. The manhole should speed things up.

Next week, we hope to carry out some drainage work around the 5th green. The L/H side bunker has had washing issues for a number of years and it is hoped to intercept this ground water. 

Robert Laycock has been back to assess the species population of the greens. The feeling is that the finer grasses are increasing, but his report will hopefully confirm this.

Fingers crossed for settled weather for the weekend.

Mark & the Greens team.

Weekend update

Well where do I start?
The Autumn/Winter has really kicked in.  14 consecutive days rain is really starting to takes its toll on the course. Moving around is becoming an issue and we are now walking hand mowers round the course to get access to the greens. The greens triple, despite having 3 wheel drive is unable to move around the course safely.

Despite the conditions, we managed to get the greens micro-tined on Monday & Tuesday, followed by a cut. The Air2G2 was again out at the start of the week, completing 7 greens.
The greens really are looking good, with little sign of any disease. The preventative measures we have used this Autumn have worked well.
One thing that is evident on the greens are the large amount of unrepaired pitchmarks. At this time of year when the surfaces soften it is even more important to make sure you fix any mark made on the green. Recovery from these marks is slow at this time of year.
Robert Laycock (the clubs agronomist), visited on Monday as was very pleased with the surfaces and grass cover. He did suggest some adjustments to our aeration programme, which he will detail in his report.

We have continued to clear the track down to the 15th tee's. This has turned into a major task, but at least it keeps us busy during the difficult weather conditions.

Next week, we hope to carry out more aeration throughout the course. There is still some drainage work outstanding and some exploratory work around the 5th green. As usual, all these tasks are weather dependant.

Fingers crossed for a change in the weather.

Mark & the Greens team.

Weekend update.

Another busy week which was punctuated by quite a bit of rain.

We applied some granular fertiliser to the greens on Monday which should be the last major nutrient this year. We used an organic based low Nitrogen product with Calcium which is designed to help the break-up of thatch.

On Tuesday the greens were sprayed with trace elements inc a Copper solution. This will help hold back any outbreak of Fusarium. It has been a difficult Autumn for turf managers in this respect. The mild weather has encouraged many outbreaks and some clubs have suffered dramatic turf loss.

On Tuesday we also started installing additional pipe drainage on the 9th green. Around 60 metres of 80mm perforated pipe was placed in 225mm wide trenches. The work was completed on Thursday. The green will probably be out of play for a few weeks. The 12th green (which was drained in October) is now back in play.

An ongoing job for the last 2 weeks has been to widen access to the waterworks & 15th tee. This involves removing overhanging trees and scrub and tidying the verge. This work will continue over the coming weeks.

Leaf blowing and collection is now in full swing and will continue until the last of them have fallen.

Tasks planned for next week include micro-tining the greens,  installation of a new Tee mat on the 6th hole and some more minor drainage work near the 6th green.

Have a good weekend.

Mark & the Greens team.