Weekend Update.

What a great week on the course. It's weeks like this that really re-charge  a greenkeepers batteries!

We managed to attack some more rough with the scarifier, especially the L/H side of the 14th. As the Captain said in his blog, the rough and fairways has never been so wide and well managed. The cut and thinned areas have expanded year on year. I know the rough is blamed for slow play, but I think you'll find that in April/May when the grass was not growing there were plenty of complaints about slow play. 

We have managed to keep on top of the divotting recently, which bodes well for festival week. On this point, there are a number of divot boxes on the tees which are for your use after play. Please use them and help speed up recovery.

Following the recent storms the surfaces of the greens can soften, with this in mind, can you please repair any pitchmarks you see as these are the only blemishes on the putting surface at the moment. 

We are hoping to put the scarifiers over the greens next week, followed by a very light sand dressing and an application of liquid nutrient. The bunkers will get another trim as well.  This should be the finishing touches to our festival week preparation. 

Enjoy the sunshine.

Mark & the Greens team.

Weekend Update.

A busy week which has been badly affected by the weather. 

The usual full bunker maintenance was completed, but some of the bunkers will need more work due to the wet conditions. The greens have been top-dressed, but again this was impacted on by the wet conditions. 

We have scarified the R/H side of the 15th & 17th holes to extend the semi-rough. The areas have been cut, but it will take a few weeks for them to blend in.

The greens have once again had the Air2G2 machine over them, and hopefully this will prevent the surfaces softening over the coming weeks.

We will continue to scarify areas of rough to keep these areas under control.

Next week, we hope to scarify the tees as some have developed stalky growth.  The tee banks will also receive a full cut & tidy.

Enjoy your golf this weekend.

Mark & the Greens team.

Weekend Update

Another busy week on the course.

For the 1st time in a while we managed to aerate the greens using the Air2G2 machine. This is a very labour intensive operation, with each green taking up to an hour to complete. The recent staff shortages have meant it was one of those jobs which kept being put off. It will certainly help the movement of rain water thru the profile.

We have also completed the tractor mounted spraying of weeds on fairway, aprons, semi-rough & rough areas. The remaining weeds will be treated by knapsack sprayer when the weather allows.

The rough is still proving a challenge as it is difficult to get a clean cut in wet conditions. Hopefully a dry spell will allow us to use the Amazone to scarify and collect the cuttings.

We have some work planned for Monday, but this will only involve a light sand dressing and brush in. Next week will also see another round of bunker maintenance taking place.

Enjoy the weekend.

Mark & the Greens team.

Weekend update.

I hate going on about the weather, but the last 9 months have seen some truly horrible conditions at Hopwood and every time we have a weather "event", it reflects on the course condition.

This week has been no exception and due to this, the surfaces are softening all over the course and cutting is becoming more difficult and less effective. Brian has decided to close the range for the weekend, due to difficulty in ball collection and the length of the grass. A dry weekend may allow us to get a machine on there early next week. Fingers crossed.

Despite this, we have continued to make some progress around the course. The greens were saturated this morning, but the surfaces are holding up following the micro-tining last week. 

The rough is now down to summer height, but can sometimes appear thicker depending on cutting conditions at the time. As you can imagine this is a full time job during active growing periods. If we do get a dry spell, we will put the Amazone scarifier/collector over the thicker areas.

Have a good weekend.

Mark & the Greens team.