Weekend Update.

Well the grass is certainly growing now! I can't remember a spell of growth like it. Adding to this are the daily heavy dews which hamper our cutting routine. Some areas are having to be cut later in the day to prevent the accumulation of clippings.

Disease pressure is also very high at the moment. With this in mind the greens were sprayed with a nutrient cocktail to harden them against any fungal attacks. Fusarium is the main worry, but any small marks should quickly grow out.

As mentioned is a previous post, the thick areas of in play rough have been treated with a graminicide called "Rescue" to kill of the lush Rye and weed grasses. This is part of our rough management programme and takes place at this time of year to aid recovery.

The bunkers have had a full cut this week and the tee banks are being tidied but may not be finished before the weekend. 

I intend to put another light sand dressing on the greens next week as well as another round of aeration with the Air2G2 machine. This work will have little or no disruption to play.

Enjoy the course.

Mark & the Greens team. 

Following our rough management efforts over the last couple of years, it was decided by the Greens Committee to extend our efforts into other areas.
Last week, I applied a selective graminicide (a chemical which kills selected grass species) to some areas of rough throughout the course.
The plan is to kill off the lush broad leaved grasses that create difficult lies, lost balls and slow down play.  The areas which have been treated are as follows:-
R/H side of the 1st hole short of the cross bunker.
Parts of the carry on the 6th hole.
L/H side of the 6th hole.
L/H side of the 9th hole.
R/H side of the 11th hole

R/H side of the 12th hole.with an overseeder.
L/H side of the 14th hole.


These areas should see a die back and discolouration of the turf over the next week or 2.

This will be followed by a run over with a scarifier to collect the dead material and some overseeding.
Hopefully, this work will improve these areas of play.


Mark Jones, Course Manager.

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.

Weekend Update.

Well what a fantastic spell of weather, much better than the week I had in Italy!! But on my return (Wednesday) the predicted thunder storms arrived and devastated the course. At its peak, rain was falling at an hourly rate of 138.8mm/hr!!

The course apart from the paths and bunkers stood up to it amazingly well, with hardly any standing water 4 hours after the rain. 

Aside from the storm, the course has come on very well. The greens have still suffered from the seasonal seeding of the meadow grass, but hopefully, this will soon be less of a problem. To further combat this the height of cut has been reduced to help remove the uneven growth.

Extra areas of rough have been cut back to speed up play and lots of other areas have been tidied. 

There are still some outstanding jobs, but due to running 2 staff light at the moment, it may take some time to fully catch up. 

Next week will see us preparing for the Hulbert Trophy, with a light scarification and top-dressing to fine tune the surfaces. 

Fingers crossed for a quiet weather weekend.

Mark & the Greens team.