Course Management

Course Manager’s report for December 2012

The start of the month presented us with some very wintry weather. The ground had been saturated with the heavy rain fall we experienced during November and then in December the cold weather had frozen the soil leaving us with some very treacherous conditions. However the course has remained open with in most cases temporary greens in play due to the frozen surfaces.  The middle part of the month up to the 14^th has remained very cold and frosty with frost penetrating deep into the soil. However, during Saturday 15^th and Sunday 16^th we saw a change to much milder conditions allowing us to get on with some much need course preparation.

Greens, Collars and Aprons

There has been very little work completed on the greens, collars and aprons during the first part of the month but we have been able to apply our monthly application of chelated iron and seaweed during the lead up to the Christmas period along with cutting and rolling to true up the surfaces after the frosty conditions. The height of cut for the greens remains at 5.5mm completed with pedestrian mowers.

Conditions improved enough so we could complete slit tine aeration to all greens, collars and aprons on both courses during the week commencing 17^th December.

Tees

All yellow markers are now in position on winter teeing grounds with the white tee markers remaining in position for winter competitions.

Divoting of tees continues when possible along with regular slit aeration work. Over the coming weeks we are also aiming to verti drain all tees using 18mm tines to a depth of 250mm- 300mm.

All tee have been cut with pedestrian mowers at 10mm.

During the recent period of cold weather we have taken the opportunity to paint tee markers and hazard markers.

Fairways

All fairways on both courses have now been verti drained once with 18mm tines to a depth of between 350mm and 400mm. The aim is to complete a second pass of all fairways during February/March. We have also completed three with the fairway slitter on 1-9 fairways on the Highgate course and on fairways 1-3, 13-18 on the Lodge course.

Surrounds to greens have been aerated with 15mm solid tines to a depth of 110mm with a second pass being completed during January.

  

Major Renovation Projects

3^rd Tee Highgate

Due to the frosty weather we have been unable to greatly progress the tee, however we have been able to install the new sprinklers in position taking into account the new size of the tee and begin to prepare the surface for the final levels. We are then aiming to begin turfing in the New Year.

5^th Highgate Green Surround

This project has not been started due to the frosty weather; we are aiming to start this project early in the New Year.

9^th Lodge Fairway

All of the excavation and shaping to the fairway area has been completed and the turfing of the fairway was progressing well until the weather changed. The mounding around the fairway will be shaped and made ready for turf/seed after we have advanced the turfing of the fairway. It is hoped we can complete the turfing of the fairway during January.

6^th Lodge Tee

The initial phase of tree thinning to allow light into the tee complex has been started with the renovation of the teeing complex being started in the New Year.

Environment Management

During the recent weather conditions we have been able to make progress with thinning work around the courses which is part of our Natural England Higher Level Stewardship Scheme. In the majority of cases the areas which are thinned will allow us to create more heathland environment. There are some areas amongst the pine woodlands (Holes 4-12 Lodge Course) which will be thinned to encourage a more native broad leaved environment along with more extensive openings to allow for heather regeneration.

Heather cutting will continue when the weather becomes a little more conducive.

Finally may I take this opportunity to wish you all a very happy Christmas and a prosperous New Year.

Jonathan Wood

Course Manager

Enville Golf Club

07977448149

jw@j-wood.co.uk

A really good week for course maintenance despite the weather. We have been able to cut the greens on both courses twice with the pedestrian mowers, helping to level out the surfaces after the two weeks of frost.

All tees on both course have also been cut using the pedestrian mowers which has really helped to tidy the surfaces and improve presentation.

Aeration has continued on the greens and tees in the form of slitting.

All greens, collars and aprons have also had their monthly application of chelated iron and seaweed.

All the good work this week has really helped to present the course well for the Christmas period, lets hope the weather will stay kind to us.

What an end to the week! heavy frosts for nearly two weeks and then torrential rain falling on to frozen surfaces. The picture above shows the water lying on top of the frozen green at the 7th Highgate. Rain is expected to last for most of Friday but temperatures are improving so conditions should get better over the weekend and into next week.

This week has seen very heavy frost resulting in temporary greens being in play. The frost has penetrated deep into the soil.

A very cold and frozen landscape. We have taken the opportunity to complete tee and course marker renovation as seen in the picture below.

Tree and woodland management has continued along with the removal of stumps from around the 6th Tee Lodge.

Cut timber suppliers are beginning to build once more!

The last weeks weather has presented us with the opportunity to get on with some much needed tree felling work.

We have many areas which require attention so we can keep up with the requirements under our Higher Level Stewardship. These pine plantations within the heathland are highlighted areas so we can open up the environment and increase the area of heathland.

We have also taken the opportunity to complete some tractor driving instruction.

During November we have taken the opportunity to continue with heather cutting and seed harvesting.

We have also cut heather with turf lifter to be used in bunker face renovation.

Verti draining of our new greens (11th + 15th Highagte and 11th Lodge) was completed using 18mm tines to a depth of 200mm and we are aiming to complete verti draining on all of our tees early in December. All fairways have had one complete pass with the verti drain using 18mm tines to a depth of 250-300mm and we intend to complete another pass during February/March

Course Management

Course Manager’s report for November 2012

Greens, Collars and Aprons

Greens are currently being cut at 5.5mm three times per week with pedestrian mowers. We are also aiming to roll the greens once per week to maintain good surface conditions. This rolling also helps to smooth out the surfaces after aeration work which is completed every two weeks at this time of year to improve surface drainage and air flow into the soil profile. However, caution has to be taken when deciding when to roll because rolling when surfaces are too wet could result in compaction in the surface.

During the week in which we slit greens, collars and aprons, we also complete slitting of all tees.

We have completed our monthly application of seaweed and chelated iron to greens, collars and aprons, to help keep the plant healthy; this will also help to harden the turf against fungal disease out-breaks during the winter period.

During the latter part of the month we will be verti draining the new greens on both courses as part of a more intensive aeration programme planned for these greens. This will help improve the soil structure and drainage capabilities.

Over the last month we have raised and leveled sprinklers around greens which have over time sunken to below the required height, reducing the effectiveness of the sprinklers when used.

On the 5^th and 6^th of November we completed deep drilling to a depth of 2m on the 9^th and 10^th greens on Lodge. The company who completed this work specialises in this kind of drainage work and we managed to put in the region of 90 holes in each green through the troublesome areas of the greens. The holes were filled with 20mm drainage gravel to 18inches from the surface then a membrane was put in to work as a blinding layer and then the remainder was filled with sand used in our top dressing mix. The initial signs are good so we are expecting good results in these areas.

Fairways

All fairways on both courses have now been verti drained once with 18mm tines to a depth of between 350mm and 400mm. The aim is to complete a second pass of all fairways during February/March. We have also completed three with the fairway slitter on 1-9 fairways on the Highgate course and on fairways 1-3, 13-18 on the Lodge course.

Surrounds to greens have been aerated with 15mm solid tines to a depth of 110mm.

Major Renovation Projects

3^rd Tee Highgate

We have already transported-in some 490 tonnes of soil to enable the height of the tee to be increased, giving improved views of the hole from the tee. It is hoped we will be able to bring enough soil in, to bring the new levels up to the height of the winter tee.

We are aiming to complete this project during the early part of December

5^th Highgate Green Surround

We are aiming to commence work on this project the week commencing the 26^th November.

9^th Lodge Fairway

All of the excavation and shaping to the fairway area has been completed and we have this week (commencing 19^th November) started to turf the fairway area with the turf that was taken up from the original fairway. The mounding around the fairway will be shaped and made ready for turf/seed after we have advanced the turfing of the fairway.

Bunkers

We have completed a large amount of bunker edge renovation with heather turf being used to help create the natural look and to connect the bunkers to the wider heather rough areas. We have also replaced areas of rank grass from around bunker edges with fescue turf to give a more open and natural look.

Environment Management

November is the month when we complete our annual heather cutting and seed harvesting. To date we have been able to harvest a substantial amount of brashings and seed, but we have been restricted to the amount we have been able to cut due to the wet weather we have been experiencing. The aim is to complete the cutting and harvesting before the middle of December. The heathland areas are broken down into compartments and cutting on a two year rotation we also leave specified areas for a longer period to create different age ranges of heather, giving a broad spectrum of habitat.

The heather seed we harvest will be used to create new heather areas but we also donate seed to other golf courses, Natural England and other heathland sites for the development of heathland in general.

The new areas that we are creating by turf stripping are doing really well, with some of the areas lifted a year ago already showing good signs of germination. This is especially good to the right hand side of the 2^nd on the Lodge Course.

Jonathan Wood

Course Manager

Enville Golf Club

07977448149

jw@j-wood.co.uk

1st Hole Highgate Course

16th Lodge Course