Golf Course Management

Preventing Course Damage and wear

Given the amount of rain and bad weather we have experienced over the winter period and all things considered, both courses have stood up remarkably well so far. With frequent monitoring of known areas of intense traffic and the use of ropes of hoops we are able to control damage through traffic to a controllable level.

As we are fast approaching the spring and the onset of more favorable conditions it would be great if you could help us improve the conditions further especially sensitive areas around greens, tees and fairways, your assistance as members will help enormously in improving conditions going into the spring.

From now until the spring is when the greatest damage can occur, with very little growth and with areas that have had constant traffic on them all winter it is even more important for us all to spread the wear as even as possible. When playing over our courses if you could pay attention to roped off areas and hoped areas and avoid trying to travel through these areas especially close to greens, it would help greatly.

If you could also be extra cautious with your trolley’s particularly around greens and aim to keep well away from the putting surfaces and tee tops, divert around any wet or worn areas on fairways, this would be very much appreciated.

It would also be greatly appreciated if you could make sure you repair your pitch marks and remind your playing partners to do so also. We all want the best putting surfaces we can get and the repairing of pitch marks goes a long way in achieving this.

If we can all work together and hopefully with some improved weather conditions around the corner then we can all look forward to improved conditions in the spring.

Another area that we are looking into is the amount of divots in certain areas of the fairways; one particular problem area is the 7^th Highgate. Here the natural contours encourage the majority of drives into one area. To over come this we will be using a mat system were by when you find your ball in a marked area of the 7^th fairway you will be obliged to place your ball on a mat provided and play from that mat. This will help to prevent wear at this time of year and aid recovery coming into the spring. If successful this will be used on other areas of the course.

Jonathan Wood

Course Manager

07977448149

jw@j-wood.co.uk

Work has progressed well over the last week despite the freezing temperatures. All Highgate greens and collars have been verti drained using 12mm tines to a depth of 250mm.

We will be rolling greens this week to help even out surfaces after the verti draining and the recent frosty conditions. Greens were cut last week on two occasions using pedestrian mowers set at 5.5mm.

The aim this week is to get a light top dressing on all greens and collars of both courses.

Renovation/Improvement projects have also progressed with work on the 9th Lodge taking the shape of preparations to the contouring and turfing with fescue/heather on some of the contours.

The 3rd tee Highgate is now complete and the improvement in the view from the more elevated tee are great, clear views of the left hand fairway bunker are much improved.

the improvements to the 5th highgate green surround and bunkers is advancing well and below are a number of pictures of the new bunkers on the right hand side and the new contouring and the back right hand side.

It is our aim to move onto the left hand side over the coming days and have the project completed during March, weather permitting.

Well what a week we have had on both courses snow on Monday, rain Tuesday, snow again on Wednesday followed by heavy rain during Thursday morning and today (Friday) glorious sunshine and the courses have stood up really well. We have pedestrian cut all greens today, raked all bunkers and cleared debris from all playing areas.

The rain and bad weather is really having an effect on the amount of water the golf course is having to deal with. The picture below shows the build up of water down by the 14th Highgate, this is now some 5' deep.

The project works have progressed well with turfing on the fairway area at the 9th Lodge now complete and we ahve started turfing the contouring to the sides of the fairway. In the past week the team have put down 2000m of turf, great effort by all. The View below is of the new fairway and contours.

Below are the performance testing results for 1st February and the 8th February.

Greens Performance Testing
Date: 1st February  2013				Time: 11am
Lodge
Green	Speed	Roll	Firmness		Moisture	Temperature
2	8’6”	7/8	81		40	5.9°C
8	8’6”	7	82		38	4.9°C
16	8’10”	7	80		39	6.0°C

Greens Performance Testing
Date: 8th  February  2013				Time: 9.30am
Lodge
Green	Speed	Roll	Firmness		Moisture	Temperature
2	9’2”	7/8	78		37	1°C
8	8’10”	8	77		39	1°C
16	8’10”	7	78		38	1.2°C

Greens Performance Testing
Date: 1st February  2013				Time: 11am
Highgate
Green	Speed	Roll	Firmness		Moisture	Temperature
1	8’10”	7/8	81		37	5.6°C
8	8’6”	7	83		36	4.9°C
15	8’4”	7	80		38	5.1°C

Greens Performance Testing
Date: 8th  February  2013				Time: 9.30am
Highgate
Green	Speed	Roll	Firmness		Moisture	Temperature
1	9’4”	7/8	81		36.9	0.9°C
8	8’9”	8	81		36	1°C
15	8’6”	7	83		38	1.2°C

We have had another good week on both courses as we have been able to make the most of the reasonable good weather. General maintenance has included verti draining all Lodge greens with 12mm tines along with cutting all greens on both courses twice with pedestrian mowers and rolling all greens.

Work has progressed well with the projects on both courses, the 3rd tee on Highgate has now been turfed with the banks left to turf with Heather/fescue grass.

The 9th fairway alterations have moved along nicely this week with turf being delivered for the remaining fairway area, we are hoping to complete the entire fairway areas by the end of next week (weather permitting).

Alterations to the 5th Green surround on Highgate have progressed well also with the majority of the right hand side complete and the new irrigation for the right hand side being installed.



What a difference a week makes! this week has been really productive and such a change form the snow and cold weather we have been experiencing for two weeks. The Courses are really looking good considering the weather we have experienced.

During this week we have slit tined aerated all greens and used pedestrian mowers on three occasions on all greens set at a height of 5.5mm. We have continued with fairway aeration and have progressed the levelling of green side sprinklers.

The main construction/renovation projects have progressed well during the week. The alterations to the 5th Highgate surrounds and bunkers has gone well with the front and two left hand side bunkers along with the contouring between them completed and ready for final shaping.

Work on the 9th Lodge fairway improvements has taken the form of preparation of the remaining fairway area to be turfed and shaping of the contouring to the sides of the fairway. We are aiming to complete the fairway turfing next week.