The prolonged winter conditions have really hit home this week with last weekend seeing the course being closed due to heavy snow fall and running into Monday also being closed. that said the snow did move allowing us to re-open on Tuesday. We have made a great effort this week to complete outstanding renovation projects giving us a good run of maintenance work coming into the spring period.

The 9th Lodge fairway is now complete and we will be looking to open this hole fully over the coming weeks.

The renovations to the 5th Highgate are now complete with only the sand to be put into the bunkers remaining. The picture below shows the finished LH bunker. Please be reminded that all new turfing areas are to be treated at GUR and balls lying on these areas are to be lifted and droped in the drop zones provided.

We have also used heather and descampsia plugs from our heather nursery to patch in on bunker faces. With this we are trying to encourage a more natural feel to some of our older bunkers.



The new path around the back of the 16th Highgate is almost complete, in the picture below the path is complete minus the 4mm-dust path topping.

We have also been able to complete scarifying work amongst the clearing we have completed at the 17th Lodge tee area, this will enable the regeneration of the heather.

Once conditions had improved at the end of the week we were able to pedestrian cut all greens at 5.5mm, rake all bunkers and divot tees. We are very much hoping that the coming weeks will bring some improved weather conditions and therefore help us to further improve the playing conditions coming into the spring period.

Work on both courses has progressed well this week and has proved to be very productive not just in terms of the larger renovation projects but from a general maintenance point of view. All greens, collars, aprons and some surrounds on both courses have been top dressed this week along with being aerated using 8mm solid tines on the toro pro core.

Once the greens have been top dressed and the dressing has dried sufficiently we then brush the dressing into the surface.

The fact that we had solid tined with the 8mm tines before hand helps to integrate the dressing into the surface. Top dressing helps to level out surfaces and improve the drainage potential of the soil. it also heps to dilute any organic matter build up.

The 5th Highgate renovations have progressed well with the left hand side almost complete, in fact if it had not of snowed today the final turfing would of been completed but having said that the work will be completed early next week.

We have also started work on a new path around the left hand side of the 16th Highgate.

We have had a number of divots taken out of greens which are adjacent to other holes. I have posted the following rule and guidance for those members who fail to realise the need to protect our playing surfaces.

Playing from the wrong green.

We have recently had a number of instances where a ball has been struck from a green. This obviously has a serious detrimental effect on the putting surface but more importantly this action is in breach of rule 25-3. This is particularly a problem on the 3^rd Highgate Green and the 6^th Lodge green where shots have ended up on these greens from the adjacent holes.

The rule is as follows

25-3

Wrong Putting Green

b. relief

If a player’s ball lies on a wrong putting green, he must not play the ball as it lies. He must take relief, without penalty, as follows:

The player must lift the ball and drop it within one club-length of and not nearer the hole than the nearest point of relief. The nearest point of relief must not be in a hazard or on a putting green. When dropping the ball within one club-length of the nearest point of relief, the ball must first strike a part of the course at a spot that avoids interference by the wrong putting green and is not in a hazard and not on a putting green. The ball may be cleaned when lifted under this rule.

Thank you for your co-operation.



The past week has proved productive even if we have had to work around the frosts very cold temperatures, lets hope we have some warmer weather around the corner!

Work on the 5th Highgate has progressed well with the completion of the right hand side and the contouring and shaping completed on the left hand side. Next week should see us complete the turfing of the left hand side and then it will be a case of managing the establishment of all areas prior to the coming season.

The picture above shows the initial ground works and first phase of shaping the new features on the left hand side. Below is a picture of the same area once we have raked and prepared the area for turf.

You can clearly see the bunker at the top of the picture and the new swale to the front of the bunker.

Work has also progressed well on the 9th Lodge with all contouring now prepared for turf and heather. The two pictures below show the heather turf being positioned on the mounding to the right of the hole.



Other work completed this week includes continuing with verti draining Highgate 1-9 fairways, lightly scarifying fairways to remove debris and divots. We have also pedestrian cut all greens today at 5.5mm.

Great week with regard to work on both courses and a glimpse of some spring weather on Tuesday but sadly back to cold and rain today.
Surrounds on both courses have been aerated using the pro core fitted with 15mm solid tines, this will be our last pass with these tines as we move to the 8-10mm tines which we use on greens and tees during the playing season.
The nutrition programme has started this week with our first real application to greens, collars, aprons and tees using lawn sand, we are hoping next week to get some dressing on the greens but the forecast does not look great.
The greens have been pedestrian cut twice this week at 5.5mm and are running and playing well. Both of the major renovation/improvement projects have progressed well, the left hand side of the 5th Highgate is now complete and shaping work has continued on the right hand side. I have included pictures below to illustrate the progress made. The work on the 9th lodge is moving at pace with the majority of mounding know completely shaped with only a few minor tweaks to make. Fescue and heather turf has been used to cover tops of mounding to give character and a great look authentic to the surrounding environment.

This last picture is the rear run of area we have created. All the pictures below are the fescue/heather turfing which has been completed on the 9th Lodge. Great work

Course Management

Course Manager’s report for February 2013

Fine Turf Management

We are currently cutting the greens on average twice per week at 5.5mm and unlike my report in January, we have seen a little growth at the beginning of the month as a consequence of the mild conditions we experienced, however in recent times we have completed very little pedestrian mowing due to the prolonged frosty conditions. When we are able we are continuing with rolling, but are applying the care that must be taken at this time of year, as it is very easy to seal the surface and restrict good recovery in the spring.

The plan and intention is to give all greens a light top dressing over the coming weeks, as suggested in my last report, as this will deliver additional help to even-out the surfaces.

Over the next few weeks, the schedule also includes the application of the first feed to the greens and tees; this will be in the form of a lawn sand at a rate of 20gms/m². Lawn sand has a high percentage of Sulphate of Iron, which helps to remove any moss and small weeds within the sward.

During the month we have been able to verti drain all greens and collars with 12mm tines to a depth of 250mm.

Fairways

We are now into completing our second pass with the verti drain on all fairways, the tines we use for fairways are 19mm diameter and 350mm long. It was our goal at the beginning of the winter period to complete two passes and we will almost certainly achieve this. When completing the fairways we also verti drain walk ways and heavily trafficked areas around tees and approaches to greens.

Over the coming weeks we will also look to start divoting areas of fairways to help with recovery in the spring.

Tees

During this period of the year we are cutting the tees when required dependent on growth at 10mm, we also use rotary brushes on them to help remove any debris and lift the grass prior to mowing. We will also be top dressing the tees during the coming month to help with recovery in the spring and an application of lawn sand will be applied.

Improvement/ alteration projects.

3^rd Tee Highgate

This is now complete and will be available for play during the late spring. The elevation on the new tee increases dramatically the view of the hole and therefore increases the playability.

5^th Green Surround

We have almost completed the front and right hand side of the hole with only turfing remaining to complete in this area, bunkers and contouring is complete and really does give a different look and feel to the hole. We are hoping to move onto the left hand side during the week commencing 25^th February. I am very hopeful that the project will be completed during March.

9^th Fairway Lodge

As the fairway area is turfed we are now turning our intentions to the contouring, here we are preparing the contouring ready for turf and on some of the tops of the mounding we are turfing with fescue/heather turf. The old right hand greenside bunker has been removed and replace with a grass bunker, this area will be turfed shortly.

General

The bunkers on the 8^th Highgate have now completely dried out due to the water table decreasing so we can prepare the sand and take away the GUR during the coming days. This is also the same for the 8^th ditch area, were the majority of the water has filtered away, it will be my intention to monitor these two areas and if drainage is needed then this will be programmed into future winter renovation projects. After one of the wettest years on record and more to the point a very wet winter period we have had very little damage and these two areas are the only real areas of concern.

Jonathan Wood

Course Manager

jw@j-wood.co.uk

07977448149