Course Management
Course Manager’s report for April 2013
Fine Turf Management
The planned aeration back at the start of April has gone very well and given the less disruptive nature of the work undertaken surfaces have been quick to recover, however given the lack of moisture recovery has been a little restricted.
All greens received one pass with 10mm solid tines to a depth of 110mm, some greens which have shown signs of holding a little more water through the winter period have been verti drained with 18mm tines to a depth of 250mm. In some of these cases we have also completed localized hollow coring to make sure that any build up organic matter due to the wetter conditions is removed. In the region of 40 -50 tones of top dressing have been applied to greens, collars and aprons on each course.
Whilst completing the work on the greens we have also focused on renovating walk areas around greens, these areas will also be aerated through out the year to try and maintain grass coverage on these very sensitive areas.
We are currently cutting greens at 5mm up to three times per week but given the lack of growth to date very little grass is produced, rolling has been deployed on a regular basis to improve surface levels after the aeration work. Soil temperatures currently are averaging out at around 8°C , for steady consistent growth we are looking for around an average of 10-11 and above, added to this we have to deal with the lack of moisture in the soil profile which also restricts growth. Soil moisture is currently at around 10-25% so we are adopting hand watering on greens so we can focus on the dryer areas rather than blanket irrigation. Generally if our moisture content drops below 15% we start to look at irrigating, when we experience conditions like we have at present we monitor moisture levels on a daily basis to make sure playing surfaces do not dry down too much.
Fairways
With very little growth we are currently cutting fairways only once per week just to maintain surface refinement at 15mm. All fairways have been treated with wetting agent as part of our ongoing management of our fairways, we aim to complete 3-4 applications of wetting to the fairways.
Divoting has begun with all the main landing areas completed first.
The trial of using mats on a designated area on the 7th Highgate has been removed, during the period of operation we have seen very little usage of the mats and it has been a little disappointing to see the volume of divots still being taken in the designated area. I was very hopeful that this type of protection on certain areas of high wear on the fairways would be something that could be used in future but given the response in this one area I am not so sure but I will endeavor and try this again next winter.
All tees have been verti drained using 18mm tines to a depth of 250mm, they have also received in the last month a pass using 15mm tines to a depth of 100mm to open up the surface for the top dressing we applied. Winter teeing areas have also been over-seeded to help with recovery.
We are cutting all tees at 10mm twice per week using pedestrian machines; once growth improves we will be moving to ride on mowers for the majority of tees.
All ladies marker stones which needed re-cutting have been installed on the respective tees (there are pictures of the new stones on my blog along with reports and information which is updated on a weekly basis). The drinking fountain on the 9th Lodge is now in position along with the new fountain at the 13th Ladies tee on Lodge.
Improvement/ alteration projects.
3rd Tee Highgate
This is now complete and is now in play for all golf. We have received some very positive comments with regard to the increased view from the new tee and the enhanced playability of the hole.
5th Green Surround
As you have probably seen all the turfing is complete and is settling down nicely, I am hoping that over the coming days we can remove the GUR from around the green. The bunkers are being filled with sand as I write this report and will be open for play during the early part of May.
9th Fairway Lodge
All the turfing to the mounding is now complete and any remaining areas of bare soil will be seeded when we have some conducive weather. We will be removing the use of mats from the fairway areas over the coming weeks.
6th Tee Lodge
Due to the volume of work completed on the 9th Lodge fairway we have not completed the planned alterations to the 6th Tee, this will be completed during the autumn of this year. However, we have re-turfed the worn area to the side of the tee and leveled the area where the new tee will be positioned; this will make the project quicker during the autumn.
Jonathan Wood
Course Manager
07977448149
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