Over the last three weeks we have experienced some fantastic weather for the time of year, this has enabled us to progress nicely through both our construction/renovation work and our maintenance work. Aeration is avery important part of our management of all the playing surfaces it enables the rootzone dry out and any moisture to peculate through the soil profile easily and most importantly it enables the soil to breath and therefore the turf remains healthy through the winter period. The turf can also send down deeper roots when conditions allow. Over the past month and a half we have managed to slit aerate the greens and collars five times and we will aim to complete this process another two times before the new year.

As i have mentioned in previous post at this time if year it is very important to keep playing surfaces tidy and pedestrian mowing helps in this regard along with gently rolling the surface and producing a better quality of cut. The greens are pedestrian cut as and when needed but we aim for twice during the week at 5.5mm. The tees are cut once every two weeks at 10mm.  

We are now on top of leaf clearing which has taken many hours but thankfully we have seen the back of that process. other jobs completed on the courses have been topping up bunkers with sand and making sure levels are where they should be.

One area we are focusing over this winter is to strip out unwanted coarse grass from around bunker banks and surrounding contouring. We are replacing this coarse grass with finer fescur turf which we grow on our own turf nursery. The finer fescue grass which dominates the heathland site naturally is far easier to retrieve golf balls from and give the authentic natural look to our bunkers. the picture below is the work completed around the 11th Highgate fairway bunker.

Finally another great view this month across the 2nd on the Lodge Course.