Big greens

The big greens have had a 9mm solid tine.  This will allow the greens to breath and help aid water movement through the surface.

Wee greens aeration

We have aerated the wee greens this week with a half inch hollow tine. This has removed some of the organic matter that has built up. We will leave these holes open through the winter to allow the greens to breath.

autumn update

With the autumn well and truly apon us we have been preparing the courses for the winter.  Firstly we have raised the height of cut to 5.25 mm, this takes some of the strain of the plant and helps to protect going into the winter months.  As the growth has checked back we will continue to utilise the roller to keep the strain on the plant to a minimum.

We have also cored, top dressed and fed the greens.  This will ensure they have the best opportunity to come out of winter strongly.  

The winter course has also been set up with winter greens and hole cups, they will only be used when the big greens are unfit for play.  The winter markers have also been put out on tees and mats have also been put on the par 3's to protect the tees through the winter months.

Please ensure all pitch marks are being repaired and divots replaced.

Top dress and overseed

The big course greens have been double sarel rolled to open the surface for over seeding.  We then spread a pure bent mix over the greens.  Top dressed to bed the seed in.  Then finally double sarel rolled again with a drag mat on the back to work the sand and seed into the profile.  Over the week we will use our vibrating brushes to keep working the sand into the profile.

We have over seeded to help promote more favourable grass species on the greens that will give a better, healthier and more consistent playing surface.

May progress

The course is still a bit slow on the growth front.  2 weeks ago today we had snow and since then the temperatures have shot up but it's gone very dry.  Hopefully as soon as we get a little bit of moisture we will have sustained growth.  The greens have had a couple of turf tonics in them to keep them ticking over but we don't want to load them fertiliser because when the growth does come this will cause a massive surge in grass clippings that will be caused by soft lush growth.  The tees have had a granular fertiliser and will soon kick into life when conditions are correct.  The fairways have also been sprayed with a mix of urea, iron, primo maxx and selective weed killer.

The greens have dried out nicely and we have been reluctant to put water on them as this promotes stunted root development also when putting irrigation water onto the plant the water is generally a lot colder than rain water and will stunt growth back further.  Further to one comment by I've heard we are no where near "losing" them.  The grass sward is healthy! The soil moisture content is well within acceptable limits.  The irrigation though has now been primed up and we've put a little water on the sand based greens as a couple of high spots had dried out a touch.

A wee update

Sorry for the lack of updates, I damaged my phone so was unable to upload!! 

We've successfully installed the new practice nets and mats.  These will be good to get warmed up before the first tee shot over the water (no excuses now lol).

There has also been a bit of debate about the drop zone at the first as some golfers found it looked a little awkward and felt it was like a pedestal.  We have blended the edges to better tie it in with the surrounding ground.

Some walkways have also started to cut up with constant wet weather we have been having.  We have roped a few areas off to rest them.  We then dressed and seeded them to help recovery.

Pitch marks!!

Please fix your pitch marks, as well as all the issues that go along with an unfixed pitch mark, the lack of golfing etiquette shown is horrendous!!