27/12/10

Just when we thought we getting a thaw last weekend the snow came back and completely covered the courses again. We've had snow cover now for over 30 days so we could really use a thaw. We have been keeping the lodges and clubhouse area clear of snow and gritted.

The ice on the loch is now at 7 inches which is thick for the possibility of getting the grand curling match on. I never thought i would be able to walk across the loch let alone drive vehicles on it that was a new experience!! We've been trying to clear the snow on the ice but we need to clear the half the loch (20 acres) to give the curlers room to play. A decision will be getting made this week to see if the grand match can go ahead.

We've had another 4-5 inches of snow again today but the weather forecast seems to be getting milder this week so hopefully we will get a good thaw and get back to work on the courses.

13/12/10

The snow is still with us at Piperdam although the level has dropped from over 15 inches to roughly 2-3 inches. Unfortunately the weather is turning for the worse towards the end of this week again so we will just have to wait and see what happens. On nicer news Blair Purdie one of our greenkeepers, wife had a baby on Friday called Islay so we wish all the best to Blair, Gail and baby Islay.

We have got back on the golf course and had started limbing trees. During the snow we were up at the lodges clearing snow, we also got the shed tidied up, got markers prepared for painting and started stripping down cutting units.

29/11/10

The snow has hit us at Piperdam, it started on Thursday and has carried on pretty much all weekend. We have cleared all main walk ways and are clearing around lodges, roads and paths.

29/11/10

Most of the work by team niblick has been completed, the turf has all been cut in and the bunkers have been filled back up again. We have also turfed the new landing area at 18. All thats left is too finish the new tees on 1,11 and 12 and just small tidying up jobs.

21/11/10

We had a very cold start to the week and got wetter as the week carried on, Team Niblick are pretty much finished now with there major ground works and have tied in all the turfing jobs, all that remains is to finish the 12th ladies tee and put the sand back in the bunkers (weather permitting we may get them filled in this week.

We cut the greens that are in play on Friday. We have taken 4 greens out of play because golfers are walking over the turf and leaving foot prints. We are having to go behind and lift the turf, re-level the soil and re turf the areas. These areas will firm up but until they do we have to protect them.

We also verti-drained all the tees on both courses.

Turf on the 6th that a golfer walked over that we had to lift and relay.








Greens being cut on Friday.



Drainage line on the 1st after turfing.






Drainage line on the 1st during turfing.



Verti-draining the tees.

13/11/10 (construction work)

Generally the construction work is going very well. We have now shaped all bunkers, re levelled the 6th medal tee, installed drains in 1st and 6th green, part filled the ditch on 18 and filled all old bunkers. The bunkers will be finished and turf will be cut in when it becomes dry enough.

New bunkers around the 13th green.




Looking up the 14th fairway, the fairway bunkers have had extra support added to there backs.




New greenside bunkers at the 14th green.




New greenside bunker on LHS of green and bunker on RHS has been reshaped.




Reshaped bunkers at 16th greenside.





Bunkers on 17th greenside have been reshaped.




Ditch on 18 has been filled on LHS and has been opened up on RHS.





New greenside bunker on LHS of 18th green.




New RHS greenside bunkers on 18th green.

13/11/10

This has been a very wet month so far, we have had 117mm of rain in the last 3 weeks. Cutting on the courses has generally stopped as it has either been to wet or the growth has checked back. We fed the greens with a high iron 10 days ago which will harden the grass up coming into the winter. We also verti-drained the osprey greens down to 10 inches 4 days ago, this will allow more moisture to get away from the surface of the greens and keep them healthier.

20/10/010

Team niblick are making good headway with the bunkers, taking full advantage of the good period of weather. Bunkers on 4,6,8 + 9 have been started and we are going behind turfing and tidying them up.

Greenside bunker on 4.

Greenside bunker at 6, the front of the collar has also been lifted and reshaped to try and allow water to shed of the front of the green.

New greenside bunker at 8.

New bunker complex on 9th fairway.

20/10/10

Greens have been cored on the big course on monday and tuesday, this allowed us to top dress the greens on wednesday and get them brushed in with our vibrating brushes.

We have also put the cups in the winter greens and cut the greens before topdressing.

16/10/10

We have the Piperdam open this week on sunday. We have being preparing the course and generally getting it ready for the open.

We have also started construction work on the golf course, we have worked on the greenside bunkers on 1,2,5 and 11. We have either kept the original placement of the bunkers and dug/edged and cleaned the bunker sand or moved them to properly accent the hole and to stop washout in the bunkers. Also we have put in drainage just short of the 18th green to dry out the landing area.

The greenside bunker back right before and after construction.

The greenside bunker at 2 just before being turfed.

The greenside at 5, two bunkers getting made into one and the surround being shaped to stop washout.

The two exsiting bunkers at 11 have been reshaped and a new bunker put in on the right hand side.

Drainage at landing area on 18.

07/10/10

Well after my what seemed like very fast holiday, i got back to work today. Its been very wet in my time off but Gary and the team have done really well to keep the course tidy and keep the general maintenance on routine. Apart from regular cutting the guys sprayed rocastem/t-thatch (liquid aeration) on the big greens, also the tees and approaches where sprayed with liquid iron to colour them up for the Mens Open next sun. The bunkers have also been flymod and a majority of the trees have been cut and strimmed around. We will have to wait for certain areas of the course to dry up before we make an attempt to cut them.

When i was in Mexico i visited the golf course that is connected to the hotel, the course opened i June and i have attached a couple of pictures.

We hope to start some of the winter reconstruction work on Monday the 11th of October, all jobs we start will finish for the open.

23/9/10

Its been a frustrating week at piperdam with the weather being very wet, this has stopped us cutting fairways and rough, we will hopefully get onto these areas on fri. The tees, approaches and bunkers have all been maintained as normal. We have also managed to keep the greens cut and rolled. We have also sarel rolled the greens twice this week (mon & thurs) this will keep the surface open and keep air circulating.

The greens at piperdam are quite slow draining so we verti drain them once a season (november) down to 12 inches, we have found this has helped but it is very hard to get sand down into the holes. Thus we started sand plugging on the greens at the start of the season, this involves taking the plug that you take out when you change holes and breaking of the bottom 9-10 inches of soil off, this is hard packed and doesn't allow any water percolation or root development. We then fill the old hole cup with pure sand and put the top 2-3 inches of plug into the old hole cup. We have to do this to create natural soak aways through the greens, we don't have to worry about the plugs drying up because we have a lot of thatch which keeps it moist. Also we have a regular wetting agent programme through the season that will stop the plugs drying out. This has worked very well and has made a significant difference to the greens. We change holes 2-3 times during the cutting season so we are adding a lot of sand through the profile during the season.

I have also had some meetings with Graeme Webster the golf course architect that designed the wee course, we have put plans together to look at bunkers and drainage on the big course, we hope to start the works after the rearranged mens open on the 17th oct.

15/9/10

Busy week at work, short staffed due to holidays and one of the seasonals going back to college, we've eased of cutting the greens everyday as the growth is checking back a little thus we have started to utilise the roller more, also we have gone a bit more invasive with out groomers on the big course to stress out the Yorkshire fog, we want to give the good grasses as much of a chance to thicken out before there growth checks back as the temperature starts to fall. We will be rasing the height of cut on the greens this week to 4.5mm with the triples and 5mm with the hand mowers (the hand mowers cut tighter than the triples that is why they are set 0.5mm higher), this gives the greens a bit more protection and stress them out less. The height will continue to rise in stages as we get closer to the winter. We also have tidied up the range this week and sprayed around the edges with total weed killer. The big course greens are due a feed but we will have to wait in until the wind settles down a bit. We have also carried on with our regular cutting regime.

9/9/10

The course reopened on wed morning after the heavy rain on tuesday, we sarel rolled and double rolled the greens and got the bunkers back in play, so after a delay for mist play got under way at the back of 10. We then moved onto the wee course and carried out regular cutting.

Today we cut greens on both courses and cut tees on the big course, we also fed areas around the course that are starting to get a worn out e.g. walk ways and green surrounds. This will give them a boost and get some more grass coverage coming into the autumn.

We also sarel rolled the tees on 11, 12 and 13 in 2 directions to create holes to overseed and then hand topdressed the tees behind, this will thicken up the tees as they have taken a lot of play this season.

We also contiued our regular cutting regime.

7/9/10

Today was the heaviest prolonged period of rain i have ever seen at piperdam, it was even too wet for my camera! All greens, tees and fairways where flooded. The police tournament was called off two hours after the first tee because the course was unplayable! Hopefully it stays reasonably dry so some golf can be played tomorrow! The course had been fully cut on sunday and monday with the holes and markers being changed on monday night, so it was only a case of cutting greens and raking bunkers on tuesday morning.

2/9/10

Another sunny day at Piperdam.

We cut of fairways, tee's and approaches on the wee course. Then moved onto the big course and started cutting the fairways, it was dry so they came up very well with no lumps of grass clippings. We also cut around trees and cut rough on the big course.

We also double cut the big greens with a triple with the groomers down, amongst other things the groomers vertically lift/cut any grass that has folded/flattened over and thus allows a cleaner more uniform cut. This also helps to stress and thin out the yorkshire fog this will allow the fescue and bent grasses the chance to out compete it. If yorkshire fog is left unchecked it will smother the finer grasses and spread. In the photo you can see the groomers inbetween the roller and cutting cylinder.

01/09/10

Disappointing weekend at Piperdam, the men's open was cancelled due to high winds, the course had been fully prepared. The greenkeeping staff and committee had put a lot of work and time into it, but you cant control the weather!!! The rearranged date for the open is the Sunday 17th of October. Any inquiries please contact the committee or piperdam reception. This week we have let the greens rest on Monday and have continued to maintain the golf course with our regular schedule.


We've had a little touch of disease on the 1st, we spot treated it and we will continue to monitor the rest of the greens. The greens are more susceptible to disease at the start and end of the season due to a lot of factors amongst some are the colder mornings and a heavier dew in the morning.

23/8/10

Busy weekend at Piperdam we had captains day on sunday which was rearranged from earlier in the season when it was washed out. We had the course prepared to an extent on friday, so the weekend work comprised of cutting and rolling greens on sat morning, cutting some fairways and the approaches on sat afternoon. We then cut the greens with pedestrian mowers on sat night and changed holes, moved markers and put the new cups and flags out.

Sunday morning we pedestrian cut and double rolled greens and raked the bunkers.

We let the greens rest today, as they would start to stress out if we kept such a prolonged maintenance programme. So we dew brushed greens and then sprayed them with seaweed and primo maxx (growth regulator). We also cut fairways, tee's and approaches on the big course, cut rough and greens on the wee course and changed all holes. As well as that we started edging sprinklers and yardage markers for the open.

19/8/10

A touch of disease has popped up at Piperdam on the big greens over the last couple of day we have diagnosed it as type 2 fairy ring, its the less destructive type of fairyring.

This type of fairyring is superficial, generally there will be a dark green circle on the outside edge of it, other types of fairyring will either kill the outside ring or have fungi growing in the outside ring. We took no risks anyway and sarel rolled the greens and spot treated the greens affected with a systemic fungicide, we then sprayed the greens with wetting agent to keep the rings hydrated and liquid iron to try and mask the dark green circles.

Other jobs today included cutting greens, tees, approaches and fairways on the wee course. We also cut around tees on the big course and started cutting the rough.