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.