Piperdam Greenkeeping Blog

Next phase

2012-02-08T17:46:00.001Z

The changing room/pro shop re-development is carrying on at a steady pace, we are now in position to lift out the individual sections. As at the end of work today we where over half way removing the sections.

Winter wonderland?!!

2012-02-05T09:04:00.001Z

Hawthorns

2012-02-04T11:04:00.001Z

We have planted some young hawthorns along the out of bounds on the left hand side of the the 15th fairway before the corner. There are already a few hawthorns along this line, we have filled in the gaps so eventually it will give a nice uninterrupted feature giving good definition.

White frost

2012-02-02T18:24:00.001Z

Could all golfers please stay off the greens when we are on winter course. This is especially more important during white frost as this could have lasting damage on the plant leave. There is a chance that the grass will not recover until it grows out and until then we will have black then yellow feet/trolley marks on the greens.

Below is a picture of the putting green where a golfer has walked across pulling a trolley.

White frost

2012-02-02T09:43:00.001Z

There is a hard white frost today at Piperdam, the wee course is closed and the big course is on full winters. The loch is also frozen right over.

Changing rooms

2012-02-01T15:23:00.001Z

Work continues dismantling the old changing rooms, the first photo shows the plaster board being removed and the second shows the roof beginning to be stripped.

New tee posts

2012-01-30T13:10:00.001Z

We've started to look at new tee posts for the big course as the concrete block with the signs are getting quite tired and tatty. The photo shows a few possible options, whatever we choose will be finished off with the same brown stain as the tee markers with a coloured band cut into the post and with tee plaques.

Good bye locker rooms

2012-01-30T11:13:00.001Z

This week we will be carrying on helping with the dismantling of the old locker rooms, anything wooden is getting burnt.

Old changing room

2012-01-26T12:13:00.001Z

Work had started stripping the panels of the old changing rooms.

12th pond and burn

2012-01-20T11:01:00.001Z

Below are two photos, one before and after burn was dug and cleaned, also attached is a picture of the pond that's has been cleaned out and slightly reshaped.

Mobile blogging

2012-01-19T22:42:00.001Z

I've got my iPhone set up for the blog now so there will a lot more updates in future!

High winds

2012-01-19T22:38:00.001Z

This was the only real damage from the high winds we have had in the last month on the golf course, although we have been busy up the lodges as there is a few trees to cut tidy up.

21/10/11

2011-10-21T19:06:00.004+01:00

During a rain interrupted week we finally managed to get the osprey greens cored (3/8 tines), top dressed (LV20) and fed (TX10). Instead of picking up the cores we used a technique that Bob at crail uses, we verti cut the cores up and after a bit of fine tuning off our machine we managed to get the greens relatively clear, we then blew of the remaining debris. I've decided to use a smaller tine to core (small and often coring, rather than aggressive coring once a year) as it causes less disruption to golfers and in my opinion more beneficial to the greens both below and above the surface, also the holes will not be as open and disruptive as they have been in previous winters. It also rained the night after we dressed the greens, this has helped to wash in the topdressing.

Cores being cleared of the greens surface.

Greens being fed after topdressing.

9/10/11

2011-10-09T09:46:00.007+01:00

We have cored the "wee piper" greens in the past week. We would normally blow the cores of the greens and collect but we tried a different approach this time. As the greens are sand based we let the cores dry out for 10-15 minutes, then went behind and switched the cores which broke them up and recycled the sand back into the holes, we then went behind and blew of the organic matter. This worked very well and we will carry on using this technique when it comes to coring the wee greens. We then overseeded the greens and fed with TX10 fertiliser, we had a break down with the top dresser but it has now been fixed so we will be looking to top dress this following week. The greens on the big course will be getting cored on week commencing Monday the 17th October.

Handful of cores before switching.

Handful of organic material after the sand has been switched out.

Switching the 8th of the wee course.

With the wet weather we have also been working on a few path areas that where cutting on up with traffic going over, we dug out new fresh paths and lined with tarmac plainings. Owen the pro has also been getting his hands dirty in the past couple of weeks and has started to build a stone wall dyke behind the 1st tee.

New path being dug out from 10th green to 12th fairway.

Owen and Steve working on the new dyke.

20/9/11

2011-09-20T14:09:00.005+01:00

The inaugural Piperdam V's St.Mikes greenkeeper challenge, a "narrow" 6&5 victory for Piperdam

The trophy

7 days after coring

Core hole spacing and size

16th green being rolled

View from the telehandler whilst putting up driving range netting

13th greenside bunker after a deluge of rain

A sunny day!!!

20/9/11

2011-09-20T14:01:00.002+01:00

Ive had a few lap top issues in the last little while so this has stopped me blogging. The last couple of months the weather has been very poor with heavy rain showers and no real long breaks in the weather when it has been dry. We have had to be quite selective with our cutting as to not make to much mess and not stress out the grass. The course has held up to the rain not to bad, with the greens becoming a little soft but they still have a full covering of grass and the ball is rolling out well. We mini cored, over seeded and top dressed the big greens at the end of July we has great resulted from that and they had pretty much recovered within a week.

The driving range netting has been completed now and the next project for the the practice area is to put in synthetic grass target greens and to install a practice bunker at the chipping green.

i will add a few pictures to let you see what has been happening the last wee while.

18/7/11

2011-07-18T17:56:00.006+01:00

The weather has been some what unsettled recently with reasonably warm temperatures but a lot of rain! Our maintenance schedule has been carrying on as normal but the growth has really jumped thus the maintenance has been very intense. We had captains day a few weeks ago and we had a great run up too it with some really nice weather and the course came together very well.

The driving range has also had its first stage of jazzing up, with the installation of our new synthetic turf surface supplied by SGS. The surface reacts very similar to normal turf and will be a major tool for Owen Leslie (pro) with the golf academy he is in the process of setting up. The first tennis court is also due for completion in the next few weeks.

The grinders have also been busy, when we have not been able to get on the golf course because of the weather we have been grinding the greens, tees and fairway mower units.

20/6/11

2011-06-20T18:19:00.005+01:00

The greens on both courses have been fed with nutri pro 12-0-11 granular feed, this contained iron and we got quite a reaction with foot prints it even showed up a few golfers who have been taking there golf trolleys over greens!!!!!!! They have lost there blackness after a few days and have got a nice colour now. We have been carrying on with our regular maintenance regime. The new synthetic tee surface at the driving range has been decided upon and we hope to have it installed very soon.

We have also managed to get to some of the smaller jobs taken care off we have edged all pop ups, gully pots, yardage markers and the drop zone mats at the first. A drop zone mat will be added at the 13th and we will also edge around the dropzone mat at 11.

Course set up on friday, the greens being rolled and the holes being changed.

The drop zone at the 1st being edged.

Reaction from the iron on the putting green, this discoloration was gone after 3 days.

10/6/11

2011-06-10T16:07:00.004+01:00

We have tried two new products on the greens this week in a tank mix. The first product is the new version of osprey wetting agent called osprey active, the new osprey active has amino acids so unlike its predecessor this will help to produce chlorophyll which will increase in levels of photosynthesis to help with growth and the amino acids will also help the root structure. The second product is called stand up this basically makes the grass stand up so we can get a cleaner cut and will also aid in the removal of seed heads when cutting this will reduce bobble and increase green speed. The tees and approaches have also been taken down in height slightly this generally is giving a better finish.

We are still only cutting the greens with pedestrian mowers during week days and this is giving us a really nice finish and ball roll.

greens being sprayed

06/06/11

2011-06-06T18:47:00.001+01:00

27/5/11

2011-05-27T17:51:00.002+01:00

The weather hasn't been our friend in the last few weeks, we have had torrential rain, high winds and low temperatures, lets hope this improves. The only real damage with the wind on the golf side at Piperdam was the driving range netting, the whole right hand has blown loose, we're lucky the netting became unattached or we could have had much more major damage with the supports coming down!!

The 5th fairway has been fed, the turf that was put down 2 years ago just needs a little kick start to get going as there isn't a lot of nutrient in the soil because of the major soil movement before turfing. We also fed the rough on the right hand side of the fairway as it was seeded and again just needs a little hit to thicken it up.

The newly seeded areas have started to germinate and the seed has started to grow.

10th green

5th fairway being fed

Driving range damage

19/5/11

2011-05-19T19:56:00.006+01:00

All the greens have been top dressed and fertilised again, with the dry weather we have had to keep irrigating the greens to wash in the fertiliser and topdressing. We have also put new sole plates and ground the pedestrian greens mowers so we get a nice clean cut. We have dug out the valve boxes at the 4th and 5th greens on the osprey course, the moles where getting in and filling them full of soil, so they where dug out, lined with fertiliser bags and gravel put in the base.

Valve box being lined.

Irrigating the 4th green on the osprey course

The 9th green on the wee course, footprints where people have walked over the green after fertilising

New sole plate being put on sole plate carrier.

9/5/11

2011-05-09T16:57:00.004+01:00

All the greens over both courses have been over seeded and top dressed again. We cut, sarel rolled, over seeded, top dressed and then brushed in the dressing it took roughly a full day to carry this out. Weather wise it has been very dry with the occasional ground frost until the weekend past when we had 56mm of rain. This has been welcomed as it has softened the tees and fairways which where becoming very dry and hard. The bunkers have been flymod on both courses.

The tees have been fed on the big course and we will feed the approaches on the big course tomorrow, the wee course tees and approaches on the wee course will then be done.

We took delivery off our new zero turn last week as well this will make our cutting more efficient as the last one had a habit of breaking down! The new zero turn was supplied by Double A in cupar with the help of Gordon Rogers.

The greens being over seeded after sarel rolling with the top dresser waiting in the back ground.

New zero turn.

30/4/11

2011-04-30T18:56:00.005+01:00

The sunny weather has continued in the last week, we have got the irrigation on at nights to keep the greens moist. The only rain we have had in the last few weeks was last saturday when we had 9mm rain because of this rain we never cut the greens last sunday as they where a bit to soft. There has also been a couple of over night frost which has slowed down the growth. We have carried on with our regular cutting regime. The tees, approaches and fairways where cut the opposite way at the start of the week to get some of the grass that had been folded down, we then cut the normal direction later in the week to get the stripe back again. Whatever spare time we have had we have been fine prepping the old bunkers and pond at the 2nd ready for overseeding. A couple of machines went down this week needing minor repairs, this has pushed a few jobs back until next week.

The big greens also had there first application of T-Thatch and Rocastem these are our liquid aeration products. We also sprayed the greens with primo maxx this is a growth regulator and will slow down the vertical growth and help to promote lateral shoot growth. We will be looking to give the greens another light top dress in the following week.

The old pond at the 2nd being prepped for seed.

22/4/11

2011-04-22T17:38:00.006+01:00

The greens on the osprey course were top dressed and fed this week, we also fed the wee piper greens. We have also spot dressed a couple of areas on the greens to help smooth them out and give the grass something to grow into. The continuing dry weather has meant that we have had to irrigate the greens at night as to stop them drying out and to continue the growth, there was a slight problem on Friday afternoon when the suction pipe got blocked but i got into the burn and got it unblocked. We used the tru-turf for the first time this season this week and it will now come back into our weekly maintenance regime.

Clearing the suction pipe for the pump.

Fertilising greens.

The view looking back at the top dresser.

15/4/11

2011-04-15T18:33:00.003+01:00

The course has been fully set up for the weekend. The bunkers and new turfed areas where flymod this week. Another job was to patch all the tees as there where quite a few divots out of them from the winter play. Our first application of wetting agent and seaweed has also been sprayed onto the greens, we have the greens down to 5mm and we will be looking to give the greens a top dress and granular feed next week to push the greens on with the mild weather we are having just now. The drainage line at the back of the 1st green has also been turfed this week.

Piperdam now have a pro that will be available for a variety of lessons, his name is Owen Leslie and he will be representing Piperdam on the Tartan Tour, please contact reception on 01382 581374 for more details.

1st tee after sand patching.

4/4/2011

2011-04-04T17:01:00.005+01:00

It was a wet tale end to last week, we eased of the cutting as we would just have made a mess and stressed the grass out. As well as general tidying up jobs we changed the holes and raked the bunkers for the opening match and then Blair cut the greens over the weekend. Today we cut the greens with pedestrian mowers and took the height down slightly.

We also finished edging all of the bunkers on the big course. The valve box at the back of the 10th green was broken, we got a new box and dug a new one in. We had two students from elmwood college start there work experience today, it will be great to have a help out on the courses.

During and after pictures of valve box replacement.

Stripping out the edge of turf that had been edged at the 6th green.

25/3/11

2011-03-25T17:47:00.004Z

With the mild weather we have got on with a lot of course work we have given all the tees, approaches and fairways cut, we have also changed all the holes and raked the bunkers for the weekend play.

The dead trees at 5 and 6 have been cut out, this tidies that area up. We also gave the osprey greens a light top dress this week and put some seed down, we still have core holes on the greens from October, this is because we core so late in the season we don't get the recovery before the growth stops, over the coming month or so we will be looking to dress the greens again. The pond at the second has been filled in, this only got filled today, so next week we will look to tidy the area up and mark GUR as required.

The last few loads to be levelled out at the 2nd pond.

Blair brushing in top dressing.

17/3/11

2011-03-17T21:07:00.004Z

The new bridge we built has been put in at the 13th green side, we also started planting broom at the side of the 1st tee.

15/3/11

2011-03-15T14:23:00.004Z

We had a wee bit of snow on Saturday but it was all gone by Sunday. The 1st green had 2 patches around the collar that had died back during the snow coverage, instead of leaving it and allowing it to come back when we had decent growth we decided to cut out the areas and returf. These areas will be in play for the start of the season. The list of work from the course focus group has just about been completed. I spoke to Grant Moir from the R&A and he confirmed that we can use the tiger tees on 6 and 17 for selected competitions we just have to make the golfers aware the tees will be at the longer distance. We also had a 3 small patches of disease on the putting green and 12th green, we have plugged these areas to the side of the green.

Lifting the damaged turf on the 1st collar.

One of the plugs on 12.

7/3/11

2011-03-07T21:28:00.005Z

The greens got another cut/roll on Friday, the holes where changed and the bunkers where raked for the weekend. We got our first cut of the tees on the big course this week and have also marked the o.b. on 2,3,4 & 5. We also began some drainage work in between the 15th & 16th fairways.

Gary cutting the 10th green in the distance.

Blair cutting the tees.

Trying to catch the water on the maintenance track between 15 & 16.

If the decent weather continues i hope to start cutting the fairways and keep working on the list of work from the focus group.

1/3/2011

2011-03-01T19:34:00.008Z

The dry weather has been continuing at Piperdam, the day time temperatures have been very pleasant but the overnight temperatures are still dipping down and we are having ground frosts most mornings. The greens are drying out quite well just now, we hope to give them a roll before the weekend. We have been carrying on with the list of suggestions that where put forward at the focus group. Below are a few photos of some of the jobs that have been carried out so far.

Trees stumps dug out at LHS of 9th fairway.

New path and existing path being renewed at 12th green.

New hazard stakes put out on RHS of 12th fairway.

Trees limbed up on RHS of 5th fairway.

Trees on LHS of 2nd green limbed awaiting grass to be cut down.

Please note, the Annual General Meeting (AGM) will be held at Piperdam on Thursday 3rd March 2011 commencing at 7.30 pm.

22/2/11

2011-02-22T20:38:00.003Z

Our latest deals for golf membership 2011/2012, please contact Piperdam reception with any enquiries on 01382 581374.

Golden Golf Deals for 2011

Tee off this year with one of our fantastic Golf Deals.

£100 Cashback
Introduce a new member who has never been a member before or a lapsed member and receive £100 cash back, applies to full Golf membership only.
Get your £100 Cashback Now!

£50 Discount on Full Golf Membership
Change Golf Club and receive £50 discount on full membership, proof of previous membership required.
Get your £50 Discount Now!

5% Discount on Food & Drink
Full members receive 5% discount on food and drink within lounge and restaurant.

£100 Discount on Leisure Membership
£100 discount for your partner when joining the leisure club as a peak annual adult member, 1 child membership free of charge. Applies to full Golf Members only.

£100 Discount on Full Golf Membership
£100 discount for your partner when joining golf club as a full member. Applies to full leisure members only.

22/2/11

2011-02-22T19:28:00.003Z

A dry day at Piperdam today, we got all greens rolled with the pedestrian mowers and then fed the greens with a half rate of an organic fertiliser TX10. This fertiliser will not give us a flush of growth but it will help to strengthen the grass and help the plant stay free from disease. We didn't put full rate just in case we get another prolonged snow coverage and the fertiliser flushes up below the snow and we get hit by disease, with our climate, location and greens make up you had to be very care full with your nutrient inputs especially going in and coming out of the winter months.

21/2/11

2011-02-21T18:04:00.003Z

Its been very wet at Piperdam since my last post, although on Friday we did manage to spot treat the greens with a fungicide to knock back any patches of disease, we have a little disease on some collars (this came in when we had snow coverage for 50 days) but we have concentrated mainly on the greens. We also have carried on with sharpening units but we have also been helping out with the new Vegas lodge that is under construction. With it being a little drier the last couple of days we sarel rolled the big greens today to let some air in and let them breath. This is the first work to be carried out on the greens since the end of November.

16/2/11

2011-02-16T17:26:00.007Z

We have managed to start sharpening units, so far we have finished and rebuilt the fairway units we hope to get the rest of the units sharpened this week. We have also started painting O.B. and water hazard posts. Also we have started to work through the points that where brought up at the focus group so far we have limbed the trees at the corner at 16 and built the base for the new bridge on 13, once the weather improves we will get on with more of the jobs. AA have also been in carrying out winter servicing work.

New bridge base for 13.

Sole plate on anglemaster grinder.

Malcolm from AA servicing rough deck.

16/2/11

2011-02-16T17:21:00.002Z

Below is a copy of what was discussed and agreed at the Focus Group on saturday afternoon.

Piperdam Course Focus Group 12th Feb 2011
Present: Shaun Anderson
Gary Douglas
Martin Shaw
Bashir Okhai
Iain Gardyne
Frank Flood

1st Plant broom around tee complex.
Grow a collar of rough at front of 1st green.
Feed rough around green to try and get uniformity of grass.
Old osprey sign has been filled and will return to long grass.

2nd Fill pond.
Thin out trees at LHS of green.
Mark O.B. on LHS with white stakes.

3rd Mark O.B. on LHS with white stakes.

4th Cut back area of long grass on LHS just short of the first bunker.
Mark O.B. on LHS with white stakes.
Put warning sign on tee to shout FORE for 7th green.

5th Plant broom at back of tee complex.
Mark O.B. on LHS with white stakes.

6th Take out dead trees.
Move white markers to yellow tee.

7th Take out fence on LHS and replace with white stakes.

8th Bring cut of fairway on LHS higher to try and stop the ball rolling down the hill.
Trees thinned out and cut around at back of green.

9th White markers will move back to LHS tee.
Trees have been thinned out and will have grass cut down below.
Trees stumps at corner still to be taken out (will be removed on next frosty day).

10th Trees have been limbed on LHS of fairway and grass will be cut down below.

11th

12th White tee will move to top tee LHS.
Mark RHS over burn as vertical water hazard as it is marshland.
Put in new path at back of the 12th green.

13th New bridge to be added RHS of green.

14th Take out one strip of long rough at RHS of landing zone and maintain at regular rough length.

15th
16th Prune up trees on corner just before pond to give a line of sight to the green.

17th Move white tees to yellow tee.

18th

General

We had a very productive course walk with good ideas/suggestion coming from all present. There was a general sense in the group that the course changes e.g. new bunkers and tees have benefitted the course and will give course an extra lift to take forward and attract more members/visitors. Some of the areas that we will let come up to rough height will take a little longer this will be weather and temperature dependant until we get growth. The course will be remeasured in the following weeks and we will have the new score cards in place for the start of the season. We will strive to get the above jobs complete for the start of the season although this may be affected by the weather.

9/2/11

2011-02-09T22:06:00.005Z

Still snow on the ground at Piperdam so we have been catching up on some shed work. The markers are getting there next coat of paint and we have started stripping down the cutting units for grinding. We have also been tidying up branches and trees that have been accessible when the snow has been on the ground.

6/2/11

2011-02-06T10:53:00.005Z

We had heavy snow on Wednesday night into Thursday, luckily it had all gone by Friday morning. We carried on with limbing branches on the golf course this week, we have cleared and area on LHS of the 10th fairway. This an area that has been up for much debate over the years so after discussions with Bashir (Greens Convenor) we came to an agreement that we should look at thinning the area out and making it more playable for the golfers. We also discussed the possibility of moving the white tee forward to the yellow block on 17, this will take the par 3 down from 210 yards to 181 yards this should make the hole more golfer friendly as the as it stands the par 3's on the course are quite long and tricky, the hole will still offer a challenge but it should make it more fun! We will also be looking at putting the white tee block on 9 back to the original tee on the LHS this will better accent the hole and golfers will be hitting into the hill rather than with the hill this will better give the hole the character and definition we are looking for. This will also stop any unfair run in to the bunkers. We have also been up at the lodges this week tidying up all the damage that has occurred to the trees so far this winter.

Below area of trees at 10 that has been limbed.

26/1/11

2011-01-26T16:59:00.003Z

With the continuing mild weather we have been carrying on with work on the golf course, we finished cutting down the trees at the edge of the loch on 10. We also filled the last bunker on 14 with sand, that's all the new bunkers now complete. We only have to go back to the old bunkers and put a fresh edge on them for the new season. We have also finished of the new ladies tees on the course by finishing turfing the banks.

The greens are all at different stages of thawing out, as it stands the wee greens are on full. On the big course around about half of the greens are ready for play, if the weather carries on in the same manor we should hope to get a few more in play for the weekend but as you know it is all weather dependant. The greens are generally in good condition we are starting to lose a little bit of colour and as the different grasses lose the colour at different rates the uniformity of colour is not as it was during the growing season. This is a common thing to happen as the greens are not being fed during the winter months as if you feed them they can flush up and encourage a serious disease problem. If the greens are able to take it we will try roll them later in the week obviously this is weather dependant and how well the greens thaw out.

17/1/11

2011-01-17T17:39:00.006Z

As i said in my previous post the courses are open again. The vast majority of all greens are clear of snow and ice, we still have a little on 2,5,8,10 and 12. We have tried to break up the ice as best as possible and clear the ice off as long as the ice wasn't sticking to the plant. We sprayed a fungicide on on the greens with a knapsack this should control any more disease that may try to break out and knock on the head the few patches of disease that have formed bellow the snow.

We have also been trying to re-secure the netting at the driving range it has come loose with the heavy snow and strong winds.

Carefully taking ice of the 2nd green.

View from the top of the hill.

16th fairway looking towards the green you can see the change from when i put the photo on last week.

17/1/11

2011-01-17T09:59:00.002Z

After 50 days of snow coverage the golf courses reopened today. The Wee Piper is fully open and the Osprey Course is on the winter circuit. The reason the big greens are not on full is because they are still very soggy with all the snow and ice melt and also because of the heavy rain over the weekend. The greens have come out of the snow very well with only a few touches of disease around the collars.

14/01/11

2011-01-14T16:59:00.005Z

Happy new year to one and all.

The golf course has been a no go zone in the last few weeks because we still had a good covering of snow and it was sheet ice below. We have been keeping the lodges and clubhouse clear of snow and gritted also we have chopping wood and kindling for the fire in the clubhouse. During the period of snow we have also started servicing and sharpening cutting units we have also started to paint the markers for next season.

The past couple of days had led to a decent thaw and we have lost most of the snow cover but we still have sheet ice over a majority of the courses hopefully with the thaw over the weekend we should get rid of a majority of the snow and ice but as usual that is obviously weather dependant.

9th fairway, trees have been thinned and limbed but you can see the ice on the fairway.

16th fairway looking towards the green.

Markers have had brown coat only needing the colours freshened up on the ends.

27/12/10

2010-12-27T18:50:00.006Z

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

2010-12-13T18:48:00.005Z

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

2010-11-29T19:01:00.004Z

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

2010-11-29T18:53:00.006Z

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

2010-11-21T18:11:00.007Z

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)

2010-11-13T10:28:00.011Z

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

2010-11-13T10:20:00.003Z

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

2010-10-20T18:24:00.007+01:00

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

2010-10-20T18:08:00.007+01:00

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

2010-10-16T12:39:00.012+01:00

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

2010-10-07T17:25:00.004+01:00

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

2010-09-23T18:10:00.004+01:00

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

2010-09-15T18:07:00.002+01:00

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

2010-09-09T20:20:00.005+01:00

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

2010-09-07T17:48:00.002+01:00

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

2010-09-02T20:07:00.005+01:00

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

2010-09-01T17:01:00.005+01:00

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

2010-08-23T17:40:00.004+01:00

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

2010-08-19T18:45:00.006+01:00

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.

17/8/10

2010-08-17T17:03:00.004+01:00

It was a wet start to the day at Piperdam today, we started to cut and strim around the trees on the golf course. We also plugged the 2nd green where there was still a little scaring from the hydraulic oil leak earlier in the season. After the rain stopped we hand cut all greens and rolled the big greens. Later in the day we carried on tidying up the bunkers and picked the range. We finished cutting around the trees in the afternoon, there is still some strimming left to do tomorrow.

16/8/10

2010-08-16T17:26:00.004+01:00

The golf course was quite busy over the weekend with outings and a medal. So we cut greens on both courses both days and rolled the big greens, we also raked bunkers and moved markers.

Today we cut fairways, tees and approaches. We cut the approaches the opposite way to get any grass that had been flattened down by continually cutting the grass in the same direction. We also hand cut the wee greens and triple cut the big greens. The lodges also needed cut so two guys went up and got the grass around them cut.

With 3 very busy weeks coming up we have started to get the bunkers tidied up that included flymoing, strimming weeding and stone picking, we have completed 7 holes.

11/8/10

2010-08-11T15:39:00.003+01:00

Today at Piperdam we sarel rolled the big greens, cut behind with pedestrians and then fed the greens with a 7-0-14 fertiliser at 35 g/m2 . We sarel rolled the greens to open up the surface to allow air and fertiliser into the profile.

We also cut and rolled the wee greens to get the speed up on the wee course. We cut fairways on the big course, strimmed around trees, touched up bunkers and started cutting the rough.

10/8/10

2010-08-10T18:34:00.004+01:00

Torrential rain showers at Piperdam today, so we held of on cutting fairways and rough until tomorrow. We had the Dundee police championships on the course today, so we dew brushed greens, cut with pedestrians behind and double rolled the greens.

We also cut approaches on the big course, changed holes, cut around trees and raked the bunkers.

9/8/10

2010-08-09T18:08:00.005+01:00

It was a wet day at piperdam today, so we cut the greens with pedestrians, also we cut tee and approaches on both courses.

We also took the opportunity of having a quieter day to start to stone pick and weed the worst bunkers on the course. We also picked the range and zero turned around greens and bunkers on the big course.

It was also an ideal day to try and fix the pond on 16, the concrete damn had collpased so we emptied the pond and got the jcb to try and damn up the end, we packed it full of stones and then put clay soil over the top. If this does not work we will empty the pond again and put cement over the area.

5/8/10

2010-08-05T20:35:00.003+01:00

With the weather being reasonably dry this week the greens are starting dry out a little to much, so we sprayed the greens with a wetting agent and irrigated behind so some moisture was taken up by the wetting agent. We tank mixed the wetting agent with seaweed and rocastem. The seaweed will help to thicken out the sward and make the grass more resistant to stress. Rocastem is part of out liquid aertion programme we put rocastem on monthly and t-thatch goes out 3 times during the season. Rocastem will help to clean up organic matter in the profile and hopefully increase water percolation, t-thatch will add microbes to the soil and they will help to break down the thatch level.

Other work today included hand cutting greens on both courses, cutting fairways, cutting rough and picking/cutting the driving range.

3/8/10

2010-08-03T17:19:00.006+01:00

General work carried out on the course included cutting, rolling greens and cutting fairways.

The top dressing on the greens has fully gone into the profile now, so we stripped down our pedestrian mowers and put them on the grinders to sharpen the sole plate and cylinders. Thats the advantage of having our own grinders, we can sharpen machines in a fraction of the time as it would take to send them away.

Other jobs carried out today were cutting aroung lodges, picking the range and fixing paths on the golf course.

27/7/10

2010-07-27T17:09:00.007+01:00

Aswell as carrying out general course work we continued to work in the top dressing.

firstly we dew brushed to dry the greens surface,

we then waited until mid morning to allow the surface to fully dry, we then put the vibrating brushes over the greens and pedestrian cut behind,

this has worked very well and already the holes are starting to close up

solid tined osprey course greens.

2010-07-26T18:41:00.000+01:00

26/7/10

Today we solid tined the osprey greens with a 8mm tine, we did this because of the wet weather this month, we wanted to open the greens up to promote air circulation. It was also ideal to overseed and top dress in behind. The greens came up very well as they where cut before and rolled after they where solid tined, the seed was then spread using a fertiliser spreader and then top dressed using the dakota top dresser, too finish off they where double brushed with our vibrating brushes.

new piperdam greenkeeping blog

2010-07-26T18:40:00.000+01:00