Full greens

Both courses are now open on full greens.

We still have small pockets of snow about the courses. The greens have generally thawed themselves but we had to give a few greens on the front 9 a helping hand and shovel the snow off. All the greens are now clear but a couple are a bit wet that have just been cleared today. Now the greens are all clear they should start to dry and firm up. There will still be snow in some bunkers but the snow is generally shifting fast. We have managed to get some preparation done but this has been limited by snow/wet conditions. We will really get back on track next week we just ran out off time this week as we really only got back on the course on Thursday.

Open

The first and the back nine are now playable again there is still patchy snow but there is plenty grass showing. Hopefully another good couple of days thawing and the front 9 will be open as well. The wee piper is also fully open also the driving range is back open so ideal time to dust down the clubs!

Our maintenance/preparation has taken a bit of a knock for the start of the season but we will be working our hardest to get back on track over the next week or so.

Course is thawing

The course has had a good thaw the last few days and the snow has started to shift, we can now see more green than white! The back 9 is just about there and hopefully the front 9 will follow suit. There is a marked difference everyday. We have been out starting to shovel snow off the greens that are holding snow. I hope to have the wee piper open tomorrow (thurs) and we will carry on trying to get the big course ready for the weekend.

Greens maintenance

We sprayed all the greens in both courses with a tank mix of seaweed and transition (green pigment). This will help strengthen the greens and allow them to absorb more heat as the dark pigment will draw more heat.

We have also started to core the greens on the big course, we have so far got the putting green and the front 9 completed. We are using a mini tine again, this will ensure very little or no disruption but will remove organic matter and allow better air circulation. As it is a mini tine we are blowing the debris to the collar picking it up and then cutting in behind with a pedestrian mower to roll and tidy the surface. Weather permitting we will finish coring tomorrow (wed). This is stage one of my early season greens renovation, if we get a good run of weather I'm planning to use our graden machine to do 18 half greens on the big course. This will ensure that they are still playing well as we will keep the pin to the untouched side but will remove thatch and put dry killin sand straight back into the greens. This will help to firm the surfaces, help water pass through and give a more uniform grass species coverage.

First cut

The temperatures are starting to come up through the day, we have a ground frost in the morning but this is burning off as the day progresses. We still have a couple of small patches of snow in some bunkers and hollows. We have given the greens there first cut of the new year and we have been busy getting the bunkers back in play. Weather permitting we will core the greens next week with a small core to open them up and get some air into them.

Full course

The golf course is back open fully, we still have a few patches of snow on holes 2-8 but the holes are playable. The bunker are also being put back into play.

New bunker @ 15

We've started to put the new bunker in on the 15th. It's on the left hand side around 20 yards short of the old bunker, we are going to fill the old bunker in and put it back to approach. The new bunker will still give the green some protection but will allow golfers to land on the other side of it thus giving more chance of holding the green, as the approach into that green is notoriously difficult. We've made the bunker into a kidney shape. I've added photos but they may not be in order as when i upload them they can't get mixed up.