Friday 19 September 2014

Renovation week (part 2)

This week, we finished our autumn aeration and topdressing work on greens 3, 5, 8 and the chipping green. These greens were solid tined to 3 inches and the holes were filled with sand. This will improve surface drainage, promote rooting and enable better air exchange as a result of having more sand in the soil profile.



Although these greens won't putt that great, they (alongside the greens scarified last week) have been fertilised to enable recovery. Rolling and mowing next week should help to restore these greens to a truer rolling surface.

The greens scarified last week are now recovering quite well and they too should be putting better by next week once the fertiliser has kicked in.



The overall aim is that the greens will be nice and firm as we head into Autumn. In other news, the Board of directors have sanctioned the purchase of a Verti Drain that will enable us to keep a range of playing surfaces firmer, drier and more free draining throughout the year.

This is fantastic news and it demonstrates a really proactive and progressive approach by the club.

Also, we should also be extremely grateful to Graham Barber who has managed to restore a pedestrian verti cutter back to working order. When it was passed to Graham, the machine wouldn't even start. Thanks to his expertise and diligence, the club can now boast another working machine. Many thanks Mr Vice!

Hopefully, the dry weather that we are currently enjoying will remain as long as possible so that members can enjoy the benefits of a dry golf course.

Have a great weekend and enjoy your golf!

Thursday 11 September 2014

Renovation week (part 1)

Wowzers! What a week we've had. It has been absolutely terrific, weather wise although the mornings have been cool and dews have been very heavy. Last week, we were forced to spray a fungicide to check some Fusarium activity which is often a recurring theme at this time of year.

We also started with our autumn greens renovation this week. Greens 1, 2, 4, 6, 7, 9 and Putting Green were all scarified with the Graden.


This pedestrian operated scarifier removes thatch from the surface to varying depths (we scarified to 15mm depth) and the debris is collected before we blow any remaining debris off the green. Then the final phase is to topdress sand into the grooves and brush it in.




The operation has been a great success and should ensure that the greens surfaces are firm and smooth heading into late autumn. We anticipate good recovery with the application of a very light 4:0:7 fertiliser which will give the plant just enough Nitrogen to recover from the scarifying.

Otherwise, it has been a great week for course conditioning and we hope that the course is now playing drier and firmer than in August.

Next week, we will solid tine & topdress greens. 3, 5 and 8 which will complete the autumn renovation program.

Have a great weekend and enjoy your golf!

Early season greens renovations

Hello (patient) members Well, turn of the new year, we greenkeepers were hoping that the weather would turn a corner and provide some much n...