Friday 30 January 2015

EA flood defence work - new 8th tee!


Great progress has been made by Lakeland Earthworks this week, bearing in mind that the weather has been quite trying. The 8th tee has been shaped, levelled and capped with rootzone. 

All that remains is for it to be turfed and to have an artificial grass mat installed into the back of the tee. By early February, this should look finished and we will then keep our fingers crossed for some favourable weather so that the new turf can establish before April.



This tee is the fifth new tee that has been constructed this winter as part of our golf course master plan. Very soon, the new 4th tee will start to be constructed and that will be the sixth and last new tee to be constructed as part of the 2014/15 course improvements. Fantastic!

Reshaping 1st fairway bunker


As part of our golf course master plan, the greens committee decided that we should undertake the restoration of a bunker in-house. This would form part of some work involving the hire of a mini digger. 

So, the decision was made to renovate the 1st fairway bunker. Its old shape (see photo above) was not very appealing, the back edge was raised and so not conducive to accepting errant shots, the sand was very contaminated and the front edge required a more concave face.


The first task was to strip the turf in order to remove the raised back edge. We then proceeded to remove the topsoil until we found the correct level.



Having done this, the next step was to install shuttering around what would become the new edge of the bunker. Thus, we have not only re shaped the bunker but we have made it smaller too.



It has been a great little 3 day project for myself, Ryan and Phil Lockett. Although we have yet to turf this area, we hope to finish this next week once the snow has melted. We will then install bunker sand in March in preparation for the new season.

This is the third bunker we have completed this winter as part of the golf course master plan. We are all very pleased with the 2014/15 course improvements. A lot of progress has been made on the course this winter  and we look forward to your feedback!

Start of EA flood defence work


This week has seen the start of the flood defence work in the area between the 4th and 7th holes. 

The Environment Agency's contractor, VBA, have sub contracted all golf course earthworks to Lakeland, who recently carried out the shaping of our new tees and bunkering. 

We are very pleased that Lakeland are carrying out this work for us. It is reassurance for the golf club that the work will be undertaken by a recognised and reputable golf course construction company.

Lakeland have already started work on the new 8th tee. Progress has been steady but we are confident that once this new tee has been finished, progress with the main flood defence bunding will be very straightforward.


Admittedly, these photos do not show this area of the golf course in its best light. But they will be good to reflect upon once the work has been completed. If you see Wayne & Jamie from Lakeland on site, please be sure to talk to them if the opportunity allows.


Friday 9 January 2015

Turfing work and mole draining

This week, we've had the opportunity to finish our turfing work at the 4th and 9th.  

Firstly, a massive thank you to Dave Asprey for volunteering to assist Ryan and I. Dave arrived at the golf club at 7:15am on Thursday to collect some logs with a friend of his. Rather than go home, Dave offered to stay and help us out. Apologies Yvonne if Dave arrived home with a few aches!!


So, we managed to turf the 9th tee and finish the area by the path to the left of the 4th green. These areas that we have finished represent the end of our course improvement work in association with the course master plan and Lakeland Earthworks. 


Also this week, we have started some drainage work with a mole drainer that the club recently purchased. 


Although this equipment does not represent the latest in golf course drainage technology, it is a cost effective method of improving surface water drainage in clay soil. Mole ploughing is also effective on flat sites like ours. The idea is that a 'mole run' is created in the soil, providing a continuous gap for the movement of water. 

The soil is also lightly fractured and decompacted too in the process. We intend to run continuous passes to ditches and ponds on the golf course with a slight gradient to encourage water movement in the direction of these ditches and ponds.


Although a few wheel marks are evident after this work has been done, they will soon dry and hopefully this work will, when done consistently over the coming years, assist in the drainage of the wetter areas on the golf course.

Have a great weekend and enjoy your golf!

Developing the 4th greenside bunker complex

Below, I've included a photographic timeline of the 4th to demonstrate the progress and development of this area.









Although we still need to complete the bunker drainage, install the sand and finish the path, we hope you'll agree that this greenside bunker complex has developed really well. 

I'll update this post once the above works have been completed.

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...