We have accomplished quite a lot this week and we are pleased with how the course is progressing, although we would prefer the weather to be warmer for us.
We have brought the height of cut down to 5.5mm for greens to help tighten them up a bit as April approaches. Although some scars prevail from the winter Fusarium, they will soon fill in with drier, warmer weather, a light topdressing and a scheduled spring feed.
All greens and tees have been verti drained to 6" depth this week. The verti draining also assisted for spraying 4 greens that were being pecked by birds searching for leather jacket grubs. Spraying the insecticide followed by the rainfall ensured that the product was able to reach the grubs.
Our regular 3-4 weekly verti draining of the greens has really paid off. Rooting is improving really well and the greens have stood up very well to winter play.
We also took the opportunity to hollow core the 7th green whilst it is still out of play. We will topdress this (as well as the other greens) next week. Thus in May when our Spring Maintenance week is scheduled, the 7th green will not need to be hollow cored.
Also this week, all tees have been cut to 10mm and we have brought several back into play. Some winter mats remain but we will phase then out gradually.
We managed to get a fair amount of rough cut too in order to stay on top of growth and to keep it looking tidy.
A big thanks this week to Jon Lyons who willingly volunteered to help Ryan and I. Jon speculatively sent in a letter enquiring about greenkeeping work. In the 3 days he was with us, he was hard working and conscientious and was a great help.
We managed to lay some remaining turf in a couple more areas and all the turf that was laid in house (following our winter project work) has been cut this week.
On order, we have 200 gorse plants that we will scatter around the golf course to bring some spring colour to various areas.
The bunkers that require sand will be completed very soon and we hope to get the path between the 4th green and 5th tee completed in the next 2 weeks.
Things are now nicely placed for the lead up to Captain's Drive In.
Have a great weekend and enjoy your golf!
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