Friday 24 July 2015

All ready for Open Weekend


This week we have continued our efforts to prepare the golf course for Open Weekend. This is an event to try to attract families to the golf club with a view to making our golf facility accessie for those who are new to the game.

Hopefully, Open Weekend will be a great success and we wish everybody an enjoyable time.

We sprayed the greens this week with some Seaweed and Liquid fertiliser. This should keep the greens ticking along nicely without encouraging too much growth. At the moment, we are just trying to maintain a consistent surface for golfers to putt on. 

The feedback has been very positive and we thank members and visitors for the very kind comments.


We had a great turnout today from 6 members who spent half a day with a wood shredder in the woodland between 4 and 7. Many thanks to John Newns, Wally Wiley, Ray Barnes, Barry Barlow, Gilbert Harding and Phil Lockett. This area looks fantastic now and is really developing as an area of well managed woodland.


Finally, we have continued mowing out some more walkways that link the teeing areas with the fairways. We are mowing them at the same height as our fairways (10mm) through the carry. They are developing well and members comments have been very positive.


 Have a great weekend and enjoy your golf!

Friday 10 July 2015

Upping the presentation


This week, we have worked hard to keep upping the standards of presentation. It has been a very productive week and both Ryan & James have put in a terrific shift.

Despite having tees and greens units away for mid season re-grinding, we have managed to present the course particularly well.

All greens were sarel rolled to keep the surfaces open and dry following 40mm of rain for the first week of July. We also micro tined greens 1, 2, 3, 8 and 9 plus we have verti cut most of the greens to thin out the surfaces. Next week, we will finish the micro tining, verti cutting and then apply a light top dressing to firm up the surfaces.

Greens growth is still steady despite the last fertiliser application being done in mid May. The application of a monthly growth regulator has helped reduced vertical growth whilst still maintaining good surface density and root growth.


The 4th and 12th tees have been topdressed again to firm and level the surfaces. These new tees are looking really tight and firm now. The other new tees will also be topdressed soon.

Our surrounds continue to look nice and sharp. Ryan is doing a great job of striping them up and from a playability standpoint, they are excellent. 

Cheshire Turf Machinery delivered the grass boxes for our new fairway mower this week. Boxing off clippings and cross cutting the fairways at 11mm has really had shown a superb improvement in both their presentation and playability.


We are continuing our work at the woodland between 4&7. Thanks to Ray Barnes, Barry Barlow and John Newns for bringing several trailer loads of logs back to the yard. Well done also to James, who has worked tremendously with the strimmer blade to eliminate the nettles, brambles and ash seedlings from this woodland floor. It is really starting to open up now and it looks tremendous.



We have received more positive feedback from members and visitors regarding the golf course. Let's hope for more visiting golfers and potential new members as we look forward to the week of the Open Championship from St Andrews. 

Have a great weekend and enjoy your golf!

Friday 3 July 2015

Continued improvements


Two weeks ago, we engaged Marcus Gilbert to run the Air2G2 machine across all the greens. This machine injects air at high pressure into the subsoil. The aim of this work is to de compact any hard soil and the air injection fractures the soil, creating fissures through which grass roots can grow deeper and water can drain.

The real positive of this machine is that it has no impact on playability and putting can commence immediately following this operation. In conjunction with our verti drain, the soil profile will drain better and allow improved playability of our greens, particularly following heavy rain.


We have worked on the 7th carry this week, mowing the grass down to a manageable height and blowing the clippings into the woodland, which will help us to slow down growth in this area. 

Returning grass clippings to this area only serves to feed the soil which is not what we want from an area that grows so prolifically.


You will have noticed that the 3rd green has been hit by localised dry patch following the recent hot spell. 

Over the last week, we have micro tined all greens and sprayed a wetting agent to assist the greens with more effective water retention during the summer. The dry patches have been hand watered to target these more accurately than the irrigation system is able. The 3rd green has also been sprayed with some liquid seaweed that should help counter against the stresses of this hot, dry weather.


Conversely, the 6th green has been hit by some Fusarium this week which is attributable to some mild, humid and wet weather, heavy morning dews, susceptible grass species (poa annua), thatch and lack of air flow.

Interestingly, the 6th green is the last green to get exposure to the sun as the woodland behind this green shades out the morning sun. Therefore, the thinning out of the woodland between 4, 6 and 7 is important so that the tees and greens in this area can be exposed to more sunlight and air flow.




We took delivery of our Toro 5510 fairway mower this week. Cheshire Turf Machinery supplied this ex-demo machine. The quality of cut and lower mowing height (11mm) has already produced tighter, cleaner and more consistent fairway lies. We thank the Board of Directors for sanctioning this purchase and feedback regarding the fairways had already been very positive!

Well done to Ryan and James who continue to produce some stunning greenkeeping work. Excellent stuff guys!

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...