Thursday 31 December 2015

Christmas wishes to all members


This week we have tried our best to tidy a few areas on the golf course. All the areas where old turf had been stored have now been cleared & tidied. 

Going into the new year, we can just focus on laying out the remaining turf. This arrives in the first week of January. Any help would be greatly appreciated, particularly if we are hindered by any more wet weather.


The greens last week and this were sprayed with a preventative fungicide, whilst this week, they were sprayed with a dew dispersant. All of this spraying is carried out as part of our overall disease management strategy. 

Moisture that sits resides in the thatch layer contributes to fusarium outbreak, particularly when the weather is mild and affected species (annual meadow grass, bent grass) are present.

We want to give golfers the best playing surfaces possible and, hopefully, our greens have been well received this autumn and winter.


Ryan & James have made great work of presenting the bunkers that are still in play. Each one has been edged, raked, weeded and had the leaf debris removed. They look really good so well done to the lads!

Have a great Christmas and all the best for 2016. 

Next week, I will review 2015 in an extended blog!!


Review of 2015

As we approach 2016, I thought that I would do a quick review of 2015. It has been a fairly eventful year and it started in an eventful fashion with the EA flood defence work (quite topical, given the flooding that has hit the UK over the past 2 weeks):






Then we had a load of trees removed, (also free of charge!):


The winter work of 2014/15 started to look much improved:




Some bunkers changed dramatically!:




As did our 12th tee, among many:




We had chance to mole plough some fairways to improve drainage:


The putting green had a (sort of) makeover:


Agronomy testing.... :


...Justified, through scientific data, among several recommendations, the need for Vibro rollers: 


These helped to firm up and speed up our greens, and these looked pretty good for the summer:



Our fairways looked much sharper, thanks to a more modern, refined machine: 


We enjoyed some much needed help from James, our apprentice:


We even managed to mow out some walkways in between tees and fairways:


Alas, the Autumn renovations tore up the greens temporarily:


However, they stayed firm and dry as we hit an unusually wet winter:


Then we started this year's winter work:




We squeezed in a UK fungicide trial with Syngenta, providing us with protection against fusarium:


These are some of the highlights of 2015. 

Thank you to all the volunteer help this year. You all know who you are!

Thank you to the Board for sanctioning a lot of work and new machinery. Things are looking good for 2016.

Well done to Ryan & James for some excellent work this year.

We have a great team of staff. Step forward Freddy, Kim, Ann, Alex.

Have a happy new year and please continue to support our great golf club!


Friday 11 December 2015

Dear December, can we have some frost?

Well, the rain and mild weather has continued. Following 7.5 inches of rain in November, we've had well over an inch so far in December. Not only that but the temperatures have remained unseasonably mild. 

Some frost would help to stunt grass growth. Let's hope for some soon!!

The greens are looking in good shape. They have stood up well to all the rain and are fairly firm too. 

The reason that we have had very little disease (fusarium) is that the golf club have been involved in a UK fungicide trial.  I will reveal more about this in the New Year once the results have been published.

I have sprayed the greens monthly (September, October & November) as part of a preventative disease control strategy. The idea behind this is fairly straightforward; the turf is sprayed with 2 fungicides with different modes of action and the grass plant is protected before disease gets an opportunity to break out.

Hence why, despite the recent wet, mild weather (the perfect conditions for fusarium), our greens have been disease free. The feedback from members has been very positive and we are very thankful for the nice comments.



Both green side bunkers at the 3rd were turfed this week. Good progress was also made on the 1st tee too. Many thanks to John Newns, Phil Rowsell, Barry Barlow and Phil Lockett for their hard work. Great stuff fellas!



We hope to get the 11th and 13th tees turfed next week. Some dry weather would help us out with that but I live in hope for that rather than expectation at the moment!

 
Many thanks to the board of directors for sanctioning the purchase of a second greens mower that will be used to mow tees and surrounds as well as being useful backup in case of a breakdown with our other greens mower. We now have suitable mowing equipment to assist us in improving course presentation in 2016!

Have a great weekend (weather permitting) and enjoy your golf (weather permitting).

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...