Saturday 18 June 2016

Captain's Day


Another week, another deluge of rain. June is not the dry, summer like month we had wished for !

However, we have done our best in trying conditions to get the golf course looking right for Captain, David McIntyre and all the other competitors.


Fairways have been double cut, as have tees and approaches. Rough has all been cut too. The golf course is as good as 2 people can present it!
 

All greens have been double groomed to thin out the surface and help with speed - although the weather chucked a spanner in the works and the rain has surely slowed down the greens slightly.

We also had an attack of fusarium starting last weekend. It is usually brought on with wet, mild, humid weather conditions and attacks the meadow grass because it is so prone to disease.



Given that the weather was cooling during the week and just getting wetter, I applied a fungicide for disease control and I also mixed some liquid iron in the tank too. This gave the greens a little colour heading into the weekend.


We have done what we can to clear some logs and brash following the tree felling. As time is limited, we will do what we can each week to clear the areas closest to play.


Striking the balance between mowing, spraying, bunker raking, servicing machinery, topdressing etc between 2 staff is the trick. Unfortunately, all of this is not possible every week because there is just not the time available.

Next week, we would like a dry week. I hope Mother Nature is listening. Whether she delivers is another story!

Have a great weekend and enjoy your golf!

Sunday 12 June 2016

3 become 2 - but onwards we go!

This week, Ryan Leicester departed the greens team for a new challenge at Dunham Forest Golf Club. The club wish him well in his new position.


We started the week with some micro tining (aeration) to the greens. 

This was to assist an application of wetting agent to move more easily into the greens soil profile that assists with retention of moisture during dry, hot weather. 

We finished the week with heavy rain which caused heavy puddling on some fairways. 24mm fell on Thursday night. Talk about a quick change of fortunes!!



However, these affected areas subsided quickly over 24 hours. Unfortunately, the wet mild weather has now encouraged fusarium back to the greens. Therefore, at the next dry day, I will need to spray a fungicide to deal with this.

We tried as much as we could to get the course prepared for Club Championship weekend. Most areas of the golf course were cut and we were pleased with our efforts given that we became a team of 2 on Thursday.



The challenge we face now is meeting previous expectations with 1/3 less staff - 33% less productivity in effect.

However, the board are now addressing this and in the coming weeks, we hope to resolve this and so we just ask for a little patience if it seems that tasks that were completed often are done less often. This is only a temporary thing and we should get back on top of these areas as soon as possible.


Also this week, we had some more tree felling done on the golf course. Again, this was carried out at no cost to the golf club. More areas on the course are becoming less overcrowded with trees which will provide easier shot recovery, less leaves to collect in Autumn and less strimming to do. All positives for us.

Have a great weekend and enjoy your golf!

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