Hi everyone
Hopefully, you are all managing to get out frequently and play some golf in some glorious, settled weather. It's perfect for golf and conditions should promote long driving, even for those who don't consider themselves big hitters. Make the most of it as the British weather can flip on a coin as it invariably does.
For greens' staff, it's a time of managing water over the areas that we are able to irrigate. Predominantly, we are talking greens and tees. So expect to see us pulling a hose around. It's Groundhog Day at the moment for sure.
What we are currently experiencing is just one of those pesky dry spells - not drought, at least not yet but a period extending back to the first week of May when we last had meaningful rain. Generally in these conditions, the turf enters this stage of semi-dormancy. There is a little bit of soil moisture remaining but not a lot. So the growth looks a little bit patchy and inconsistent. For many of these areas (tees, fairways, greens, approaches, surrounds, even rough), the soil nutrition is actually good. Fertiliser is applied to the areas that demand the most growth and recovery; greens, tees, approaches, surrounds. But when there is insufficient moisture in the soil, the grass cannot utilise that nutrition because it has to have sufficient soil moisture to keep it alive and healthy. Hence the cessation or slowdown in growth.
Greens-wise, we have a different animal if you will. Obviously, these areas where golfers putt are intended to be short, firm and with uniformity to encourage consistent ball roll. But these greens are based upon a USGA green construction. To the layperson, that is a high sand content golf green. Essentially, a green that drains well and is playable year round. That said, they are extremely labour intensive to manage. With 2 full time staff, they consume a disproportionate amount of labour hours, relative to a regular working week.
USGA greens are notorious for being inert. They don't retain nutrients well and they definitely don't retain water well. So lots of supplemental irrigation is required in dry spells. That combines irrigation with additional hand watering to target any localised dry spots.
We have a soil moisture meter that we use as a tool to determine the soil moisture content as a percentage. We generally aim for 20-30% as a target range but we have to take into account the forecast and weather conditions. Sand based greens can quickly dry out, particularly if sun and wind are thrown into the mix. So it's a balancing act and with these weather conditions, overnight irrigation is generally insufficient to resolve any dryness. You're just misting the green effectively - a cooling effect.
We also spray with a wetting agent. These are applied to the green surface and then irrigated into the soil profile. They are designed to help water to absorb better into the soil profile, to get water to be held more effectively by the soil particles, to create better moisture uniformity across the green and to retain water for longer. They don't create water. So they aren't this magical silver bullet that solves the problem. Wetting agents require irrigation or rainfall for them to work effectively - particularly for a sand based green.
The other issue we have right now is that we are managing a mixed grass sward composition; bentgrass and poa. The former is a dream; the Rolls Royce. It retains a medium/dark green colour even in drought, requires low nutrient and water, is disease resistant and makes for a stunning green surface. It is a perennial and survives year after year. It has more of a broader leaf.
The latter is a headache. It is a bit like becoming a new parent to a baby. Only that baby never matures. In year 2, you still have a baby so you're in this constant state of stress - never mind the baby! It's the Peter Pan of grasses. Furthermore, it needs constant feeding, constant watering, fungicide, refining - and eventually it will die. It is classed as an annual (poa annua) and for those of you who grow bedding plants, you know that for a season, it's nice but then you buy more pansies or snapdragons the next year. Poa is, paradoxically, the great survivor. It does this by producing thousands of seeds. At this time of year, the greens just look white with all the seedbeds.
So we have this issue where golfers can often complain about surface bobbles when putting. With a bentgrass green, the ball rolls nicely over the leaf tips. In a poa/bentgrass green, the poa seedheads cause ball roll deviation. It seeds in Spring ready to die in the Summer, establish new growth in Autumn and mature over Winter. Repeat for the next year. So we know it will always die off and the plan each year is to overseed all the greens in Autumn with bentgrass seed. So over time, the bentgrass content of each green increases. But it tends to be incremental. So a conversion to predominantly bentgrass takes time. Long term, if we succeed in a grass conversion to a high percentage bent grass composition, they'll be easier and a lot cheaper to manage.
Managing both together is the challenge. Generally, what you do is provide adequate nutrition and water for growth. The mowing brings the bentgrass down to the poa. The topdressing brings the surface levels up to the bentgrass. Thereafter you have more uniformity. So it's a lot of work but that's just what we have to do to provide good greens for our members and visitors.
As for tees, the challenge is quite tough. They don't have automatic irrigation so we have to hand water them in dry periods. Plus, most of the tees are also a high sand content construction. Again, water retention is the issue. Remember at the weekend, they're not getting any water. So if the weather is hot and dry, they're drying out. They have also been sprayed with a wetting agent to help moisture retention.
Elsewhere, we've been slowly working on approaches and surrounds to try to extend those green-type conditions out further, to try to provide increased shot making for a range of golfer abilities. Hence more topdressing to firm up these areas and create a smoother, firmer surface. That is the aim and it's a slow process but these areas are all slowly improving.
As we head into the next few weeks, machinery will be serviced. Oil and filters will be replaced to keep the machines ticking over. Whilst they are old, we like to think that we can keep the engines in fairly decent condition provided they are looked after. Just like we don't neglect our cars, we shouldn't neglect golf course machinery.
We.ve recently harrowed the fairways too. The principle is to stand up any grasses that are laid flat as a result of mowing. They are stood up and cut better. The harrowing also pulls out any matted surface debris and acts to thin out the surface. A bit like a light scarification. This is part of the refining of the fairway surfaces to encourage more finer grass dominated fairways.
Hopefully this has provided you all with a bit more information and an idea of the type of work that is involved in course maintenance during these Spring & Summer months.
Do talk to us if you would like. We are happy to talk to members about the golf course at any time.
Just a brief mention. We've noticed a number of golfers recently taking golf trolleys across greens and tees. The issue here is twofold; firstly, etiquette and secondly, in dry, hot weather that is common at the moment, they can leave wheel marks which can then burn off in the sun. I really don't think it is appropriate for any golfers to be pulling trolleys across tees or greens. It's hardly an arduous walk around a 9 hole golf course and golfers aren't exactly ascending Everest with a golf bag.
Many thanks and enjoy your golf.
Ben Allen
