Friday 1 March 2024

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 needed respite. Clearly, that didn't happen and we've had to continue to take a humbling from the elements.

Unfortunately, the trolley bans have continued to be enforced, albeit begrudgingly. But, I think that most members (and golfers in general) have realised that ground conditions have been exceptional. It's never nice to have to resort to these measures but getting the course open has in itself been very challenging this winter.

I hope we are out of it. Certainly, the longer daylight hours offer increased potential for any sun to start evaporating surface water or stored soil water. Plus the March/April easterly winds will also assist in drying out the course.

As has been the case in recent years, we have again decided to carry out an early season greens renovation. When we think about the word renovation, the thought in our heads might turn to a new extension to a house or overhauling the garden with decking, summer house etc. So it's something of a misnomer. 

In reality, we have passed a scarifier through the greens in 2 directions, removing some unwanted, fibrous material at -8mm depth. Certainly what came out was some of what wasn't pulled out last Autumn. Remember, any scarifying work will only remove a low percentage of sub surface material. It's not possible to remove 100%, 80%, 50%, even 25% of material in one go. There wouldn't be a surface left if that was the objective. We still need to have a surface left for putting on. Hence, why these operations are often Spring and Autumn. We continue to chip away at a diminishing percentage of unwanted organic matter until we are where we want to be.




Now, last year, we closed up the scarifying grooves with a verticut pass, thereby removing shallower organic matter (referred to as seasonally produced material) and then a light top dressing of sand to restore the surface levels. Frustratingly, we did this work - successfully, and then got hit with some fusarium afterwards.

Fusarium can often hit greens after topdressing because the sand is generally a high pH material. Allied with morning dews and slower growth, disease can attack and start to scar the surface if conditions are conducive. With March and April generally getting colder in recent years, we don't want any disease to hit and then for the weather to go cold because that would then delay any growth and recovery.

So we have just passed over the scarifying grooves with a verti drain, as the photos show. The two rollers on the verti drain have nicely closed up those grooves and the surface will restore much more quickly. Now, we are in a good position for the greens as we approach Spring. There is now no urgency to get the first verticut and top dressing done. That can wait, if necessary, until the end of April/start of May. The greens are now in a very good position.

We've had to resort to some extreme methods to continue with our productivity. This week, myself and Ali took a strimmer each and hit a load of areas (trees, tee signs, ditches etc) as a way of getting something done. It has just been far too wet to get a rough mower out or get any meaningful work done mowing fairways. The downsides (black wheel marks, rutting) would outweigh the upsides (cut grass, definition) in the short term. As it stands, the course is not too bad. It looks green, there are very few black wheel marks and we've weathered (no pun intended!) the winter fairly well.

All the tee markers are prepped for the new season. Ali has done a fine job with them and they look good for another year.

Some approaches have been cut just to get some grass cut but the timing has had to be be good. We will get the surrounds cut once some of these slopes have dried out for a mower to get on them.


We've got a few path ends complete; at the bridge on the 5th and also by the bridge near the 7th green. They were both in need of attention and the turf is coming through nicely following a small scattering of fertiliser on these areas. Next week, we will dress out the cells in the matting with sand and open them up again.

Just an update on the planned drainage work - we have appointed a contractor and now we are waiting to get that work done. The 2nd hole is likely the first phase of that work with the fairway and carry being drained. The contractor has indicated that the ground needs to be free of standing water before work can proceed. That has not been common recently! Hence, it will be done, along with the 5th green area but it's simply a waiting game.

Before I sign off, we are saying goodbye to Ali Mackintosh this week. Ali has been with us since 2019 and he has been a very good servant to the greens team and golf club in that time. He has developed many additional skills but has also brought experience and prudence to the role - both of which are essential to getting good work done. He is returning to Birchwood Golf Club with a view to getting a supervisory role there in the near future. We wish him the very best for the future and thank him for his excellent contribution to the golf club.

All the best


Ben 

Wednesday 17 January 2024

"There's not a lot you can do when the weather is like this, is there ?"

Happy New Year everyone from a winter wonderland


A familiar comment we hear is that of the blog title; "there's not much you can do when it's like this, is there?". To which the reply is "true, however, we are doing X, Y and Z".

So what are those things? Let's look at a few projects and tasks that we have been doing recently.

Firstly, debris (branches, twigs etc) has obviously fallen a lot recently and so these areas are being tidied up. John Mercer and Tom Frame put in a shift on Tuesday morning, assisting with clearing up the area under the Willow trees, left of 5th fairway. Then they set to work with a fire, burning the brash from said work.


Related to this, we took the pole saw out on Monday and carried out some light pruning of branches on the large Oak tree directly behind the 8th green. As the photos attest, this tree creates a fair bit of shade in the middle to back of this green. This can contribute to poorer growth because with shade comes colder conditions, less sunlight, less density of growth and a weaker surface. 

So the object of this exercise was merely to create more gaps for sunlight to pass through to the green, breaking up those shadows. Remember this - once that Oak tree is in full leaf, those gaps of sunlight are reduced markedly, hence the need to act now. Often, greenkeepers will do jobs like this not because they dislike trees per se but more that small 'wins' like this can often contribute to better playing surfaces.

Also going on at the moment is refreshing the tee markers. These have been brought in, dried out in a warm office, sanded down and then repainted. It's nice to get a smooth finish and take time to get the detail right in the painting. They are now looking sharp and ready to go back out in Spring.

Machinery maintenance, often an overlooked part of our work, is given more attention in the winter months because it coincides with less daylight hours and more inclement weather. Dark mornings or days of heavy rain often enable this work to be done with suitable justification. 

We recently cut the entire golf course in the second full week of January. This presented the course better and restored some much needed definition for members. It actually looked more like a golf course at the end of that week. The downside was mowers (in particular the fairway mower) cutting grass but with worm casts visible. The effects of this lead to a dulling of the cutting cylinders. Having our own grinding equipment is a superb asset at this time of year. 

We power wash the units, strip them down and then mount them on the grinders to restore the sharp edges of the blades. This then enables us to get back out with those mowers and actually cut grass again rather than trying to cut grass with dull blades.

Another part of our machinery maintenance is parts replacement. As you can see from the photos below, these tees mower units have had new parts fitted that form part of the rear roller brushes. These brushes clean the rear rollers following mowing of tees, surrounds etc and help to keep those rollers collecting worm cast debris, grass etc which can then lead to roller bearing degradation. So we have replaced pulleys, belts, bearings, brush shafts etc in a quieter period to enable us to be ready when growth resumes in Spring.


I've also been in touch with an external contractor, organising quotes for drainage project work and a few other course improvements in the pipeline. The anticipation is that more settled weather and ground conditions will enable us to finally execute some of these planned improvements.

We'll get a winter fertiliser out on the greens once the snow and thaw occurs. This is more of a nutrient support product rather than a fertiliser designed to specifically push growth. We're replenishing the soil nutrient pool - often something that affects USGA greens in winter because the sandy soils leach nutrient more quickly than soil or clay based soils.

Granted, whilst it may appear that "there's not much we can do when it's like this" there are in fact tasks that are specifically planned or targeted around weather like this. 

Hopefully, that's a bit of insight into the perhaps unseen part of our work as we understand that not all golfers can be aware of every last thing we do.


All the best



Ben

Friday 5 January 2024

2023 in review

Happy New Year members


I write this blog as we've just passed through a miserable 6 months from July to December. It's been as demoralising for greenkeepers as it has for golfers. 

The disruption from the incessant rain has impacted the club's plans to carry out, ironically, much needed drainage work around the 5th green. This project has been planned for many months but the fact that this project work is at the farthest end of the golf course is even more frustrating. 

Even small breaks in the weather don't particularly help because getting all that way with any sort of digging or trenching equipment as well as with tractors and trailers.

For context, the rainfall data, which is recorded daily, is provided below:

Month                                Rainfall (mm)           Number of rain days 

Jan                                           107                                    16

Feb                                              7                                      4

Mar                                         107                                     19

Apr                                           46                                       8

May                                          25                                       5

Jun                                            40                                       7

July                                         179                                     20

Aug                                           88                                       9

Sep                                            78                                     10

Oct                                           144                                    16    

Nov                                          138                                    17

Dec                                           152                                    24

TOTAL                                   1111                                   155


It's been a bit disappointing to be honest and that's an understatement. Granted, there have been periods of dry weather in February, April, May and June so it's not been a complete washout. 

If you scroll back to my earlier blogs, you'll see a really wet July in 2016, similar to July 2023. I realise it's no consolation but these weather cycles do occur.

That said, if we look back over previous winters, as the photos below attest, we've had this type of weather before:


2021 (above)


2019 (above)


2017 (above)

I remember distinctly a few horrendous winters in 2006, 2009, 2010 when I worked in Nottinghamshire. Terribly wet but typically British too. Conversely, the summer of 1976 when I was born was a proper heatwave summer. Cycles of weather come and go.

Hopefully, as I write, the forecast shows a dry 2 weeks ahead of us so let's look forward to better days.

Autumn provided the annual leaf drop and it wrung itself out until the end of December.

Greens have held up well despite the wet weather. We've had to spike (verti drain), sarel roll (shallow surface spike) and apply a product called Rocastem, which opens up the pore spaces in the soil, to keep the greens as playable as possible for members. They've done very well and it's very satisfying to see how they have developed.

It's critical to keep overseeding with bentgrasses to ensure the greens are more resilient and more disease resistant. We wanted to head into 2024 with good grass coverage, density and minimal disease scarring and I think we've achieved that. Granted, 2 fungicides have been sprayed; in late September and then also at the start of November. The saving grace, if you could call it that, is that disease has struggled to proliferate is because of the consistent rain, ironically.

Fusarium is prevalent in high humidity, mild weather and with heavy morning dew. Disease spores spread over the dew so rainfall has been a buffer to that disease spread.


Tees were all fertilised, verti drained, divoted and cut prior to closing them for the winter. They are looking well so please refrain from playing off them until Spring.

Tee markers have been sanded and repainted.

Our machinery servicing is up to date. Oil & filter changes, done twice per year, have been done. All mower cylinders that needed re-grinding (sharpening) have all been completed. We continue to ensure that any worn parts are replaced. Currently, we are just finishing replacing bearings, belts and pulleys that drive the rear roller brush assemblies on our Tees 3250 mower.

It is pleasing that we continue to keep the machinery in good working order. Perhaps it is an area of our work that goes unnoticed by 95% of members but it is done mainly by us and it is important that the machinery is looked after. 25% of the greens' budget is allocated to machinery repair, servicing and parts replacement.

We managed, eventually, to restore some definition to the golf course by cutting tees, fairways and most rough in the week leading up to Christmas. It was long overdue but the ground conditions prior had prevented us from getting heavy machinery such as the Fairway and Rough mowers out. The weather since has been so mild and wet that growth continues. We'll hopefully get some more mowing done in the next few weeks with a nicer forecast.

The Putting Green (above), has had much work done to it over the years. We continue to integrate sandy soil into this green whenever we change the holes. I estimate that several hundred old hole positions have been filled up with sandy soil over the years. Now, that work is paying dividends. Rarely do we see standing water on this green anymore. 

Whilst it will never play like the golf course greens (due to being a clay push up green vs USGA greens on the gof course), we're still keen to get it as playable as possible during adverse weather. Hence, you will see regular instances like this where the plugs are ameliorated with the sandy soil. A couple of weeks later, they tend to settle in. The compromise in the short term is worth it for better long term results.

The directors are committed to drainage work to improve wet areas of the golf course. It will be carried out but when exactly that is, we just don't know. I know many golf clubs have had to postpone course project work in late 2023 as the weather has been just too much to get heavy plant equipment out.

In the meantime, best wishes for 2024.



Ben Allen


Friday 6 October 2023

Autumn Report 2023

Hello all


It's October 6th and we are forecast several days of 20 something degrees, sunshine and no rain, at least until the middle to back end of next week. Let's look forward to that as the previous 3 months have been wet. July posted the same amount of rainfall than January, February, May and June combined. August and September didn't exactly crack the flags. Not good.

We've now got Ali back after his operation so we can hopefully start to pick things up again and get some  more consistent productivity. With leaves falling and growth still good, we need to deal with multiple challenges as best as we can.

Greens maintenance week was still carried out. Thanks to Terry for providing some assistance clearing cores, matting topdressing sand in and a few other small tasks. 


Often, this work is carried out following our annual soil tests. The most problematic green is the 5th. In all honesty, the root zone is poor. Although it is sandy, it has a high percentage of fine sand particles. These are not conducive to good drainage. Hence the green is slow to dry down after rain and can hold excess moisture in the top part of the soil profile. So, we hollow cored this green to a 50mm depth and backfilled with our dressing sand - a coarse/medium mix. This should help to draw rain through a bit quicker. Following this, we also scarified it to pull a bit more thatchy material out. The soil test for this particular green showed no real organic matter issues; 2.2% is not an excess. It is simply the poor root zone.

The other greens all received a double scarify, double verticut, were overseeded and fertilised. We just need to remove the seasonally accumulated organic matter and this is always in the top 12mm (0.5 inches) as that is where the majority of growth and excess plant material is based. Overseeding is purely to keep pushing browntop and creeping bentgrass into the sward for a better quality surface. The lack of overly invasive work now means that the recovery from this work is fairly quick. 7-10 days and there is little evidence of any work being done.

The fairway scarifying was carried out, albeit in a mixed weather week. The rain did not help in the slightest. We removed a lot of dry, dead, matted material accumulated in the drought spell. Doing this annually has certainly helped with fairway drainage. If the soil has less thatch in the surface, less water will be held in the surface and so surface puddling in the wetter months will be less of an issue. Do the work, reap the benefits.

We have had a few issues, greens-wise and the first has been a bit of a pain since early July. This, as is visible in the photos, is a black algae-like growth in the surface. It is literally a millimetre thick and is a result of continuous rainfall, heavy morning dew, high humidity and very inconsistent sunlight/drying days. So the effect of greens surfaces sitting damp for long periods encourages the proliferation of it. It generally disappears with sun, warmth and wind. As there has been little of either to celebrate, here we are and because it is not a turf disease, a fungicide will not eradicate it. 



So in season, verticutting and light sand dressing help to overcome this because it is has this drying effect. Now, we cannot utilise these practices because we are beyond the period of recovery for such practices - the mornings are darker for longer, daylight hours are less and soil temperatures are cooling. Therefore aeration and a higher mowing height are more suitable.


Secondly, we've had Take All patch disease (above). It's a soil borne disease and mainly associated with high sand content root zones. So our greens tick that box. Often, the prompt for this disease is a reversion from one extremes of weather to the other ie dry to wet. So we had that between June and July onwards. Tick that box. It affects poa and bentgrass. Tick that box. It doesn't affect fescue. So we have recently spot seeded the affected areas with fescue in an attempt to mitigate this disease moving forward.


The other issue - and this is confined at the moment to the 5th green, is Fusarium (above). A disease that is an airborne spreading disease, it spreads on the morning dew and is extremely detrimental because it is so destructive to the surface, attacking in heavy dews, humid conditions and often greens lacking in wind circulation & sunlight. 

So we have the 5th green here in the photo. Notice the shaded area at the back of the green? Yep, that's where the Fusarium is most prominent. The correlation is obvious. Very little sunlight to evaporate the dew, a very humid and wind-free environment. Trees are nice to a degree but they are not helping here at all. This is where we are at with this green. Multiple issues and the associated problems with the soil and location. Unfortunately, the current range of fungicides is a lot less effective than what was previously available. So without any modicum of tree management in this area, disease will always be an issue on this green between September and April.

I believe the joining up of the 4th and 7th fairways has helped somewhat with the issues on the 4th hole. Balls exiting the golf course into the neighbouring houses was a huge problem. Now that we have grown the rough in down the left hand side of this hole and connected the 4th and 7th fairways, effectively losing the dividing rough, has done well.



Enjoy the autumn, we'll endeavour to keep on top of falling leaves as best we can!


Ben

Friday 2 June 2023

Spring/summmer report 2023

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




Wednesday 15 February 2023

Early spring work and reviewing completed winter projects

Hi there members


We're currently 2 weeks into February and it's been dry so far. No rain has fallen since the last week in January. Hence, conditions for golf are fairly decent, given it's still winter.

I just wanted to provide a round-up of what's been going on out on the golf course over the last 6-8 weeks. The weather has played ball so we've managed to get on with a whole range of tasks and project work. I'll try to be concise without getting too 'War & Peace' about things.


We put an access path in by Alex's new teaching studio. It's to enable us to access the putting green with machinery and to improve this area that looked a bit naff after the studio was completed. It took about 4 hours of work for me & Ali. Functional as well as more aesthetically pleasing. 



Ok, so 4th bunker right hand side. Was a bunker, now a surround. The reason for the mound is because there are 3 other mounds around the green and so this balances out the right/left or front/back of this green complex. 

We had to use around 40 tonnes of soil to create this contouring - remember, this was a bunker so that was filled in and then we raised the land in the middle of it. The mound provides a bit of interest for golfers and the run-off to the back right of the green will be extended into this area.


So imagine the (old) surround above being extended further into what was the bunker. You sort of get what we're trying to do. Only the added mound creates the required contouring and will give that element of balance that I mentioned earlier.



It's been dry enough to start harrowing the rough. Terry Broadhurst has volunteered over the last year or so and he started this work the other day. Basically, we harrow the rough to collect the twigs and branches. But the harrowing also acts to lightly groom/scarify the rough. Any dead material will be 'raked' out and this should stimulate a bit of growth after some rain and warmer weather. 

Other second order effects of this work will be to thin out some areas of rough, particularly as growth is strong during the warmer months and the rough gets quite lush, dense and tangly in areas. So it has multiple benefits. 

Because Terry has started to assist us so early, we can get a head start with work that we might otherwise not be able to do. There are many many things we would like to do on the golf course but 2 greens staff can only be in 2 places at any given time. So any additional assistance is welcome.

Talking of a head start, we recently threw around 15 tons of sand dressing on our approaches and some greens' surrounds. So let's dive into the whys. My aim, long term, is to extend the work we do on our greens into the approaches and surrounds. We're trying to achieve firm, dry surfaces in the green and approach complex. So why?

  • primarily for golf shot making - enabling more variety of shots around the green. That might be a putt or a wedge or a bump 'n' run off the surround or the approach.
  • to refine the playing surfaces. Sand dressing provides, long term, a drier more tighter surface to enable better mowing and a more refined surface. 
  • to discourage casting worms. Worms are more dominant in wet, mild weather. In poor quality farmland (that has been developed into golf course land), the worm casts are often claggy and sticky. They stick to machinery, golf trolly wheels and smear. This looks unsightly and causes surface capping. We won't get rid of the worms but what we can do is to try to get their worm casts to have a more sandy texture.
  • to improve surface levels which might be irregular due to ground that has settled and then provides an inconsistent surface for mowing. Sand fills in those gaps, hollows etc and raises the surface level. 
  • to encourage finer grasses to thrive in a sandier, drier soil profile. We want the bent and fescue grasses to increase in these areas so that the texture of the turf is finer. But this can only be achieved in a lighter, sandier soil (think: Links Golf)


The photos explain the process basically.

I'm not particularly concerned as to the timing of this topdressing work so long as we aren't doing it in the period between Autumn and Winter - that part of the year (November to end of January) is not close enough to the Spring whereby the grass will grow through in a shorter space of time. Moreover, the aim is to get plenty of sand out that, over time, we change the nature of the soil profile. In short, plenty of sand over several applications to develop a sandier surface. With the recent dry weather and firm ground conditions, it has been perfect and we are only 6-8 weeks away from expected Spring growth. 



Greens have just been sarel rolled. It provides a pin prick type hole in the surface. It enables the surface to become drier just before we scarify, verti-cut and topdress the greens in our now (early) Spring renovation work. Overall, the aim of the scarifying is to remove a bit more fibrous, thatchy material in the top 10-12mm of the soil profile. The verti-cutting will close up the scarifying grooves and will also rip out the surface accumulation of degraded leaf material over autumn/winter. The sand dressing will fill in the verti-cutting grooves and restore surface levels. Fertiliser will help to recover the surface afterward.

Other work includes some path end restoration (2nd, 4th, 8th tee area) that aims to mitigate wear from golfer & machine traffic as well as tee verti-draining, continued cylinder grinding (mower blade sharpening), machinery servicing & parts replacement and the renovation of the tee markers (cleaning, sanding, applications of paint) to freshen them up ready for the 2023 season.

Ok, I've failed spectacularly in my attempts to avoid a 'War & Peace' literary epic. Note to self - be more concise next time.

All the best and another update soon-ish.


Ben







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...