Early Autumn report

Hello members (including more new ones - welcome!)

Well, it's been another strange sort of year. We've just finished the second week of September and all of us greens' staff have been wearing bobble hats 10th-13th September. Temperatures have cooled right down and we've had some cool winds too. That said, it's still better than this time last year when we'd had pretty miserable (wet) July, August and Septembers. So I guess we'll take it !

Last week was the planned greens renovation week and it's nice to say that it went very well. The results 7-10 days post work are excellent. 

To recap, this was the schedule of events:

• Monday 2nd September:

1. Isolated hollow coring on greens 1, 3, 7 and 9 to address low spots where rainfall can gather and where golfers generally walk on/off ie more compacted areas
2. Top dress holes with clean top dressing sand and dragmat into holes

• Tuesday 3rd September:

1. Greens cut with brush
2. Scarifying x1 direction to -10mm depth
3. Verticut x2 directions to -3mm depth
4. Blow off debris 
5. Overseed greens x3 directions with creeping bent/browntop bent seed
6. Topdress greens with light top dressing
7. Dragmat dressing 
8. Vibro roll greens to firm and smooth surfaces

• Wednesday 4th September:

1. Application of fertiliser to promote recovery and provide nutrition for early Autumn

By the weekend of 7th/8th September, it wasn't overly apparent to most golfers that this level of work had been carried out. This is the intention ! We now do a lot less work to these greens with each passing year because the greens are very stable and the soil profiles are very good. Hence recovery after such work is very quick. It's a Win/Win scenario

A couple of weeks ago at a weekend, there was a hydraulic oil leak on the 5th green. It is the first such instance that I can remember in 10 years and unfortunately, if you work in this industry for long enough, the odds dictate that this will happen at a certain point in time

We have contacted our regular turf supplier and whilst we can order the turf, the cost to deliver just a few rolls of turf is significant because the courier still has to deliver them on a pallet. So the delivery costs and costs for the turf elevate the actual unit cost per roll of turf exponentially

What I intend to do is go and collect the required rolls and repair this very small area within the next week or two. We've just had to get greens renovation week out of the way and next week's fairway verti-cutting also. Following that, we will have much more flexibility to execute this repair. Please bear with us until then

The summer drainage work has now consolidated and recovered very well. Granted, some of the trenches - particularly around the 5th green complex, are still marginally exposed. However, that is not the worst thing for that area of the course as it has traditionally been a wetter area. With that in mind, we will allow the grass surrounding these trenches to 'grow over'. In time, they will be less visible but still perform their role. It has gone well and the members that I've talked to about it have all commented on the clean, tidy finish and lack of impact on the course; no wheel marks, no damage and very little interruption to golf either

As we head into Autumn, leaves are starting to fall so we'll be busy with that over the next 8-12 weeks. Some have already fallen with the strong winds of the last 2-3 weeks

The golf course has been very popular again this year with plenty of new members and many visitors. It's great to see and the golf club has performed very well, financially, again. This all contributes to improving the facility with re-investment and ultimately, this is what we aim to do each year

There has been some excellent work carried out by volunteers this summer; Tom Frame, John Newns, John Mercer, Pete Bibby, George Ashurst and Alan Ritchie have all attended on Tuesdays or Thursdays. We've also had Mike Smith and Bob Sabberton clearing around the 9th pond. Many thanks fellas. We appreciate anything that is offered and understand that volunteering is not expected. But to have these chaps strimming, hedge cutting etc is always welcome

I hope the weather behaves itself heading into Autumn and that plenty of golf can be enjoyed

Enjoy your golf

Ben Allen