Start of winter work

With the colder weather and frost arriving the growth of the grass has started to slow right down. This has obviously resulted in cutting operations being cut back dramatically with the greens being cut only once per week currently at a slightly higher height of 4.25mm. Fairway, rough, tees and approach  cutting has also been cut right back. 

Alot of the work carried out over the past few weeks has involved blowing and clearing leaves and pine needles as the trees start to shed. This is an endless and very time consuming operation at this time of year and is almost impossible to keep on top of especially in windy conditions.

We have made a start to some of the winter projects noticeably the green side bunker at the 10th and also the green side bunker at the 2nd. 

The bunker at the 10th has had all of the old sand (white) dug out and replaced with new sand (brown) as the old sand was proving troublesome. We have also installed some new steps further up the bunker as requested at the recent members night. This will make access to the bunker a lot easier and safer. Pictures of various stages of the work will be included in this update. Also a section of turf has been replaced that had been worn out while accessing the bunker. Again the steps, if used appropriately, will prevent this happening again. 

The bunker at the second has also been started and will be ongoing in the coming weeks. There was problems with drainage and wear and tear in this bunker . New drainage will be installed and connected to existing drains and the bunker will also be reshaped as the narrow contours where also causing problems with shaping the sand to allow a fairer shot. There is also some pictures included of this task.

There is also work ongoing with installation of new practice mats at various distances on the practice range. 

Over the coming weeks/months there will be some more winter projects taking place and they will be included in future blogs. Pictures of various stages of the operations will be included to help show progression. 

As of yet the winter greens haven't been played on although they have continued to be cut weekly to ensure they are ready when required. These may also be used temporarily when jobs are being undertaking on or around the summer greens. 

October-end of season

    As we come to the end of what has been a successful and reasonably dry summer season we enter the winter months and a change in tasks carried out on the golf course. With most weeks consisting of the same work over the summer months the winter period will give us a chance to post some different things on the blog that may be of more interest. Some construction and maintenance operations will take place and images and a description of what has been done will be posted on the blog. Here is an update of some operations recently carried out.

Greens

• double scarified to a depth of 6mm
• autumn fertiliser 8.0.16 terralift applied @ 30gm2
• fungicide applied twice along with a wetting agent and phosphite

Hollow coring of greens will begin on Monday 7th October.

Tees & Approaches

• hollow cored and cleared
• double scarified at 6mm
• top dressed and over seeded
• tees fertilised 13.4.20 everris @30gm2
• approaches fertilised 6.5.10 everris @30gm2

General cutting of all areas has been ongoing and will continue until growth stops.
Height of cut has been raised on greens to 3.75mm.
A new practice net has been installed replacing the old worn one beside the clubhouse.
Frames have been built for new mats to be installed on the practice range. these mats will be of much higher quality than the previous mats.
All tees and fairways have been divoteed.
Work has started on cutting back some of the long areas of rough including the 5th, 6th and 15th.
Winter greens will be marked out and prepared in the coming weeks. These will be cut, spiked and top dressed to try and produce the best surface possible.

Greens update

Greens- watered as and when required during prolonged dry spells.

Verti-cut in two directions.

Top dressed and dragmatted/brushed in.

Fungicide and iron applied to greens.

Following week liquid fertiliser, wetting agent and micro nutrients applied.

Greens rolled regularly to maintain a speed of 9-9.5 feet on the stimp.

Bunker banks fly mowed and some faces sprayed with weed killer.

Tee banks cut using flymo's and sidewinder machine.

All tees divoted regularly and some of the bad fairways also done.

Tees sprayed with a liquid fertiliser and primo maxx which helps slows down the growth.

Some areas on the fairways and in the semi-rough sprayed with a selective weed killer.

Strimming carried out on various trees in semi-rough areas throughout the course.

Continued cutting daily of all greens, approaches, tees, fairways and semi-rough areas.

Irrigation boxes repaired/replaced at the 7th, 14th and 16th.

Course update

With the last few weeks being dryer and warmer the course has finally come to life! We are now getting the growth we have been waiting on. This has meant the last few weeks cutting procedures have increased hugely and are making up most of our day.

The fairways were fertilised with a 11-22-22 fertiliser 3 weeks ago and this has improved the growth, colour and density of the surface.

All greens were sprayed with a mixture including 2 litres of phosphite, 10 litres of go green, 10 litres of Scott's fertiliser, 2 litres of insecticide and 2 litres of dye. The 10th and 12th greens also had a 11-1-1 granular fertiliser applied. With a combination of this work, top dressing  and the warmer weather the greens have improved dramatically.

Three applications of top dressing have been applied to the greens over the last 3 weeks which has levelled off the surface and firmed it up. There may be other applications of top dressing through out as required. 

All tee banks and bunkers have beenfly mowed  regularly and this will be ongoing through out the growing season.

Heights of cut- greens 3.25mm

Tees/approaches 7mm

Fairways 10mm

Semi-rough/bankings 38mm

Fairway mowing and semi-rough mowing have also been ongoing. Fairways will usually be cut twice a week and occasionally more depending on growth. Semi-rough will be cut once or twice a week.

With the dryer weather we have also been watering selected areas that dry out quicker, most notably the 10th green. This will be ongoing as and when required through out the summer.

Hopefully the better weather continues and the course will continue to improve throughout the season. We are glad to see a big difference in the course and playing surfaces with the last 2 years being particularly wet!

Short update

As we approach the summer months we are starting to get into a more settled routine. As the temperature increases and we start to get more growth most of our time will be spent cutting. On top of cutting anything different or any changes will be included on these weekly updates.

Another top-dressing was applied to all greens and approaches and we are now seeing the benefits with greens becoming a lot firmer and smoother. This will continue for the next few weeks.

All greens aerated with the planet-air machine which has knife-like blades that cut slits in the green. This allows air into the soil, relieves compaction and helps with root growth. The great benefit with this machine is that after the operation is complete it is almost unnoticeable and has very little effect, if any on the roll of the ball. Pictures included.

On top of this process the 14th green has been hollow cored and the holes filled with kiln dried sand. With conditions improving and growth starting recovery time will be significantly quicker than usual. This will make a big difference to what has proved to be a troublesome green.

Included in the pictures is a picture of the 14th green getting brushed. This brush was borrowed from Gleneagles and is highly effective at brushing top-dressing into the surface. This was used on all greens after top dressing. We are fortunate to have a good working relationship with the greens staff at Gleneagles who also have occasional use of some of our equipment.

A major problem we have had over the last few months and has been getting progressively worse is un-repaired pitch marks on the greens. As the greens become firmer it is vital to repair pitch marks straight away as recovery time is significantly decreased the sooner they are fixed. Greenstaff repair pitch marks every morning but it is now becoming a lengthy process. 46 were repaired on one green after a medal not so long ago and this is totally unacceptable. There is a picture included that explains a little more and shows the best way to repair pitch marks.

Update

General cutting of fairways, tees, approaches and greens which will continue daily throughout the summer. Height of cut on greens mower reduced to 4mm this week. This will drop again in the coming weeks.

Greens and and approaches fertilised at beginning of week and we are starting to see the benefits of this now with a healthier greener sward and some growth.

Greens rolled three times over the course of the week to improve putting surface.

Continued with bunker edging. Pictures show the improvement on the sleeper bunker at 10. All bunkers will be completed shortly.

General course set-up everyday, bunkers raked, tees markers moved, debris removed from greens/tees and holes changed 3 times.

New approaches at 7th and 11th cut and rolled. Both are knitting in well and will be top dressed and brushed as soon as is possible. These areas will be back in play as soon as they are ready, hopefully In the next few weeks.

After strong winds last week some of the newly planted trees had to be straightened and re-staked.

Trolley routes- white arrows painted around approaches are trolley routes and should be followed as much as possible. There have been a lot of trolley marks very close to the edges of greens and in some cases even on the greens, this is unacceptable. In one of the pictures u can see where trolleys have created scorch marks after been taken close to or on greens immediately after fertilising!

Job updates

Top dress all greens with light dressing and drag mat in. This will be done more over the coming weeks to help firm up and level out the greens.

Cut all longer fairways at height of 11mm. This was there first cut of the season and will be ongoing now til growth slows down at the end of the season.

Some of the longer areas of Semi-rough also had their first cut of season at a new height of 38mm. This has been reduced from the previous height of 45mm.

Tees/approaches cut with triple mower at height of 7mm. Greens cut with triple mower at height of 5mm. All cutting will become more frequent as the growth picks up over the next few weeks.

All greens sprayed with Chipco fungicide to prevent the spread of fusarium.

Start edging bunkers and shaping sand. All bunkers will be edge over the comin weeks.

General tidying up of course including blowing debris, emptying bins, cleaning round clubhouse and shoe cleaner.

Some of the newly turfed areas have been watered as the strong cold winds have dried it out.

Course update

Added gravel to base of the ditches at the 10th and 11th to level out and improve flow.

Cleared gorse at the left of 7th green and cut back the edge of the rhododendron bush at the 8th to improve line if sight to the green.

Continue digging out more tree stumps and roots from the right of the 7th fairway and 11th fairway. Also the big stump from the back of the 10th green from the tree that was cut down earlier in the winter has been removed. This proved to be more of a task than initially thought and required a bigger machine which we had to borrow from our neighbours at Gleneagles. This should help to improve the back edge of the green.

Continue with turfing works on patches throughout the course. The 18th is almost complete with just a small in the approach to be finished off. More turf due this week to continue areas at the 3rd/5th.

All greens cut at 5mm with pedestrian mowers once this week. Tees and approaches cut with triple mower at 7mm. Hopefully we will get more growth as soon as we get some heat then the height of cut will be reduced and the frequency of cutting increased.

Paths at 7th, 8th, 6/11 and 12th all blown to remove debris and tidy up.

All greens and approaches sprayed with phosphite, insecticide and iron.

Clean up vine which was over hanging the fence at the 8th beside the road. Strim remainder of gorse at 6th greenside, rake branches and debris on 13th fairway and all excess material burnt at fire site.

Turf the approach at 11th and tie in all edges and topdress. Clean up area and remove turfing boards. This area is now complete and will just need time to settle and knit in before it will be brought back into play. As with all newly turfed areas this will be ground under repair until further notice.

All divot mix boxes on each par 3 have been filled. We would like to encourage more golfers to start using these more often which will help to improve recovery on teeing surfaces.

All course furniture including tee signs, tee markers, fairway marker posts, bins and flag pins put back out onto course for the start of the new season.

As I'm sure you will be aware the toilets have returned to 9th tee and are plumbed in and back in use.

Special thanks to club captain Alan Watt who has spent time this week doing some divoting. This is very much appreciated as it can prove to be very a time consuming task for the greenstaff. Hopefully we will be able to get some volunteers to help out during the season.

Jobs update

Install new drainage pipe in front of ladies new tee at 6th. Included in this job was the installation of an open catchment channel 10 metres long which you can see in the pictures. This will collect water shedding off of the fairway onto the new tee.

Continue with gorse and scrub clearing on right hand side of sixth fairway.

Install extra stakes at new trees between 9/10 and 6/13 where wind was affecting them.

Dig out ditch at left of 11th fairway to help with drainage flow and bottom out with gravel to level base. Pictures included.

Dig out tree roots and stumps from 7th rough area that were causing problems with cutting. More roots and stumps will continue to be removed this week. Picture included.

Turf remaining area at the 7th approach side. This are us now complete and just needs some time to knit and root. Hopefully we get the weather to speed this process up which will allow us to get it back into play as quickly as possible.

Turf some patches on the 10th fairway which were worn out over the last season.

To finish the update, a recurring theme! Snow clearing around clubhouse and car park. Also salting pathways and icy areas.

Weekly update

Continue with tree planting between 6th & 13th fairways and between 9th & 10th fairways.

Remove gorse and scrub from area left of the 6th green and burn. All the hedge cuttings from the job at 14th last week have now been burned also.

All tee markers and bins washed/cleaned and damaged ones replaced ready to go out for start of the season.

Hazard posts and out of bounds posts have all been put back out on course after being painted earlier in the year.

Poor weather gave us a chance to clean out the shed and set up all the mowers ready for the new season. It was also an opportunity to work on the membership presentation on Wednesday night and to write up committee reports.

Presentation night with Archie and Alan went well and was a good chance for members to communicate with the greens staff and club captain with any questions or queries about the golf course and tasks being carried out. Was good to see such a big interest in the night with 97 members turning up.

Update

Removed four trees of varying size from around the back of the 16th green. Also trimmed low branches off all remaining trees. This will allow more air and light into the back of the green and along with the new drainage and turf, will help improve this area.

Continued with tree planting on various areas of the course. This will be ongoing.

General tidying of course including continued switching of summer greens and blowing leaves/needles and other debris.

Holes changed on summer greens.

Major job this week was the work carried out on the hedge at the 14th tee. The hedge has been trimmed down and levelled using a laser level. Some areas had up to 8 feet cut off. This will make a big difference with light and air and help improve the teeing surface. The pictures included show just how much was cut down.

The hedge on the left hand side of the 18th running along side the road has also been trimmed and tidied up.

Jobs update

All summer greens cut with pedestrian mowers at 5.5mm then sprayed with phosphite and iron to encourage growth, strengthen the plant and deter disease.

All approaches cut with triple mower at 8mm. These were also sprayed at the same time with the same mix as the greens.

All tees cut with triple mower at 8mm . Edges straightened with pedestrian. They were then sprayed with phosphite and soluble iron. A spring starter fertiliser was then applied.

Dig out the 11th approach and start adding sand. This should be completed and ready for turfing in the coming week.

Turf the remainder of the 6th ladies tee and edge in. This is now fully complete. A new drain has been dug out an is ready for pipe and gravel to be installed which will help stop water shedding on to the playin surface.

Turfed the rear section of the 16th green and edge in. This is now fully complete and just needs time to knit in. The summer green has been put back into play with the back third roped off to prevent damage to the new turf.

The 7th approach has now been turfed also and only a small section of rough remains to be turfed to complete the job.

Levelled off 17th yellow tee using a laser level. It is now in the process of being turfed and is almost complete.

Some of the smaller areas on the course requiring turf have been started and these will be ongoing.

Blaize added to path ways at 12th thru to the 7th and levelled off.

The compound and loading bay area has been cleaned out with an excavator and all excess materials dumped. All potholes levelled off with hardcore.