Update

Another good dry week which meant we could make some good progress with some winter projects and a few days with a little wind meaning the course has really started to dry out.

Completed scrub clearance that has been on going at the right hand side of the 15th fairway.

Completed levelling, filling in washouts and adding blaize to the pathway at the 6th tee.

Continued and completed drainage works at the rear of the 16th green. Root zone also added to this area and it is now ready for levelling and turfing.

Installed a 100mm drainage pipe on wet area at 16th fairway that has proved troublesome for quite some time now. Hopefully this will help improve and dry out this area.

Completed area on the left of the 6th green where drainage was recently installed. This has now been turfed, top dressed and tidied up. All turf used was
Kept and relaid which should mean it will knit quicker.

Repaired the safety net at the clubhouse which had fallen down over the winter period.

Stripped turf off destroyed areas at 11th approach, 11th fairway, 7th fairway, 3rd fairway and 18th approach/rough. We have managed to keep some of the turf from the 11th approach that can be relaid on these patches. All of these areas have been deteriorating with the last 2 years being so wet and in the pictures u can see the thatch and black layer that has built up underneath the turf or what was left of the turf! Some areas had up to 4 inches of thatch.

We hav also stripped the turf off of the 17th yellow tee surface. The reason for this is that the volume of water lying on it has caused the soil structure to collapse and left a lot of low areas and an uneven playing ground. As its a new tee it didn't have time to settle before the excessive water started lying on it. We are adding in some extra drainage before it gets relaid which will help prevent the same from happening again.

All winter greens cut towards end of the week and white lines painted to outline them.

Two flags had to be replaced at the 15th and 17th after they went missing on Wednesday night. The flags still haven't been found!

Update

Winter greens cut at 12mm at the start of the week.

Completed drainage channels on path at 6th men's tee.
Also added red blaize to top up the path and turfed around the ends of the drainage channels to finish off the job.

Removed wet materials from the back third of the 16th green and dug out drainage laterals to link into main drain.
The pictures included show the drainage channels and also the very poor material that the green was built on.

More snow on Wednesday around 3 inches. Cleared and salted clubhouse/carpark areas.
Continued with refurbishing bunker rakes and course bins.

Turfed the new ladies 6th tee (pictures included show the tee almost complete)
Also turfed some smaller areas at the back of the 5th green and two new drainage lines at 15th/16th.

Also included is a picture of a rare cat that has been spotted on several occasions on the course. It has been confirmed that it it is a domestic cat known as a Bengal cat.

The last picture which is the 5th green shows a trolley mark that has been pulled straight across the green. This is totally unacceptable!!!

Work update

With a reasonable start to the week we were able to continue with verti-draining work on the 17th fairway.

More snow on Monday night early Tuesday, about 2inches, meant we were back to clearing the carpark and clubhouse area and salting for safety.

It also gave us the opportunity to finish off painting the course benches and we managed to clean up the brass plaques using a soft abrasive and polish which u can see from the picture below has made a huge difference!

All the bunker rakes were brought in and we have made a good start on painting the handles. These will be completed if or more likely when we get some more bad weather!

Luckily the snow cleared up pretty quickly and we got back out onto the course to continue with some jobs. These included scrub clearing on the right hand side of the 15th which we started last year before Christmas. This work is ongoing.

The area on the right of the 6th green where some drainage work took place had root zone added and was levelled out ready to be raked off and turfed. We also added root zone to a few other areas and levelled them ready for turf.

Also this week we have fixed and levelled off the path at the 6th tee which had been severely washed out. We are in the process of putting in open drainage channels which will hopefully help to prevent the path being washed out as badly again. The new section behind the 5th green that links onto this path was levelled, raked and firmed using a whacker plate. Picture below of new section.

Work update

With the snow last week and the wet weather conditions this week it has given us a chance to get on with rejuvenating our course furniture!

Rain/snowfall for the month of January 112mm.

Week beginning 21st January:
With 8 inches of snow and a covering most nights we spent most mornings clearing snow from the carpark, pathways and fire exits around the clubhouse. These areas were then salted for the safety of anyone using the clubhouse facilities.

We also managed to back fill some new drainage on the right side of the 6th green early in the week before the worst of the snow.

All tee signs ladies, gents and medals were brought into the shed and sanded down. They were then coated with 2 layers of Danish oil which has brought them back to life after being rather weather beaten.

The black and white marker post, red hazard posts and white out of bounds post have also been sanded down and painted ready for the new season.
All benches are in the same process and will be completed shortly.

With most of the furniture work now complete it means that we can carry on with outdoor procedures in the better weather conditions.

We have also managed to get the Verti-Drain machine out towards the end of this week and the first second and third fairways have been completed. This will help remove the water from the playing surface.

Attached are some photos from the last two weeks.