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.
