Green Keepers Blog

December 2024

As the year draws to a close I thought I would give you an update on work completed and future tasks. The sand banding on the 5th and 12th holes and topdressing on the 5th / 7th / 10th / 12th / 15th 16th and 18th is now completed. This will help significantly to produce better playing surfaces all year round and reduce course closures and trolley bans. This shows how  the club is investing in the course spending £100000  in the last 3 years on drainage.

We have now started our path renovations with the 4th / 8th and 15th paths completed. Next on the list is the 7th and 11th paths. Early next year the 1st tee path will be replaced with a new black rubber crumb path similar to the clubhouse path now. This will be done in house by the green staff. 

Leaf clearance is currently our primary job which takes up a large proportion of our time but our new Grillo leaf collector has been an amazing addition to our fleet. We have also started our bunker renovations, the 3rd fairway is now completed. We have a bunker plan we are working to and we will make our way around the course  digging out the old sand, checking the drains and re plenishing with new sand. 

Fairways are in the process of being Verti drained  which will help with drainage and also improve the grass sward. The fairways will also be fertilised with a mix of iron, magnesium, calcium and wetting agent to keep the grass coverage up and move the moisture through the profile during the winter months. The greens have now been raised to 4mm to protect them, they are sarrel rolled twice a week and needle tined monthly to keep the soil profile open.  The greens are on a nutrient program of a winter feed, fungicide, and a wetting agent to keep them healthy and hopefully disease free. We also hired in the Air2g2 machine which injects compressed are into the soil profile to relieve compaction to improve root growth and drainage. 

Future work will include the re building of the 17th main tee. We will re level and drain the existing tee whist making the teeing area larger. The tee will also have new irrigation to improve the water coverage. As I mentioned earlier we have a bunker plan we are working to and we hope to be making a few bunkers smaller, as agreed at the Greens Committee, starting on the 12th

Ditch clearance will start when all the leaves have dropped to improve drainage and speed of play. The long fescue rough is nearly all down which will also improve the speed of play and will thin out the grass sward for next year.

Unfortunately the bunkers are currently GUR  whilst the wet weather continues. As soon as the bad weather stops we will take time and get them back into play. We have made a decision to keep them GUR  at the moment so we can concentrate on other task and use our time more efficiently. 

Please could everyone make a conscious effort to repair pitch marks, rake bunkers and replace divots which is even more important this time of year. Could you also please obey all roped off areas and keep to the paths when using trolleys and buggies.

Myself and the green staff would like to wish you Happy Christmas and please try to enjoy your golf over the winter months.

Thanks, Darren and the green staff

---