West Kilbride Golf Club April Links Report 2021
Firstly, during the month of April, we encountered very little growth as we had only had 8.8mm of rain with the average for this time of year being between 50 and 60 mm. The temperatures have also been very cold which was highlighted further with the wind chills. This set us back a few weeks in terms of growth and course preparation for the start of the season. Thankfully now we are starting to see signs of growth in many areas of the course.
The following work has been carried out on the course during April.
• Practice nets have been put up. I am in the process of pricing up new baffle nets as they are starting to deteriorate.
• Several irrigation repairs have been carried out on sprinklers and 4 new valves and boxes have been replaced
• All bunkers were fly-mowed, edged, sand moved, fluffed up and sand added as required. Bunkers that have been topped up with sand included 4th, 9th, front right of 17 and 12th approach. This will be on-going as required. We have also recently purchased a torch burner to help remove weeds and grass from the bunker faces.
• Divoting has been carried out as much a possible on the tees and the landing areas of the fairways. Any worn tees have been overseeded and heavily top-dressed and the remaining tees will be top-dressed in the next couple of weeks.
• The burn across the 1st and 16 had been fly-mowed and strimmed.
• The out of bounds ditch at the 1st has been dug out and the area was cut and tidied.
• All strimming has been done including wall lines. This will be on-going throughout the growing season.
• Several fairways and roughs at the 3rd,8th,15th,16th and the practice area have been sprayed with a selective herbicide for the control of daisies.
• As there has been little growth the fairways have only been cut every 2nd week and only the longest areas of rough and semi-rough have been cut.
• All fairways have now been sprayed with wetting agent, seaweed, and Urea to aid with moisture retention, strengthen the plant and to promote some growth.
• New fairway markers are now in place and are a good addition for the course.
• All walk-off areas have been recently fertilised using an organic product.
• The path at 18 has been cut and fed and will be open for use at the end of May.
• The flowerbed at the clubhouse has been dug out and fresh top-soil has been added ready for compost and fresh roses to go in.
• The posts at the 1st tee practice area have been painted and new rope has been added.
• All winter holes have now been covered and all GUR signs have been removed.
• We have recently built a designated wash bay area at the back of the greenkeeping sheds for our machinery in compliance with health and safety guidelines.
On the Greens
• This month the greens have had the Air 2G2 machine over them which blasts compressed air into the soil profile to help break up compaction and pans in the soil.
• As poa-seed heads are becoming visible we have Verti-cut the greens at a 2mm depth. This process removes leggy grasses and lateral growth. This was followed by a double cut at
4mm then down to 3.75mm. We then overseeded using BarenBrug All Bent Grass Seed with our new Dynaseeders. Top-dressing was also carried out at 0.5-0.6 tonne per green
which is 10-12 tonne per ha.
• The greens will be sprayed with a wetting agent and seaweed to help with recovery and to help with seed germination.
Course Matters
• I have ordered new flag pins and hole cups to help reduce any pin movement from the wind as we are still having to putt with the flags in.
• I was hoping to have an additional 100 gorse to plant but unfortunately the suppliers are having difficulty at this moment in time as the gorse is not of good quality and the young
plants won’t be ready until September or October this year.
• Kyle McClung has now recently joined the greenkeeping team at West Kilbride. Kyle is originally from South West Scotland and has come from Glenbervie Golf Club, he has
previously worked at Turnberry and Gleneagles. Kyle is a good golfer currently playing off +1.
Richard Fulton
Head Greenkeeper