Firstly, could I please remind all members to help maintain the condition of the greens by repairing pitch-marks. We have noticed recently an increased number of unrepaired pitch-marks which are spoiling the greens and limiting the Greenstaff to where they can cut a new hole. Your help with this matter would be greatly appreciated.
During the month of August, we have been spending time working on the recovery of several areas after the period of drought that we encountered during June and July. The rainfall had doubled in August to 70mm from July’s figure but is still below the mean average of 110mm for this month.
The following work has been carried out on the course:
- Several fairways 8,10,11,13,14,17 and 18 have been overseeded and top dressed using a 70/30 mix. This mixture helps maintain more moisture and provides slightly more organic content to help with better grass seed establishment.
- These fairways have been sprayed with wetting agent, liquid fertiliser containing seaweed, humic acid and primo max to help de-stress the turf and promote quicker recovery.
- Several bunker tops and weaker areas on the tees have been shallow tined, seeded and top-dressed.
- An outfield fertiliser 4-6-4 was applied to these areas.
- Pathways at 14 and 18 were also overseeded and sprayed with wetting agent and liquid fertiliser to help with recovery and seed establishment.
Some time was spent moving sand down from faces in bunkers and adding additional sand where required. The sand was added to the bunkers at the 4th and 9th greenside. - Ditch at the 4th was strimmed and tidied.
- Sprinkler heads were trimmed.
- Yardage markers on the fairways have been cleaned and trimmed.
- Divoting has been carried daily on the tees and as much as possible on the fairways.
- Fly-mowing and strimming has been carried out as required.
- The car park and front of the clubhouse has been weed-killed as well as the faces on a few bunkers.
On The Greens:
- We have now purchased Sarel rollers and the greens have been rolled twice this month. These rollers have spikes which open up the top 20mm of the surface to reduce compaction and allows oxygen in to help breakdown organic matter levels in the top profile.
- The greens have been micro-tined to a depth of 5” to help breakdown the black-layer
- Liquid aeration was then applied to assist with the breakdown process
- Monthly wetting agent has been applied.
- Primo max was applied with liquid feed and seaweed to promote density and to supress Poa activity. This also helps reduce upright growth and maintains smoothness of the putting surfaces.
- The height of cut is currently 3.75mm and this will increase to 4mm after we core at the end of September.
- We have recently had soil samples taken from several of the greens to test organic matter levels. This was carried out by STRI. Results have shown some improved numbers deeper in the profile but we still need to work on the top 20mm-40mm. Therefore, I plan to scarify the greens to a depth of 3-4mm then hollow-core to a depth of 40mm using 10mm tines. This will be followed by overseeding and top-dressing.
Other Course News:
I am currently a member of Greenstaff down due to covid-19 but hope to have him back on the 20th of September.
We have now received delivery of the Widenmann Xp8 deep aerating machine. This will allow us to aerate deeper on the greens to 12-13” and will replace the existing machine which only aerates to 10”.
I hope to have delivery of the Dakota top-dresser within the next week which will be used on the Pro-Gator.
Winter greens will be cut out and prepared within the next couple of weeks prior to our aeration programme commencing.
I am currently preparing a winter programme and will provide a copy of this within next month’s links report.
Richard Fulton
Head Greenkeeper