Greens & Facilities Report May 2024

Welcome to the Greens & Facilities Report for May 2024….

Driving Range

Since the last newsletter, we have been busy investigating the drainage problems we have on the range. A local contractor came to site armed with a camera to enable us to check the existing drainage channels and establish if there was a problem and what the necessary course of action would be. It was evident on the surface that two out of the three pipes were not receiving water as the ground above them was potentially silted up and/or the drainage channels were blocked The camera itself did show that to be the case with the third channel blocked by loose material. This is encouraging as it is not as bad as we had first thought, but some remedial work is still required. This would entail clearing the blocked channel and installing some extra drainage spurs to direct the water into the drainage channels and away from the surface of the range. Jeremy Burt, our resident expert in groundworks has been assisting us through this process and is overseeing the work that will be carried out in October.

Course Report

At last, some dry mild weather had arrived but that brought another challenge. Growth all over the course has gone into overdrive so to keep on top of this we have spent virtually all our time cutting all areas. I think growth is now slowing down a bit and we should be able to spend a little more time on other tasks. This will include weed killing around all trees, edging bunkers, tree branch removal, and spraying tees and fairways to control weed invasion.

Greens

The greens have been firming up nicely as the days have gone on and because we are fully into the growing season now we are back on the Spring/Summer programme of cutting the greens daily. They are recovering well from the prolonged period of saturation over the Winter and the course maintenance at the end of April has helped. Going forward we will be carrying out more micro-coring and top-dressing to aerate the greens and encourage a healthier growing pattern and soil profile on the greens.

13th & 14th Projects

The 13th green project has come to an end with good results and the whole green and surrounding area is now back in play. In addition to this, the 14th surround was turfed a couple of weeks after the 13th so requires a little more attention before it is fully opened. Play from this area will resume on the week commencing 24th June. The desired outcome of this project will not be evident until the end of the season but with the continued programme of maintenance between now and then we remain hopeful that the impact of the wetter months will not result in ‘water features for the ducks’!.

Tees, Collars & Fairways

These areas have now caught up where growth is concerned, however, we are still maintaining the number of times required to cut per week with some additional time spent on a number of fairways to maintain the current level of presentation. We have received some great feedback from members, visitors, and fellow turf professionals on the aesthetics which is very much appreciated.

Irrigation System

Since reinstating the water supply to the course we have repaired two leaks in the irrigation pipeline on the 2nd and 6th. We had recently identified another burst pipe on the 8th which was rectified last week. Unfortunately, it is inevitable that we will encounter more leaks throughout the summer as the pipework is over thirty years old and is continually deteriorating as you would expect. As with all these systems over time they do require more attention and resources and will need replacing sooner rather than later. In the meantime, we will do our best to keep it running keep our fingers crossed that we do not have an exceedingly hot summer!

Final Thoughts

I would like to start by saying thank you to all the members who volunteered for the divoting evening. It is a constant source of frustration to us that this is even necessary but these evenings do make a difference and it makes our job so much easier and it is very much appreciated!

Finally, I just want to say a huge thanks to all of the team for working tirelessly to produce a golf course to be proud of, well done all of you…

Happy Golfing!

Matt