Old Course: Greens and ante greens will be scarified in 2 directions with ante greens receiving an extra pass for the additional organic matter accumulation in these areas due to the differing construction specifications. This will be followed by a large 16mm hollow tine. These works will see almost double the organic removal that was achieved last year. Target removal of 12.8% of the surface area. This period, and July’s closure and the works at the end of August are critical to start to bring these levels back under control.
We completed a LOI (loss of ignition) OM test recently and our surfaces in the top 20mm are between 4-5% on greens and the desired range is 1-2% for creeping bent grass of the highest standard. Tees and ante greens are higher again. The aggressiveness of these works is critical and recovery timings will be 14 to 21 days so please keep this in mind.
Tees will be more aggressive than greens and ante greens as these have higher OM levels again.
Bermuda works will be split into fairways and rough this year with fairways receiving more OM removal works than roughs. Scarification hollow tining will be completed across all Bermuda, but at differing levels.
The team will also be removing sand on some of the problematic bunkers, checking the drains, cleaning and adding new sand. Most notably: Hole 4 green side bunker, Hole 16 front green side bunker and Hole 17 fairway bunker.
The weather forecast is looking a little questionable through Wednesday to Friday with potential rain, but the maintenance team will be working all hours to achieve the required works. Please keep in mind last year’s closure was 14 days so the golf course will be much sandier when it re-opens compared to last year.