The Big Thaw

 

Hi All,

 

My last blog before Christmas. I just wanted to keep you informed of what we’ve been up too and what’s happened during the thaw and as we look forward.

 

The big thaw finely came on from Sunday 18^th December and took until Tuesday the 20^th to thaw completely. The down side for us was the 43mm of rain that fell during that period of time on top of frozen ground. On Sunday the course puddled up very quickly and standing water was visible all over the course.

What we were left with following the thaw was greens that felt “like walking on pillows” is how a fellow Course Manager explained it to me when describing their greens. There was no doubt they were very soft and felt like we had carried out an aeration practice to them. This was due to the moisture that was already present in the soil then freezing and expanding in the soil profile, puffing (scientific word J) the surfaces up.

As these thawed, instead of the air being pushed out of the soils until they settled down like normal, the now new bigger pore spaces between the soil particles filled with the heavy rainfall meaning we were left with soft greens.

Foot printing on the 7th green 

We knew just like after aeration works, these would settle down and with the rope drainage assisting by constantly reducing the water table once unfrozen and to prove this, a green that is normally one of driest year round, the 7^th, which is one of only two that haven’t been drained sat as the wettest and took the longest to recover.

The negative with the frost was not only the superficial damage to the surfaces with black marks, that will go yellow in the coming days before returning to green but the root shear, which we have seen no signs of thankfully.  The positive is the mini aeration caused by the expanding frost within the soil, giving us nature’s natural aeration with no damage to the surfaces by machines. Every cloud and all that!

What have the team been up too?  

 

Oak trees on the 12th and 7th still hanging on

Amazingly, even after the cold spell and then 40mph winds some of the leaves are still hanging on to the trees, making the never ending leaf battle continue.

I’ve been looking through my photos of the course since 2015 and all the leaves are down by now. Admittedly these have been getting later and later, especially since I started in the job back in mid 90’s but I think to still see trees with leaves on them going into Christmas is a new one on me and shows that there has been a real shift in the seasons.

 

The team have been battling hard all autumn with the leaves and I think considering the conditions they have done a great job and I thank them for it.

In the last week we have been turning our attention to the ditches again. Not only getting the leaves out of them to keep the water flowing but we’ve now started clearing the sediment out of the bottoms with our mini digger. Something we haven’t been able to do sine our last digger got stolen in 2015. You may have noticed this is being left out on the course, hidden away from view as there is always someone watching the diggers…

Final thoughts

Well this week hasn’t ended how I hoped, with the clubhouse closed due to a water mains issue in the area and the power cuts experienced earlier in the week and the course flooding as Mother Nature throws one last wet spell at us to get us nearer to our yearly average. That’s 761mm of rain to date with more falling as I sit and write this out and another 40 odd mm predicted between now and New Years Eve, meaning we will hit around 800mm less than my prediction of 850mm (but who would have imagined the frost period we just had, it’s a one in ten year chance on average). This gets us closer to last year’s 806mm after a wet summer, dry winter that year and 100mm short of our yearly average. Incredibly at the end of August we were just over 300mm… Not a bad effort from Mother Nature to catch up.

No one wants the run up to and the Christmas period to be wet and the course unplayable, although the daylight is turning the right way we still need to protect the course and member safety. We are just about to go into our lowest growth months of the year. When the course is safe and playable it will be open! As a team we want the course open. Sat here now with the course closed and the clubhouse in darkness it’s got a terrible déjà vu about it but we know it’s only for a couple of days and then hopefully onwards. 

That’s enough from me again as I need to rush off for those last minute things I’ve forgotten for the Christmas dinner.

I would just like to thank the greenkeeping team for all their hard work this year, I would like to thank all the other departments for their help and laughter this year and lastly I would like to wish all of you a very Merry Christmas!

 

See you soon

 

Matt    

Frozen

Hi All, 

 Well it’s nearly that time of year again when festivities, Christmas lights and family are top of the agenda. What a month this has been! 

 We are going from one extreme to another on a weekly basis at the moment. The temperatures have now dropped to lows of -5c in the last week, that’s a 45c swing in temperatures from the high of the summer to the lows of winter. From the biggest drought in 500 years to one of the wettest periods on record… who said grass isn’t resilient and the greenkeepers ;-) 

Dealing with extremes is becoming more and more of the norm but when you step back and look its worrying but also a challenge we need to face. When I mean challenge, I mean doing what we can to mitigate the issues, the new irrigation system helps mitigate the drought, we have now taken delivery of a new trencher to allow us to start draining areas for the winter months with a special emphasis on moving water with more gulley pots and shaping to add to those already done to move surface water quickly after the heavier downpours, this water can then be linked up and eventually harvested in a reservoir (hopefully if planning goes through) and the sustainable future becomes a reality.

So let’s look in a bit more detail about the recent weeks and current trends and what this has meant for us as a team.

 November 2022 has ended up the 2^nd wettest month ever recorded, only narrowly missing out on top spot by 3mm with 224mm of rain falling. The highest amount we have had at Stoneham was October 2020 with 227mm following a mini drought that summer too but the big difference to this year, in 2022 the 224mm came on the back of a wet period of rain 98mm in September and 91mm in October.

This made things very hard for the team, we reduced our cutting to a minimum so as not to mark the course but some essential works have to be done including blowing and collecting leaves.

Leaves blown out ready for collection with the Trilo

They say a large Oak tree has over million leaves per tree, how may large Oak trees do we have around the course? Have a look around next time you play.

We spend over 1000 man hours a year just collecting leaves. We need to do this so you can play golf, so balls can be found and to stop the leaf litter effecting the heather. The team do their best to stay on the greenkeepers tracks and collect from or as near to it as possible and walk with back blowers to the areas to blow.

Other essential works include spraying, this might be to reduce disease pressures, to apply wetting agents that make the rainfall penetrate the surfaces so we can open the course and regular feeds to help us battle against the issues with leather jackets and chafer grubs.

The plant needs to be healthy as possible to try and survive this time of year when the young are feeding on the roots. Luckily, we took the opportunities between the weather windows to apply all of the above. The conditions might not have been ideal but these works are essential to keep the course playable now and in the future.

I have some who ask why a sprayer can be out on the course when we are asking golfer to carry their bag if possible.

The answer to that is simple, we need to carry out the works, the team are trained not to drive in the same patterns and avoid as many wet areas as we possibly can, I am not saying we never get it wrong but considering the amount of time we are going around the course the damage is always minimal or superficial.

Golfers by the nature of the game have high traffic areas even with the roping off of areas, tees and greens are funnels around the course and wear from 140 golfers per day can be excessive, especially over turf that’s not growing in the winter months.

 Now in December we have been hit by a prolonged frost period and if the forecast is right will see this being as bad as 2010 for the amount of frost days and no growth.

Hoar Frosts 

Some of these have been what they call Hoar frosts. Hoar frosts form when the vapour in the air comes in contact with surfaces that are already freezing. Ice crystals then form in patterns that look like little beards on the grass plant, hence the word Hoar which come from the old English word ‘Har’ which mean ‘hoary’, ‘gray’, ‘old’. Perhaps as the crystals resemble a beard on an old man. Bet you didn’t know there were different frost types J

The prolonged frost has made difficult in another for the team. Our Frost holes that are covered in cup covers and Astroturf top so the surfaces are smooth are frozen solid. Something that’s never happened before for us. The greens have been so firm from the permafrost that we are unable to change holes. The frost period normally comes after the leaves are down in January to March but this time the leaves are falling late due to the mild wet November meaning the leaves are frozen to the surfaces and take a lot long to clear off the playing surfaces. It does leave a very cool imprinted pattern on the greens and tees afterwards. You may have noticed!

Winter Mats

Winter mats. Following the trial of the winter mats the feedback from all members was appreciated with the overall majority saying they really like the winter mats. The rest of the par 3 tees have now been delivered and are out on the course.

 Please remember the Local rule from England golf were mats have been provided is –

 "Where present, tee mats comprise the teeing area. When starting a hole from a tee mat the player MUST stand and play from the mat.

Penalty for Breach of the local rule: Match play – Loss of hole, stroke play – two stroke penalty".  

Putting green 

You may have noticed the putting green is being closed during this winter period. I thought I'd share our thoughts on this. 

Last year the level of damage carried out on the putting green was substantial and was highlighted by the clubs Agronomist Phillip Armitage in his report. 

The damage from last winter didn't really recover with some marks still evident. The odd putt to warm up was not the issue but the level of putting drills.  At times last winter the green was being used more and more for putting drills, towels being placed on the ground and stood on in an attempt to protect the grass or golfers standing in the same spots over and over. Even with the towel down the damage was too great plus no growth meant we couldn't get the grass back until later in the season. 

This year to help spread the wear, we will be shutting both the putting green and short game area. We will alternate these week on week in a hope to spread the damage around and allow some recovery. The short game area will also benefit from the recovery time during these deep dark days of winter. 

The only reason we are having to do this is to still allow those who which to practice the chance. On the main greens due to the nature of the course, less practicing goes on and the wear is naturally spread across the greens surfaces. I hope that make sense! 

Updates will be made via the website and answerphone plus the sign saying 'Green Closed' but this wont be forever and will be monitored weekly. Once we start to see growth rates increase we will return to normal. 

The coming days… 

The danger now is the low pressure system arriving on Sunday. This will bring large amounts of rain falling on frozen ground. This will mean the water will flood as it won’t be able to penetrate the profile. The course will be unplayable and become dangerous in areas with the only people benefitting from this period being the litigators.

Our other issue will be as the top becomes soft and the underneath stays frozen we will experience something which we do not get often down south, it’s called sudden thaw dynamics or 'Rootshear'. The roots will still be frozen into the ground and the top mobile, meaning as it’s walked on the two layers separate and rip the roots of the grass plant. This can cause serious damage.

 

The reason I am highlighting this, is to forewarn you that IF the forecast is correct I can see the course being closed, even though it will look like its fine to the eye. We will be out testing the soil profile and will open it up as soon as it’s safe to do so. This is one of the reasons we’ve remained open during this period compared to almost all the courses in the area which have been shut for a week now. We will always keep the course open if it’s safe to do so but some days you can’t beat nature and we need to be patient.

At least we have the driving range so the golf swing can still be honed while the course becomes safe.

That’s enough from me this week. Its all about damage mitigation this month as we now enter those months with low daylight hours and no growth. As a positive note to finish on, its only a week to go before the days start to get longer and our journey back to spring begins! 

Please wrap up warm and enjoy these frosty sunny days. 

Regards

Matt