What goes up, must come down or is it 'What goes down, must come up'!

 

Hi All,

 

Ice 14th fairway 

Happy New Year to you all! What a month we are having again but the good news is we are nearly at the end of January already and it’s starting to get lighter in the evenings already.

 

Let’s quickly look back at the details from last year now we have the totals before we catch up with what is happening now.

 So the rainfall total for 2022 finished with 846mm of rain. Our yearly average being 900mm and my technical FIA assessment back in November was for us to finish around 850mm for the year so not far away. If you are wondering what an FIA assessment is, it’s short for Finger In the Air assessment ;-)

 

Rainfall figures 2015-2023

We have had 540mm falling from September to the year end with January so far has had 116mm. The figures show it’s been a wet winter but one of the biggest issues is the dry down days or lack of. It rained 28 out of 29 days from December into January before this cold spell and let’s remember when the ground is frozen that water isn’t going anywhere. It’s still there and causing us issues and won’t take much rainfall to top it back up once the frosts thaw.  There are positives from this amount of rainfall. Firstly it actually shows us areas we need to work on and to plan for future drainage projects and where drainage issues that are falling and secondly we needed the rainfall to fill the aquifers and reduced the high potential of a hose pipe ban in 2023.

Comparing our drought years 2018 and 2022. Yearly average in red.

Why do we only have 9 holes available to play?

 

Ice 15th fairway 

This is a question I am getting asked a lot but this is something that has been caused by the weather mentioned above.

 I can’t remember a time when our water table has been so full and over flowing following high levels of rainfall and then we have gone into two big frost periods so quickly. This has meant we have lying water, puddles and leaching from banks that are now freezing and turning to sheet ice. Our daily set ups include salting pathways during this spell but we cannot salt turf as it will kill it, so our only option is we need to be patient until the frost lifts and the water drains down.

16th Pathway

But why the back 9 I hear you ask… The back 9 tends to have most of the low lying areas if you think about the difference from the 1^st, 3^rd and 4^th compared to the 17^th and 15^th or the change from 6^th and 7^th across to the 12^th and 14^th. The water is shifting to these areas as it naturally does all the time but these areas have just frozen solid and turned to ice before it’s had chance to get away. This hasn’t improved in the last two days, in fact it’s got worse as another permafrost has developed. Our worst areas are on the 12^th fairway, 14^th fairway and 15^th fairway with slopes and areas around the 10^th and 11^th and then huge areas of sheet ice on the 18^th and 17^th paths as you can imagine the flow down the 18^th and from the range to these areas.

Despite daily salting of these pathways, these then thaw slightly and it washes the salt away and then freezes again from the evening. This is now leaving ice layers on top of ice layers making it unsafe. We have had a couple of injury’s within the team this week just trying to inspect these areas.

Why are the bunkers so solid?  

 

As above, the amount of water flowing through the bunkers is extremely high as they are low points around the course. Again these have just frozen solid and need time to thaw out.

You may have noticed that some of the liners have been on show due to the wash downs, this again is simply down to the 18mm of rain we had on the day 18^th of January and that night the temperatures dropped to -6, leaving the wash downs solid. We have been working I the afternoons to try and pull these up and have now gone out with new sand in attempt to cover these over to stop balls bouncing out where possible.

 I have been asked questions about the puddle of water sitting in the first 12^th bunker on the right of the fairway. This doesn’t happen often but this bunker was drained into the low point in the woods between the 12^th and 11^th. This area is a soakaway and normally copes well with the amount of rainfall we have and as it sits above the 11^th ditch it naturally empties towards it. However with amount of rainfall experienced in the last month, the low area and soakaway are now full to the brim and there is nowhere for the water to drain too. Once we get some drying days (un-frozen) the water table will lower and this will return to normal. It’s something we can pick up when doing drainage works in that area, with us connecting this soakaway to the ditch at the 11^th. 

What’s happening with the 7^th Green?

 

The 7^th green was always the green we set our standards off. It gets very dry and stays pretty firm. Our yearly data has showed it normally stays within our target areas more than most greens and was the reason we decided it didn’t need drainage.

Fast forward to this winter and it is unbelievably wet and very, very soft. If I am honest we aren’t 100% sure why this is but I have a couple of ideas and this is something we are investigating.

 

Has the recent irrigation works done something? Maybe? As the pipe work is mole ploughed the bullet ahead on the plough is slightly bigger than the pipe to pull it through and this leaves a clay ploughed trench around the pipe. It is possible that this has hit a drain unknown to us and now with all the water this is gathering and running around the outside of the pipe to the low area at the front of the green. We know it isn’t the irrigation system itself as this have been drained down and fully blown out, leaving no water in the system. This kind if issue is very common and something most clubs that have installed irrigation recently tend to go through. We even have concerns about this happening on the 1^st hole with the water diverting away from the green to the right hand side.

 

The other option could be, have our parameters changed… Have the greens that were once so much wetter than the 7^th, became better performing and the new norm following the drainage works. Our data is showing the 7^th green is sitting wetter than the 6^th and 8^th for example. Are the other greens draining down at a faster rate and our once bench mark green has been left behind… This is a high possibility and the data tends to back this up.  Do we now have to drain this green? This is something we need to discuss as club and from member feedback but until then, we will be investigating all we can and the green I am sure will dry back down once we have the right conditions.

So what have the team been up too?

 

The team have remained busy, apart from salting the bridge, car park, clubhouse and pathways around the course our attentions have turned to refurbishing course furniture with the help from John Bolwell and his sanding machine.

 

 

Refurbished Yardage markers with numbers painted now 

Our yardage markers, made in house from a fallen Chestnut tree on the 7^th a few years ago have been showing signs of taking on the damp. You may have noticed them, getting darker and harder to read despite lots of oiling and protection being applied. This is something we didn’t expect but have since found out that’s why Chestnut isn’t used a lot for course furniture. We have decided that a full replacement wasn’t viable this year with costs and some proposed changes so the team have been renovating the yardage blocks and markers and these will put back out when complete.

 

Lots of work on Gorse removal to open up areas and speed up play has also been getting complete.  

Smoke rising a view to 5th restored

Bunker renovations have started on the worst bunkers around the course and the team will be continuing this process in the coming weeks. New revet turf and worn areas are being turfed as we try to continue to protect the huge investments made in 2016-2019.

Bunkers renovations on the 12th 

Right, that’s enough from me. If I was a betting man and looking at the temperatures I think this weekend and early next week the course will remain the same, 9 holes open and closed for a full thaw day as discussed in the ‘Frozen’ blog. We are trying our best to give you the member some opportunity for golf/ a walk around the course and will open the rest once it’s safe to do so.

Let’s remember what goes up, must come down and we have certainly gone through the coming down bit of late and what goes down, must come up… surely the temperatures have to come up soon and we will have just a mild, dry-ish period… Surely!

 Until then, wrap up warm and be careful in these conditions. The season isn’t far away.

 

See you soon

 

Matt