Wet wet wet

 Hi All,

I thought I’d do a little blog update to look at the effects of the recent weather has had on the course.

Since the 12th October we have experienced a rollercoaster of weather patterns, from heavy rainfall, weather warnings to some bursts of sunshine. We have registered over 130mm of rain and counting as I write this blog. All of this  following a wet summer with 252mm since July.

The amount of consistent rain has had a significant impact on the soils moisture levels and in turn the course. 

Bunkers needing time to drain down

The first week of this weather rollercoaster brought heavy rainfall to the South of England. This deluge resulted in saturated soils, making them destabilise the surfaces. To counter this we applied wetting agents to the surfaces to make the water penetrate further into the profile  and to help dry off the surfaces. 

You would have also noticed we then brought the winter traffic management out earlier than we ever have before by roping off all the aprons and wet areas around the course in an attempt to keep play going. 

 

Wet soils and high wind impacted the Oak on the 12th

 

The rain continued to fall at extremely high levels and consistently every day giving us no drying time, causing completely saturated soils and water logging with even the sand based courses in the area like Hayling and Corhampton flooding.

Now with the lower evaporation rates, high water table and less daylight hours. The daylight hours actually has a huge impact, more than people would realise by the end of November it be less the eight hours of daylight compared to the summers over 16 hours. The reduction of daylight has a big impact on evaporation and our ability to dry down quicker and became playable again. Even 24 hours without rain would make a huge difference but we are not even close to this or forecast it yet. 

The impact of this can make surfaces less safe and can cause significant damage at the start of winter. Damage that won’t recover and will only get worse if we don’t manage it. 

 

 

Trolley Ban

Bringing in a Trolley ban sometimes is our only way to reduce the impact and long term damage while trying to keep the course Open. We also have to look at the safety of you our members. 

I have received a lot of emails from members asking us to bring one in. Simply because our “Please make every effort to carry your bag” is just being ignored by those that don’t believe they need to help protect their course. 

When we say this, it’s our last attempt to let the players make that decision. For them to honestly look in the mirror and think… “do I really need a trolley, could I not use a pencil bag with half a set of clubs in it?” 

Doing this would dramatically reduce the damage on the course, it would be open more and those that really, really need a trolley due to ill health could still use it. 

Unfortunately this was not being applied and left us with the only option being to bring in a trolley ban as a last resort. 

I can promise you that as soon as the weather improves and the course starts to dry out this will be reversed. We do not want to impact people’s enjoyment, we just need to get through these waves of bad weather during the winter months to enable us to keep the course playable and safe. 

Course closures 

It’s inevitable with this much rainfall, high water table, lower evaporation and lack drying time that the course will become flooded, unstable and unplayable. We will have to make decisions to close the course on safety and damage grounds. This is always the last option but we have a long winter ahead and we need to keep the course in a good enough condition to withstand the rest of the winter. The cost of repairing the damage and lack of growth to aid this must also be taken into account. Again I can promise you this is something we really don’t want to do. We do have the option of the range now, where you can meet friends and play courses from all over the world including Stoneham on Trackman if you want to meet up, hit balls and play a game and have a drink on these really wet winter days. Speak to the Proshop and they help set this up. 

New seedlings coming up on Aprons

The Silver Lining - Growth Benefits:

It's not all bad news, though. The rain has also provided some benefits for the turf.

The moisture has stimulated some grass growth, resulting in some recovery in areas and aiding the new seedlings on the aprons. 

However, this growth can lead to the need for more mowing and maintenance which cannot be achieved during this amount of rainfall. Sometimes it’s better to leave it and turn our attentions other areas rather than causing damage as we go through this wet period. So apologies if some areas are a little longer than normal. Even getting machines out to maintain the course is very difficult in prolonged wet periods like this. 

Conclusion:

Our weather in the past two weeks has certainly had its ups and downs. While the heavy rain caused soil saturation and challenges for us and other sports including football, rugby, horse racing and golf.. 

The impacts of such weather remind us of the importance of good soil management and the resilience required to maintain turf.  

It has highlighted areas we need to improve drainage on. You may have noticed repairs on-going around the course on the likes of 18th and the 3rd, these drains had been hit during the irrigation installation as we thought along with more areas we are still looking at. The team have been using cameras to follow drains and find the points of impact from the mole ploughs. We have fixed or left areas open for us to monitor during this wet period. More on this in the next blog). 

 

Irrigation through the drainage on the 3rd (the trouble with no as laid plans of drainage)

 

As the weather continues to be unpredictable on this island of ours, golfers and greenkeepers we have to adapt and ensure the safety and best possible playing conditions for all.

Remember it’s not just us that are being impacted it’s a lot of sports. It’s simply just turf and too much water! 

See you soon and let’s hope for some dry days.

Matt