Be careful what you wish for!

Well, it's been a while and firstly I would like to apologise for my absence but we have had a busy period of works on the course and beautiful new baby arriving at home has made life a bit interesting. I normally try to do these blogs in the evenings at home but with time being against me, I am writing this one in the office and as I look out I can see leaves falling like rain.

Looking forward to these leaves falling 

The last blog/ vlogs and greens presentation night I explained how desperate we were for rain. Well be careful for what you wish for!  Since my last video blog in September and the presentation night we have had 88m in the last 20 days of September, 139mm in October with only two dry days in the month and 43mm so far in November (7th Nov). Thats alot of rain and 270mm in just over eight weeks. That's more rain than the previous six months...
Currently we are still well behind 2018 rainfall wise. 665mm to date v 978mm in 2018. Both considered drought years in the summer and then seriously wet periods. In 2018 it was the wet spring before the heat, 2018 was a dry winter and the dry spring of 2019 but Autumn 2019 is proving that Mother Nature tries to even herself out at some point but we feel like we are going into a more European climate which is ironic with Brexit just around the corner.

Drought damage 

I think we have all seen the damage caused over the last two summers. If you compare the areas we do have water (greens,tees and aprons) to the areas we don't (fairways and surrounds) the difference has been huge, with the loss of grass coverage and bare areas being a constant battle.
It's not a simple case of running hose's to 12 hectares of land. We just don't have the water supply, labour or irrigation system to cope. The hardest part of this industry is trying to predict the weather, no matter what planning you have in place you have to rectify problems after they have happened. As the Chairman Nick Clayton has report in his update, we have been working with Hydrologists and Irrigation designers. This is slow process as research and facts are checked. The chances of a borehole seem to be all but over. The quotes we have received due to our complex geology and chances of success seem to high a risk for the club to take and it would not be fair on members to invest the money into something we are not convinced it's going to work. Other options are being explored and we are working closely with Hydrologist and Environmental Agency to find a solution. Watch this space...

Cores from greens added to Short game green 

Short game green growing in

Back to now, Course maintenance week went really well and the recovery on the greens, tees, aprons and surrounds was quick. The greens were tined with 12mm solids and the dressed. The greens were then hollow cored with 8mm micro hollow TWICE. Why so shocking? Well our intention was to only do them once as we only cored this year for us to take the core and spread them on the new chipping green. This would then mean the chipping green is made from the same grass species as our greens and would play the same. Working with Profusion it was worked out that all 18 greens should be it enough. After 18 greens we had only made halfway. So we had to go again, which I didn't mind agronomically as it was maintenance week and you only hit about 5% of the surface with each tine process but they all had to be picked up by hand again. The team were fantastic and got the job done quickly and enjoyed the team bbq at the end of the week more. The tees, aprons and surrounds were all hollow tined and collected with 16mm tines. Doing this well help aid recovery going into the winter.

PC Drainage on the 18th green

18th green 1 week after drainage 

Rope drainage: One of the best things to come out of all this rain lately is the test of the newly installed (PCD) rope drainage. This was installed on the 18th and the 1st greens during maintenance week. The difference has been noted by a lot of people. This was designed by a US University Lecturer in the turf industry Dr Ed McCoy Ohio State University, who spent ten years researching the best way to drain push up greens. These have been successfully in many clubs over the last ten years including Queenwood, Wentworth, Walton Heath, Parkstone, West Hill to name a few. All the feedback I have had is positive. We will be monitoring how these greens perform compared to the others in the coming months and will give more feedback once all the data is collected.

Scarifying fairways 

Hollow coring fairways 

Fairways

It's been another tough year fairway wise and I have never had two years in a row of drought summers. A lot of work has gone in to rectify the loss of grass coverage again. We have double hollow cored the worst affected fairways (1,6,9,11,12,14), the first core took place in August during maintenance week. At that point we carried this out to remove the dead layer thatch on the surface to allow moisture to go into the soil profile. The second core followed a deep scarify of the fairways again to remove the dead thatch layer. We have also applied a penetrant wetting agent to make the moisture get into the surface. Since then we have been around the course collecting the piles of debris/cores and removing for composting. We have over seeded the fairways by both broadcast spreader and using the Redixim 1575 overseeder. Liquid fertilisers have been added and next we will be divoting any deeper areas and granular feeding fairways. The rainfall has really helped recovery and I think we are in a better place this year compared 2018, but we still have lots of work to do.

Over seeding fairways 

Other works 

We have taken the opportunity start re-turfing areas that have died off during the summer months again. Bunker banks and worn areas around the course have been started and will be on the agenda again.

worn areas re turfed

Fertilisers have been applied to the surrounds and the worst areas over seeded.Again this work will continue throughout the winter.

You may have also noticed that we have been cutting down some of the surrounds around greens since August. The plan here is for us to have more run off areas around greens.
The long rough and heather have started to be cut down and this is something I am keen to more of once the frosts kick in.


Moving forward
The battle with leaves will be our main aim and keeping on top of the course condition as much as possible. Re turfing damaged areas and pathways are all on our list along with topping up bunkers. None of these are small tasks and take many man hours to do. We also need to do these tasks at the right time as moving tons of material over the course in its wet conditions will only cause more work when damage is caused. Working with the weather you are given and changing you plans is something we have to do in this industry daily.

Personally I am happy with how the greens have been performing but worry a lot about the drainage in some of them moving forward.
I think we can all tell how wet certain ones are and this is being highlighted even more now the two drained greens are performing so much better.
It's obvious now looking at the course, you can see how where we had water and where we do not. The loss of coverage outside of these areas dictates our working schedule but imagine how good we could be if the rest of the course looked like the greens, tees and aprons... this is something we are working on.
Damage repair and over seeding with the right grass species will be more important than ever moving forward but it will be worth it.

I will blog again soon about the Practice Ground project update and the new ladies 18th tee along with how the short game academy is developing. At the moment I am enjoying the break in lorries as we have a ten day break to allow the placement of material to be done and a survey of the levels.
We have made great progress this year and with the end of the lorries in site, I for one can't wait for it to be finished. As a club, we voted to do all of this work to be done and we all know it's going to be great when it's complete but during the process it can feel long and we all think ' Be careful what you wish for' ;-)

I hope this gives you a quick update of what's been going on.

I have loads more to catch up on and will blog again soon.

Enjoy the autumn colours

Matt

August Maintenance Week Plans

19^th August – 23^rd August 2019

Below is the information on works to be carried out during course maintenance week

Please give way to operators at all times

Greens

Rope drainage to be installed on the 1st and 18th greens

Monday: Deep solid tine to 225mm with 12mm tines, Hollow tine to 100mm with 10mm tines, fertilise, top dress and brush (Front 9 Closed) - All cores being Collected and used on Short Game green

Note: Aprons, Tees and Surrounds being hollow cored on entire course and collected

Tuesday: Deep solid tine to 225mm with 12mm tines, Hollow tine to 100mm with 10mm tines, fertilise, top dress and brush (Back 9 Closed) - All cores being Collected and used on Short Game green

Wednesday: Top dressing Front 9 Aprons & Fertilise, Top dress greens again and over- seed (Front 9 closed)

Thursday: Top dressing Back 9 Aprons & Fertilise, Top dress greens again and over- seed (Back 9 closed)

Note: 18^th Green ROPE Drainage taking place Hole closed for two days.

Friday: Cut and Roll greens, Possible snagging day for bad weather. Hollow coring 18^th and 1^st greens behind. (Holes 2-17 Open. Holes 1 and 18^th Closed)

Note: 1st Green ROPE Drainage taking place Hole closed.

Following the works the greens will be sandy and a little bumpy for a couple of weeks. We apologise for an inconvenience.

Please remember these works are essential for our greens to continue to improve!

Fairways 15^th/16^th October- Hollow coring, scarifying and over -seeding of weak areas around the course. Light top dress in weak areas.

Matt Plested

Water be the key to life!

Wow, it’s been nearly two months since I last blogged.
I can only apologise, it’s been unbelievably busy with so much going on




Driving Range and Short game area

The new look 18th

 

New 1st tees growing in

 
 
The first tees have been moved and the short game, the green and bunker construction have started. The area we call Phase 2 of the driving range has been cleared and the fill has started. The short game area was our Phase 1, this has been done first to block the view from the clubhouse so we don’t need to look at a building site for to long it also gives us an opportunity to grow in the short game area and open it a year ahead of the range. 

Subsoil shaping of new Short game area

Out on the Course
Out on the course, we have gone from total despair to feeling happy following April’s 36mm and May’s 21mm of rainfall. This for spring is hugely low and the entire industry, Agriculture and other horticultural business were extremely worried. Last years drought had put us into a huge deficit and with a driest winter I can remember, our hope for spring was a wet one to help balance the water table. I would have bet a lot of money that the rain would come and it didn’t. 

Lots of hand watering April/May

May saw 21mm of rainfall but due to some hot spells (but cool nights) our evaporation was 53mm. So in fact, going into June we were in another drought state and the grass plant was dying back. All the work the team had done was dying, we re-turfed around 40 bunkers, over seeded fairways, worn areas and bare areas but we couldn’t see any evidence of the seeding because it was just so dry.
The turfs around the course from the Bunker project started to die off and we had all the new turf going down for Phase 1 of the practice ground project to keep alive. We ended up with two members of the team permanently watering. Just like last summer trying to keep things alive. We have certain areas we can’t get water too so this was sprayed using our sprayer filled with water but volume wise it wasn’t a lot but we felt we should try something.
At this point I could not believe what we are experiencing again. Last June was the month that Killed us. It was the first month EVER (since records began) that we recorded a 0mm in Southampton. Never before and I prayed it would not do it again and it didn’t!!! June 2019 has been our wettest month this year. Let that sink in...
We had more rain in one day than the whole of May. I was the only one loving it out in the course but we needed it. 88.1mm so far in June and the course has started to improve. “Water be the key to life” they say and the are right.
The seed from Autumn last year had started to come through and my worry was and still is without rain this will die back but has now established as grass plants. The seed from the spring has just popped meaning we are getting better coverage in areas. 

Seed coming through but more hollow coring work and seeding required in areas

We know there is still a lot of work to do in some places and getting the thatch out of the way is the first stage to this. This is something we are going to be working on between now and the autumn again.
The turfs we re- turfed are looking healthier or at least alive in areas. The noses of the bunkers will always dry out on us. The angles and the shallow depths of soil against the revetted edges make this a hard growing medium.
The entire course including the bunkers got sprayed with wetting agents when the rain started to try and force this into the ground and not to run off the surface. This has helped but as those of you who came on the course walks saw with your own eyes, it’s still like dust underneath and that’s my big worry. We just don’t have any moisture reserves going into July and August. A hot spell with no rain and we could be chasing again. The courses with fairway watering are coming into there own at the moment, but we don’t have this so we have to do our best and pray.

You may have also noticed a lot of weed spraying taking place.  Again due to last years drought the areas that are thin and bare in the roughs and outfields have had weed invasion. We all know how this happens from our gardens and flow beds or driveways. This is why it’s so important for us to increase grass coverage.
The only areas we haven’t yet sprayed are the fairways themselves. This is because we felt the new seed isn’t quite strong enough to take the hit off the herbicide. This is something I will watch, depending the heat.
Our normal liquid fertilisers  have started going out, again we had to wait for some moisture to get these applied. 

Boxing off (collecting grass clippings) Fairways has started. This reduces thatch and worm activity but take more man hours

5 Ton trailer full of clippings is becoming a regular site

We fertilised the fairways with no regulator to give them a kick and boy are the growing. This week alone we took over 50 tons of grass clipping off them.
We also gave them a reverse cut this week to tighten up the grass. The greens and Aprons are cut in different directions daily to stop nap (grass lying one way) but on outfield areas the more you cut in the same direction the better presented it looks. The trouble with this is the heights are false because if you brush it the other way the grasses having growing along the line and not up to the sky. For example a 15mm fairway might be 20mm as it’s laying down. So reverse cutting and raking stands this up and we get a clean cut at 15mm. We carried this out on the semi too but unfortunately it does look dull when we do this but the surfaces are so much better after. We can now step up the presentation of these areas. 

Fairways divoted at the Divot Trophy, thanks to all those that helped

Bunkers
The bunkers have had a lot of attention, with regard getting on top of the detail work on the banks. Flymoing and Strimming round each bit of heather and getting a consistent look.
The sand levels are checked when we rake them as best we can while staying ahead of the golf in the mornings (we can’t be moving sand around during competitions and with our busy golfing calendar, finding days to dedicate time to this is hard)but we do try our best daily.

We have been going round topping up the low ones and are happy if you let Richard or Lawrence know in the office if you notice any that are low so we can get this looked at. Please remember we cannot guarantee you a perfect lye in the Bunker, we smooth rake the edges daily giving the ball the most chance to return to the middle bit sometimes this won’t happen. Bunkers are a moving thing rain will move sand slightly through the bunker, golfers move sand all day through the bunker. Remember that our rakes are best at being push rakes not pull rakes. Please push the sand back towards the middle as you walk out. Most sand is found at the backs of the bunkers. The team move as much as they can but like I said this is done ahead of the golf teeing off at 7.30am and with 60 bunkers to rake it can be hard to stay ahead let alone move vast amounts of sand.
Sometimes you may find the rubber, but before you would have hit the clay. That motion itself would bring the clay particles into the bunker sand and following rainfall, the fines of the clay would work there way down and block the drainage meaning the bunkers were full of water. Sometimes you may bounce out but this did happen with the clay (granted not as bouncy) sometimes this will be lucky sometimes not but I can guarantee we are doing our best to minimise this. Occasionally getting a stance in the bunkers might be hard but like I said earlier we cannot guarantee the perfect bunker, I cannot guarantee the perfect stance in a ditch, or behind a tree or in a bush or in the heather as these are all HAZARDS that should be avoided. One thing for sure is we spend more time on bunkers than anything. We spend more time on bunkers than we do greens...


Staff
It’s been very busy for the team with lots to catch up on but they have been fantastic and I know how hard we are working as a team.
Working with the teams from TJ waste, Profusion, James Edwards Architect , The Tree management company along with the course has been hard and is something of a juggling act to get this Driving range and short game facility built but this obviously needs project managing from the clubs side. Along with checking the loads, the delivery notes and making sure everything is being done how we want it. The office have had to spend hours counting lorries and checking that everything is right also with Nick Clayton and Richard Arnold plus myself spending many hours on this project. During this the team have to cover work so I know how busy we have been not including all the additional work from growing in the first tees and building the pathway at 18th etc.

The MC have backed us by allowing us to bring back Matthew Moules for July and August while he’s back from University. It will be great to have him back as he knows the club well from his two years with us before and this will help agin back some of the hours lost on the project.   

Levis (left ) leaving meal. Jack opposite Levi

Levi Pethick our First Assistant left us in May for new job opportunity working as a Landscape Foreman. Levi had been a major part of our success over the last three and half years and we will miss him greatly but wish him all luck in the world and know he will make a successful career in this. I am sure he will be popping in to catch up with the team and the course.
Following Levi’s departure we have appointed Jack Wills to First Assistant. Jack came back to us from Ferndown last year and has great experience including working in Australia and will be a great addition to the management of the team. 

Matt Tubbs wanted to join a team on the up..

We have appointed a new member of the team who will come in and learn his trade and hopefully carve out a career in Greenkeeping. Matt Tubbs has joined us following a successful professional football career. He played for Bournemouth, Portsmouth, Wimbledon, Crawley and Eastleigh. Matt is also a qualified personal trainer and brings a very level headed approach and passion to succeed.

Members v Staff Match- Well this has not been played since 2007 and we felt confident with players like Lawrence, Adam, Steve, Richard, Graham and Rob all in our team but unfortunately it wasn't to be with the members winning 4-2 after Lawrence conceded a rumoured 20ft putt on the last and our team Captain Mr Young wasn't impressed as he doesn't lose at golf... a record that he has held for years :-) Next year 




Other changes?

You might have also noticed the new yardage posts on the tees and the new 150 posts on the course.  These have been planned for along time and with a Horse Chestnut being taken down from the 7th last year. This was the dried down and made by member John Bolwell. These were then treated by the team and the bonfire crew along with some help from friends, with Handy man Mart finishing them with the spikes. A massive thank you to John for all the hard work and to those that helped. The picture of the post went out on twitter gaining over 12,000 views and loads of positive comments. 

That's all from me and a brief catch up on where we are out on the course. 

Lets hope for some rain showers at night but a great summer for golf!

See you soon 

Matt

Same spring issues, different year

Well it's that time of year again, the Masters (which was amazing to see Tiger back) has been and gone and the season has started. Mother nature is throwing us curves balls again and the worry within the industry and Agriculture is increasing daily.

Hand watering...again

Having little rain over the winter was a good thing for golf but not for recovery on turf. The lack of rainfall to replace last years drought has not happened this winter meaning we started the year in a negative, rainfall wise. December tried its hardest to help claw some back but January was again low, February was above average helping us recover very quickly from maintenance week but March and Now April have been low. In fact so low we have only had 36mm of rain but due to the high daytime temperatures of the last two weeks our Evaporation has been 50.3mm, meaning a deficit of 14.3mm to date and another step back. So far this year we have had 223mm of rainfall on our new weather station (on top of the greenkeeper sheds, giving us accurate data). and on the same date last year we had 399mm. So what I hear you say! Last year was considered an awful spring, the 'Beast from the East' one and two... Without moisture and temperatures you cannot grow grasses or any plants or food more worryingly. Last year the lack of heat then extreme heat, this year lack of moisture with heat is just as bad and this has a knock on effect to the golf course.

Compost spread on fairways

The team have worked hard on re turfing bunkers and hollow coring, scarifying and over-seeding fairways. We also added green waste (compost) back on to the worst fairways to help us try to retain moisture and to give a natural feed to the weaker fairways on top of the granular and liquid fertilisers applied. Not only were the fairways worked on but we hollow cored surround and solid tined them too, these were over seeded and fertilised too including all the weak areas and pathway ends around the course. All the work has been done for these to recover as we get rain and they will. The next stage will be to go round and get the detail areas done. By this I mean more soil and seeding of weak worn areas, spraying weeds and getting on top of the course detail. Our man hours will now turn to all this rather than the all the work mentioned above. We will also be praying for some rain!

Once bush up you can see how much the bent grows compared to the Poa

Double bush and Lower HOC will help until temps pick up

The Rye grasses and the Bents have woken up from winter and soil temperatures are high enough for these to be going well but not quite high enough for the Poa grasses on the greens or on the fairways and rough. The Fescues are not quite awake yet either and all this is normal for time of year. Like I always say our golf season has started but mother nature always seems to start her season up after the FA cup final... why I don't know but by mid May every year we are up and running again.

Soil Temps still not high enough for good Poa growth but great for Bent

The higher bent grasses cause the ball to bobble

So what effect does the grass species have on you the golfer? Well firstly the greens will get a little bit bumpy and no this isn't caused by 8mm solid tines on greens or Topdressing, in fact both of these thing have been scientifically proven to smooth out surfaces. We also carry this out every month without fail, we even carried this out between the Club Championships and Pro Am last year and no one noticed...  The uneven growth in April is a big issue and as we try to encourage more Bent grasses species into the greens over the next few years will need to managed properly. Why would we try to encourage more Bents then? This is due to restrictions on us as an industry to use chemicals, in fact by 2020 the major chemicals we use to prevent Fusarium will be banned.We have already lost chemical for worms, leather jackets, chafer grubs and these we have started to see the effects from this already with more bird pecking and increase in mole hills. The chemical we had to stop fusarium on green once we had it was banned last year giving us nothing to cure it apart from cultural practices... Cultural practices like Topdressing and aeration! The bent grass species is more drought tolerant and more disease resistant, hence why we are encouraging it.

So I have explained why we need to encourage Bent grasses above but I have already blogged alot about why the greens get bumpy when the soil temperatures aren't quite right and all about the grass species. If you read these please read here:-  http://stonehamgolfclub.blogspot.com/search?updated-max=2016-06-11T03:56:00-07:00&max-results=7&start=7&by-date=false

What have we been doing to help correct this? Well, we have lowered the heights of cut ready for the season and we have started to double brush the greens before we cut them to get the bent grasses to stand up tall so we cut them and improve the ball roll. We will be adding more topdressing again, as we know this smoothes them also. Please see a link to the USGA on topdressing :- http://www.usga.org/course-care/forethegolfer/2017/topdressing-and-quality-putting-greens-go-together-like-peas-and.html

What else have the team been up too?

Well, all the work above including over seeding and composting fairways. If you have seen the last video blog please take a look here:- https://youtu.be/oF475Q6bU5U

Tree work

Before 

After

Apart from the tree work happening on the practice ground project you may have noticed lot of work taking place around the course and an increase in wood stacks. This has been due to a lot of trees suffering from last years drought and showing real safety concerns. We were lucky enough to have visits from both Mike Wood Senior Arboricultural Consultant and Will Jones (Managing Director)

The Tree Management Company during the planning stages of the driving range, both noticed trees they had real concerns about. These they didn't want removed but felt we needed to 'reduce the sails' and dead wood to protect the trees for the future. Some of these piles will be left for ecology and other removed. 

Lots of hand watering of new turfs, lots of cutting, many hours strimming (with more to do) and work to help the Practice ground project, the pathway on 18th will settle soon and looks great. We have prepped the edges and over seeded these areas. We have transplanted heather also from the back of the 1st tee tee banks to help give this a rugged natural feeling.
Some people have asked me what all the turf is down on the banks, this is called clod and its what was stripped off the practice green area before we lifted it as part of the project. This process allows us to get natural grasses to reappear somewhere else. The grasses from the piles facing out will establish quickly, and secure the bank, the rest will over time will breakdown into a nice soil, this will move a little giving a more natural finish and exactly what we have done on a couple of areas during the bunker project including the mounds right of the 2nd hole. 

We also took advantage of the shaper being on the 18th and got him to remove the old steps form the 18th and install a ramp instead. This will help improve safety for those who struggle with the steps and a reduction in manual handling.

We also got to demo a Wiedenmann Air seeder. This is a new digital way to seed with users being able to change inputs by 0.1 of gram. This is the future of over seeding when overseeding will be one of our best options in the future against disease.

Staff Training

The staff have undertaken two days of staff training this month. Firstly Customer service as the club looks to keep in proving the member relations and secondly First Aid training. Both days were fantastic and will be benfical to the members but let's hope we don't have to use the second one...

Practice Ground Project

The Phase 2 of the practice ground project is well underway and the new yellow and red 1st tees subsoil bases have been created.The pathway down to the new short game area and driving range has also started and safety mounding.  The trees down the bottom of 18th have been removed as agreed in planning and the old ditch is being piped to allow the range to move more left and centrally away from the 1st, 4th and 18th. We have the Presentation night for this on the 7th May at 6.30pm. Please come along and find out more about this exciting project.

New 1st tees and pathway route

We are also going to carryout are annual Greens Presentation night in June so watch out for information on that.

That's enough from me today I think, Please be patient with us as we wait for mother nature to help us out. The base work we have done will massively benefit once nature catches up and pray for rain (at night)!

Matt