Covid -19... Update March 2020

Hi All,

While the rest of the world seems like chaos and we face a huge global pandemic from Coronavirus the one sport that isn't off the agenda at the moment is golf. The UK's Chief Scientific adviser has announced to a health select committee "You can play golf provided you keep a distance"

We are trying to keep course open as long as possible but the world of sport have turned their eyes to golf and asking why this should be allowed when there sport isn't... We must follow the simple rules as stated on the flag pole, emails and in the clubhouse.

Important Information

•  If you have any cough, cold or flu like symptoms please do not come to club or go out on the course and follow the government guidelines. Please see here:- www.gov.uk/coronavirus

• All Staff, Members and Guests attending the Club are asked to practice respiratory hygiene (i.e. covering your mouth and nose with your bent elbow or tissue when you cough or sneeze
• Staff, Members and Guests attending the Club are asked to wash their hands and use the hand sanitisers placed around the Club regularly 

• Please follow the government guidelines regarding "Social Distancing". This basically means staying 2 meters apart at all times. This is generally easy when playing the long game but the risk increases in the bottle necks, greens, tees, bridges and pathways. Try and stagger and stay back from the person in front of you. This also means staying 2 meters back from all staff members this includes on the course, clubhouse and the pro shop. 
• Arrive for your tee time on time but please 'No hanging around' outside the pro shop or too many people around the putting green and nets. Please use common sense and protect yourself and others

Upside down hole cup

• Ensure not to touch the flag or pins. Always use your gloved hand if you do. We have turned the hole cups upside down so the ball sits higher so hands don't need to go into the holes and the ball is easier to retrieve. Its important that we minimise all risks so we can keep the course open for you all to enjoy. We are encouraging 'Gimmes'. 
• Do not clean your ball with your saliva!
  
• No Handshakes before or after the match, no sharing equipment
• The ball washers are out of action and not to be touched.

Rakes have bought in from the course

Bunkers have no Rakes now. The team will rake daily

• All the rakes have been removed from the bunkers. Please use your feet or the back of your club to level out the sand as best as possible
• Mark your own card. Do not swap cards 

• The boot cleaner/ shoe compressor is now off (because this is touched by nearly every golfer coming off the course)
• Wash your hand for at least 20 seconds on completion

We understand that the steps we take will create disruption but we strongly believe that they are appropriate in these circumstances where the health and well being of everyone remains our priority.
We are mindful however that guidance is constantly changing and that we are all being asked to take measures that change the way we work and live our lives to help stem the spread of the virus for the foreseeable future.


If you still wish to play golf at the club during this time, please do it safely and within the Government Guidelines. 

Other news... 

The team having been taking advantage of the good weather in the last week. You didn't think I would blog without mentioning the weather :-)  The rainfall has been unbelievable with 310mm YTD so far and nearly 800mm in the last six months. Our yearly average is 879mm and March has not ended yet... Luckily the weather has improved, its a shame about the rest of the world!

All the main playing surfaces have been cut this week. The fairways for the first time since January. We have finally aerated the greens using chisel tines. These are like knives. The go in and give a bigger hole underground but with slit at the surface. This will close up quickly and trap air within the soil profile. 

Chisel tine. Notice its not round but a knife like hole

Hand cutting of greens and aprons is still on going. The surfaces are starting to firm up now and trolleys are allowed back on (some good news).  All the tees, aprons and surround have been vert drained with 12mm tines at 200mm depth to breath some air into these areas. 

All fairways, Aprons and surrounds have been fertilised with Iron and PGR (growth regulator). Normally we are feeding like mad at this time of year to get growth and to improve course recovery. This year with the temperatures increased, following the winter feeds and the current situation in the world we are trying to rain the growth in just in case transport restrictions are brought in.

Flymoing and strimming of bunkers and banks has started and they look good for the first cut of the year. 


Lots of blowing of debris including the Corvid (Blackbirds, Magpies, Crow) damage. Remember that this is being caused by the chemical withdrawals in 2018 that we warned about. They are digging for leather jackets or crane fly (daddy long legs to you and me). While they are a grub (like the 'Hungry Caterpillar' book), they are eating the roots of the grass plant and the birds can see this from the air as the leaf discolours and they know where dinner is... the grass plant is the only thing stopping it. We have been trying to reduce the amount of Magpies on the course and are looking to encourage Starlings as they still eat the grub but with a smaller beak, so less damage. We are also looking at crow scarer's etc. The damage will be divoted or re turfed depending on the circumstances but in the grand scheme of things this is a small problem that we keep addressing. 


Its a worrying time for us all and staying safe and healthy is our main concern. Just because we cant see it, it doesn't mean its not there... 
As long as we allowed we will continue to maintain the course as good as we can. 

The team have been fantastic and adapted to the changes. Split shifts, breaks and cleaning procedures two to three times a day. I could not ask for a better team around us at this stage. 

I will to try blog weekly to keep those in isolation up to date with the course and the club.

As a club we need to be ready to come out of this in a better position and back to normal as quickly as possible. I am sure the party after this has past will be amazing. Until then, stay safe and protect yourself and those around you. 

Stay safe everyone 

Matt

Riders of the Storm

Hi All,

This blog's title comes from the famous 60's/70's band the Doors. I have been thinking of a way to sum up how we are feeling with the recent weather.
Two Sundays in a row have been lost due to Stormy weather. Storm Ciara and Storm Dennis have taken their toll on the Course. We lost a huge Oak tree on the right of 7 and silver birch left of 5 and a lot of wind damage to trees and debris all over the course with Ciara. Dennis was a lot wetter with less wind but we lost a big Oak to the left of the 10th pathway and a Silver Birch on the right of the 7th. So not too bad but on a closer inspection we have several trees that now have huge cracks down them. These have now been assessed and will be addressed soon, Some will be reduced and other felled for safety reasons. I feel like we have all been riding out the storms, just waiting for them to end and for spring to arrive (I can not wait!)

Oak down on 7th 

Following Storm Dennis, a new lake formed at the bottom of the 18th due to the 51mm of rain

Rainfall wise, I have had enough... there I've said it. 209mm so far this year and that's in just six weeks. February is already the wettest in six years. this on top of the 486mm from September 10th until December 31st. That's almost a years rainfall in five months! I wanted the rain, and I ve got it. Mother Nature always tends to even herself out.

Maintenance Week rescheduled 
Unfortunately you will have seen we have had to move this weeks Maintenance week. Although it wasn't meant to be to aggressive with regard to the works on the greens, we still would need to drive around the course and more importantly onto the greens with the tractors. This plus forty+  tons of top dressing driven out to each green would have caused so much damage. Damage that would need to be repaired.
We were due to rope drain three greens (2,14,15) again this would require diggers on the aprons and the material removed from the holes. We would then need to drive on the greens again and the use of road roller to level before we the could tine them to get the levels back for putting was to much with the recent weather. we had 51 mm of rain from Saturday night to Sunday Night... thats alot of rain on every square inch of the course.

The date has been moved to the 2nd March when we hope it's drier... This was the only date the contractors could commit to regarding the greens and the week we have already booked into hollow tine Aprons, Tees and Surrounds.

You may have noticed

We have still been busy even with all the rain and storm damage repairs. The Oak tree on the 7th took five guys two days to cut up, burn and stack. This was purely down to the size and complexities of the branches.
Our woodland management work is slowly paying off as two trees in both storms isn't perfect but is still better than it would have been before. Reducing damaged, diseased and loss of the healthy trees is always our aim. Protecting the feature trees for the future!

You will have seen a lot of worn areas have been re turfed around the course. Some of these areas will need to be done yearly due to these being high traffic areas from golfers all walking the same direction (to and from tees and greens for example). Some areas will be fine and give better lies and are either damage repairs from two years of drought or damage from the bunker project over the last three years.

One of the bonuses from the wet weather is that it highlights all the wet areas and potential drainage projects for the future along with drainage issues with our current drains. Above you will see the repair being made to the 15th fairway drainage. The old clay pipe had collapsed, the team hand dug this out and replaced with new pipe, this was then stones but we left this open with the high amount of rain forecast over the last few days. This will be topped up with rootzone and turfed as the weather improves.

The pathway to the right of the 4th tee has been removed. This again like previous paths (18th next to the tee) was not being used as most of us walk on to the mens tee from the front corner.
This will be filled and turfed once we dry out enough to run the materials out. Our plan is to Tarmac this pathway this year and reducing the areas not used as this saves money and time.

The pathways have been getting some TLC. The sleepers from the 3rd tee have been removed as these were rotting and a slip hazard when wet. The sprinklers for the 3rd tee were on the pathway so Joe and Graham have moved these back onto the side of the tee. Weeding and topping up pathways has been on going but as you can imagine this with the current weather, this has been a never ending problem as the pathways are washing out.

Work is being carried out to plug some of the heather areas that died off during the drought. These will be monitored and watered where possible in the future.

The fairways have been deep solid tined (verti drained) and we have started our second run of this. We normally do this in November but we held off to allow the fairway seeding to establish. Doing this now will encourage the root development of the grass plant and help with drainage. We hope to do this as much as possible running into the new season.

The removal of the old clubhouse has now been done and the are has been filled with crushed concrete and road planning to give additional car parking spaces. we may add Tarmac to this area in the future but for now we need the area to settle. It is totally safe to park on. Above you can see the mounding being top soiled and turfed to give a attractive edge (and to allow for any bumps when parking) before we install the fence. 

Education

Four of the team were lucky enough to attend the Greenkeepers conference this January. We attended courses on various subjects including bio stimulants, disease control without fungicides, Environment and Ecology, Man management and performance, Water Management, The future of golf 2030 and many more. I was lucky enough to present three times at the show. One workshop working with greenkeepers from all over on career promotion. I was then asked to be on the panel at the Young Greenkeepers Conference. This talked about many things including Social media good and bad, Career development and interviewing. Following this Myself and James Edwards presented a talk at the golf Architects Forum on the Stoneham Driving Range Project. We were in good company as the talks also included the JCB club, Dunbarnie, Royal Dornoch and Royal Portrush. 

As you can see all this plus the daily set ups of raking bunkers, cutting greens, dewieing greens, cutting the course (when we can), woodland work, College work for those on the team requiring training has kept us busy. The team have been fantastic this winter, especially with the weather and all the leaf clearing required. I thank them for their efforts and good humour. 

As we dry out expect a lot of work on the roughs, pathways and topping up bunkers, along with maintenance week, aeration across the course and work on worn areas.    

Like all of you and all of us, we just have to keep riding these Storms and being as productive as we can until the spring is upon us! 

Hopefully you will get some golf and we will see you out on the course. 

See you soon 

Matt   

Maintenance Week February 2020

Maintenance Week

17^th February – 21^st February 2020

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

Greens

Monday: Deep solid tine to 200mm with 12mm tines, solid tine to 100mm with 12mm tines, fertilise, top dress and brush (Front 9 Closed)

Note: 2^nd Green ROPE Drainage taking place Hole closed for two days

Tuesday: Deep solid tine to 200mm with 12mm tines, solid tine to 100mm with 12mm tines, fertilise, top dress and brush (Back 9 Closed) 

Note: 14^th Green ROPE Drainage taking place Hole closed for two days

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

Note: 15^th Green ROPE Drainage taking place Hole closed for two days

Thursday: Top dressing Back 9 Aprons & Fertilise, Top dress greens again. Deep tine aprons (Back 9 closed) (Holes 2, 14 and 15^th Closed)

Friday: Cut and Roll greens, Possible snagging day for bad weather. Hollow coring 2^nd, 14^th and 15th greens to level after drainage. (Holes 2, 14 and 15^th Closed)

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

We will do our best to provide nine holes of golf daily to you the members. Please see the daily board by the flag pole.

Range Project Update

As we come to the end of 2019 we can reflect and what has been a busy, busy year. Over 11,000 lorries have come and gone from site plus a packed golfing calendar meaning a lot of patience from you the membership.

EDI visual on photo 

 By now you would have seen Nick Claytons email back in December, Nick outlined the costs and where we are with the project. Nick also pointed out the costs required to run the club and to maintain good facilities. With the cost of a new irrigation system looming, water provision, on course toilets and the old clubhouse removal for safety and additional parking plus a full clubhouse refurbishment. The list is endless and costly. 

The range project has been postponed since December. The amount of rainfall we have had since the end of september is staggering (570mm to date) and no let up is in site. Originally, the site became too wet to work and the amount of fill that required moving needed large machines to do it. To be honest I really enjoyed the break from the lorries, I think we all did! Being able to use the back tees on the 1st again and the 18th main tee gave us back the course as we like it. 

Weekly reviews of the site have been on going but at the moment we are too wet to start back up. Personally for me I want this to start up ASAP. I can see the end in site to the levels we require and would like the lorries to finish once and for all. Shaping up the range, adding drainage and topsoiling can all be done during the summer with no impact to the course. 

Above is the now proposed timeline * Subject to weather 

 How long will this take to finish? 

Restart
Looking at the weather at the moment and talking to all parties involved, above is what I think the timeline will look like.  First off, I think with a bit of luck Lorries will start back up end of February/March. I would like to start the carry/hollow on the 1st asap as I would like this back in play before the main golf season starts.  One of the issues we have is not necessarily the ground but what is being dugout out of the fields that supply us, at the moment this is slop and we cannot use this for fill at the moment.  Once this dries out a bit I think we can commence. 

Tree Planting 

 I have almost given up on the chances to tree spade this winter ( we have a month left to do it) I will never say never but I am not hopeful. To much work is required on the left of the 18th and then we need to get across the course to move these trees without causing damage and these are big machines. So for now I think this is unlikely. 
However we do need to plant the trees around the short game area to reduce risk and finish the site before opening. The option to bring in rootballed trees that we have already purchased is still an option and something I will be working on to get completed by the end of February. 

1st Hole Carry/Hollow

You will have noticed that the trees have been removed between the 1st and the range in the hollow. This is to allow us to blend out the range into the 1sth hole, this will stop huge puddles appearing at and creating poor drainage on the 1st. It will also make the range look like its always been that high in future years. I am very keen to get this area done asap as mentioned. 
During the fill the tees will need to go up on top of the bank probably level with the first bunker on the fairway. This will be Monday to Friday due to lorries but not at weekends when it will be on the normal tee. 

18th Pathway and Ladies Tee
The new ladies tee and pathway on the 18th have suffered due to the amount of rain and this being the low lying area. The finishing works have been postponed until this area dries out. Once dry, the area will be top soiled, drainage added to the pathway, pathway topped up, carry shaped and all areas over seeded. 
Behind the new ladies tee the area will be raised and heather and and roughs will be planted to naturalise. The irrigation pipe you can see lying along the surface will be dug into the correct depth as we shape the banks along 18. 


Short Game Area

The short game area is growing in nicely. We have added the first layer of sand to the bunker and are working on reducing the heights of cut on the surrounding areas to match the course. I hope to be able to Open this in May but we will keep you informed. Look out for details...

Lorries Finish

Once the lorries finish filling that won't be the last of the lorries? We will need lorries on site to bring in the rootzone, stone and other outfield resources. At this stage we are hoping to start the range building and all of these materials will need to be delivered to the site. Only once all of these are completed we will start to dig the road out across the 1st and the overflow car park and reinstating it to how it was before. The contractors will still be using the overflow car park as a yard until they leave, Once this is all complete we as a club can then finally get things back to normal. 

Proposed Plan

The Build

Profusion will be back on site to get the final shapes, the final shapes on the range, building of the tee subsoil, bunker and and greens. Once the shapes are in and agreed, the drainage will be installed along with Irrigation to the relevant areas. After this you will see the thousands of tonnes of rootzone being delivered and spread across the site before final shapes, seeding and fertilising of the areas. The bunker sand will be added once the grow in is complete. 

At the same time the power and water supplies will be ran into the new range building. The concrete slab will be created first an then the framework, cladding and fitting out. We hope to give the Pros a teaching studio to use this winter 2020 and the rest of the building to be fitted out and open in 2021. 

Grow in 

The grow in will take several months mainly over the winter period. It is essential to get this right so when we open we have no problems collecting balls and giving a great facility. 

Other questions...

What are the banks on the 18th going to look like? 

Above is a visual from James Edwards of how the banks will blend in with the 18th tee, Our aim is to get one band cut up the slope if possible and then have rough, eco roughs, heather and trees planted along the bank.

Why are we doing this? 

Old Chipping Green

New short game grow in  

The old range was 70m wide and dropped 15m from front to back

The new range will be twice as wide with very little fall. this will be fully drained,  have a grass tee, greens to aim at, fully equipped driving range and studio.  

The old Teaching shed!

As you can see, the old facilities were not fit for purpose. Most clubs are the same, the range is just some extra space they had and done nothing with. This project will be so worth it in the long run. Great facilities that you the members deserve. I hope this blog has updated you and informed you of the coming weeks/months works. I hope it reminded you of what you had and gives you an idea of what the future looks like (thanks to James Edwards for the visual images). 

We will need to be patient one more time for the final fill and then these facilities won't be a dream anymore! 

See you soon

Matt

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