Lockdown 3.2 The Home Straight

 

Hi all, 

At last we now have some positive news with the announcement of golf coming back on March 29th. Setting up and maintaining a golf course for no golfers isn’t right. We miss those sounds of balls being hit, laughter, the clubs rattling in the bags, the conversations we have with you all across the greens and the smell of beer, wine and food coming from the patio area and the odd shout of FORE! 

 

 

One thing we have had to do is rethink our strategy going forward for this season. Course Maintenance week was originally booked in for the 6th of April. 

This would have included Greens, Tees, Aprons and Surrounds plus the potential back up date rope drainage of three greens. 

 

There were several reasons for the later maintenance week this week this year. 

 

The main points:- 

 

1) April is the month when the Bent grasses grow in the greens and the Poa Grasses don’t, leaving the surfaces very bumpy. This is all down to soil temperatures, Bent thrives at 6* and Poa 8* and that 2 degrees plays a massive part until middle of May. Over the last two years along with the possibility to add PC rope drainage in the greens we have really increased our Bent grass over seeding. Again this is due to the revoked chemicals for turf diseases and the need for us to look at more sustainable ways for the future. It was discussed with our Agronomist and the decision made to move the maintenance week to April to punch holes, scarify and sand the greens while they would be bumpy anyway. Unfortunately this is a yearly occurrence but was missed by you the members last year due to Lock down 1. 

 

2) Leatherjackets (or crane fly/ daddy long legs to most). These are now a real problem for golf courses and other turf industries as explained before but this year is the start of the process of the old chemistries having no residual value left in the soils to help protect them. We are likely to see even more damage especially on fairways. The Crane fly while in a grub state (leather jacket) have laid eggs towards the end of last year and these will now would have hatched and be eating up to 60% of the plants root system leaving them very weak. 

Holes in greens would leave us open for the leather jackets to move up and down the plants like an elevator shaft. It would also allow other Crane fly that are in flight from the surrounding areas to lay eggs in the soil again and the process repeats. After March the ground tends to be drier and the leather jackets less active. This added to our decision to move to April. 

 

Some of you will notice a weak plant when playing but the Corvid birds notice them even more from the sky and dive down to peck the surface ripping the turf out of the way for them to find their dinner. The damage we are left with is great and will need constant divotting until they repair. 

 

Taking all of the above into account on any normal year we would have kept maintenance week in April. 

However the circumstances of this year have made us re-think our plan as you the members have been away a long time and coming back in to find the greenstaff doing Maintenance week would be very unpopular! 

 

Luckily the course has dried out hugely in the two weeks, this has allowed us to cut all the main playing surfaces for the first time this year including semi rough.  

 

This meant the course was dry enough to topdress the greens to fill the holes up and this reduces the risk of the leather jacket issue so I think we have done the right thing in taking advantage of the weather. 

 

We have also managed to move the contractors we use to help us Hollow core Tees, Aprons and surrounds to March the 10th. This should take no more than two days and all these areas can be then topdressed and over seeded behind them. 

 

This will only give us 18 days until opening and some areas won’t be fully repaired but this will mean the work is done for the season ahead. 

Obviously the two issues raised at the start of the blog won’t go away but something we can watch and learn from but I think as long as the weather holds we should do as much as we can to give the course back to you the members to enjoy.

 

Greens Drainage 

 

Due to the break in the weather we have managed to go ahead with the drainage work as planned and we haven’t had the issue of this rolling into April. It was touch and go on Day 1 because the course was still so wet. We have had to make some decisions about what greens got done. 

After a course inspection the 17th hole was just too wet to get into with the machinery so an option nearer the clubhouse was chosen. 

After 9th, 10th and 11th next on our list of wettest greens was the 3rd. It was decided to add this green to the 5th and 6th.

The 17th is now a summer job.

 I am keen to do 9, 10 and 11 in one group to allow golf to play to the 8th and then down the 12th when we do it. 

 

Outlet being dug in on 6th

 

6th Finished

 

Putting green 

 

As work started on the other greens I spoke to the MC about the issue on the putting green. This has gradually deteriorated over the last few months particularly since November. It was closed for most of the time between Lock down 2 and 3 and was getting worse in January and February. 

 

 

 

Our moisture readings were 56% on that green which meant the green was suffocating as the soils were full of water and had no air space in it. 

The Clegg (firmness) reading was 43 gravity’s. That’s below our target of 70gm for winter golf. The rope drained greens on the same day were at 40% moisture and 65gm, this then improved again with in 24hrs to 36% and 71gm. 

The putting green was still above 50% and around 45gm. This data showed me just how bad it had got and we made the decision to get this done while no golfers were on site. 

 

 

 

I must be honest I didn’t want to drain the Putting Green until all the course was done but feel our hand has been forced as it is a heavily used green and outside the clubhouse. It also made sense to do this while everyone was away from site as the outlet was a very long one and wrapped around right edge of the green and between the putting green and the 18th.

We have completed all the drainage works on the 3rd, 5th, 6th and Putting green. 

 

These are all now finished and the repair works to get these greens smooth have started and  in the coming days and gives us nearly a month to sort. It’s worth remembering this drainage won’t stop flooding but will massively speed up drain down time and allow us to open the greens quicker. 

 

   

All the drained greens  will be hollow cored to reduce the thatch levels and not scarified.The newly drained greens aren’t quite smooth enough to take a scarifying blade without causing damage to the surface so this it our best option to maintain the thatch levels on those greens. 

 

 

Greens Maintenance week 

 

Chisel Tining on the 1st

Greens maintenance as mentioned above has been completed. 

The greens were chisel tined at first,this is a knife action which helped dry the surface out to allow the tractor to get on them quicker to carry out maintenance week. The Chisel tine doesn’t leave a hole for the leather jackets is more of a stabbing action with a blade. 

 

 

Verti Draining 18th

 

Next the greens were Verti drained to 200mm with 12mm tines and then Pro cored with 12mm solid tines to 100mm. 

Between each tine sand was applied and brushed in with our sweep n fill brush. On Wednesday night we got 4.1mm of rain which helped wash the sand in lovely. 

 

Pro Core

Following all the sanding the greens were scarified to -10mm. We may choose to do this again while no golf is on site to help remove even more thatch and firm up the greens. 

 

 

The newly drained greens at 3rd,5th,6th and Putting green have been hollow cored along the drain lines, then rolled along the drain lines to help get these level. This process will be repeated in the next couple of weeks until the greens are smooth again. 

 

Sand slit left from greens drainage

 All the Tees, Aprons have been Verti drained  with a 12mm tine to 200mm. Other works this week have included hollow coring of weak areas on fairways, cores removed so we can sand and over seed these again before you return. 

 

Verti Draining 15th tee

 Next week the greens will be topped up as the sand settles with another couple of top dressings and fertilised to aid recovery. 

 

 

Other News 

 

 

 

After six weeks of hard hand digging all the heather is now out on the course. The team have done a fantastic job in making it look natural. I don’t think anyone will know how hard it was getting that 820m2 out actually was and I doubt many will notice as it looks natural but we know we have done our best to age the banks. 

 

The last of the turfing has taken place around the 8th and 18th bunkers too. The additional smaller trees have arrived and have been planted around the range. 

New Yew hedging has been planted to cover the Greenkeepers yard and the Bomb shelter. 

A small amount of gorse has arrived and will be planted around the range to age the banks and naturalise them even more.

 

 

The team have been busy clearing scrub from within the heather areas. We get a lot of Oak saplings taking hold these areas and part of our heathland management is to clear these areas when required. 

 

The damaged areas from the tree planting have been over seeded. These areas will come back in the coming weeks, to give a full grass coverage. 

 

 

As mentioned all the course has finally been cut, Fertilisers have been applied to the main playing areas, the course has been blown to collect debris and last of the leaves collected again (the strong winds are blowing these from the dumping grounds), greens have been sprayed and all the winter servicing of our machinery has been completed. 

 

One thing which is really pleasing to see, is the recovery on the fairways from all the work. There are still some weak areas as mentioned but we are working on those. 

End of season 2020

February 2021

 

The Range Building

 

 

The range foundations are now in. This took just a week and now it’s ready for the steels team, unfortunately they are delayed on their current project are expected first week of April. The steels will all be put up in one hit and then the suspended beams for the flooring of the building added. This design has taken the foundations into the original sub soil of the old range and built up from that. Over time we are expecting the range outfield to settle but the building will remain in the same place with the foundations that have been engineered. 

 

Conclusion 

 

What a difference a day makes they say. Well two weeks of dry weather right when

we needed it has helped us hugely. 

 

The continued investment in the course with another four greens drained and now maintenance week completed at the beginning of March is truly fantastic.

Golf maybe the only turf sport where there is no “off season” like Football or Rugby, Cricket or Tennis. These sports all shut down for a period and renovate there pitches, wickets and courts before they return to play.

This year has been a unique opportunity for us to see what that feels like and the team have achieved so much in a short time. 

I would like to take this opportunity to thank the team for all for their hard work. 

I am so glad we have got these major works done while you the members are on a forced break and not in April as planned. 

 

Our attention in the coming weeks can now be the golf course and not major projects. The time between now and opening will give us an opportunity to set up and get the definition and detail right for the season ahead. With all the major works done we now just need Mother Nature to do her bit. 

 

We are all on the home straight now. Not long to go.We can’t wait to see you back! 

 

See you soon 

 

Matt 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lockdown 3.1 The dark days of winter

Hi All, 

No word from the government on when things might be lifted and golf back. Lockdowns plus the cold and wet weather make it easy to feel down at the moment. The first lockdown as scary as it was, at least we had really good weather and people could outside and enjoy it. Lots of gardens and DIY jobs got done. This time is different, this time it’s very frustrating but it won’t last. 

One of the positive things I can talk about is the days are getting longer and the vaccination program is going well. Things will improve and if we have to have a time when we are locked down and can’t play golf then actually the time when the course would probably be closed due to insane wet conditions is that time and not in the spring and summer when we really want to be out. We are in February now and this is to me in the last proper month of winter. It’s a short month and then hopefully things will start to grow, the sunshine on your face will feel that little bit warmer and the birds will be singing.

 As we move into February we recorded 96mm of rain in January 21. With 95mm falling from the 12th January. I must say I now think this is the wettest I have ever seen the course since I’ve been here. I’ve been keeping an eye on the course and recording if we would be open or closed during this lockdown and January we would have ended up with 17 days closed days. That’s huge and just shows you how wet we are. In four months we have now had 536mm of rain plus 27mm so far in February That’s over half a year’s total in an average year and February has started damp and we would been closed for a most of February already. So if I am being honest you aren’t missing much and at least the course isn’t getting ruined during this abnormally wet period. 

 What will the course be like when we get back? 

Well that depends on when we are allowed golf to return. Currently the course is wetter than I can remember and it’s still only February and we’ve had no growth, in fact January was our lowest growth since 2010. So if we opened now it wouldn’t be any different to the normal wet winter look. However the course will come out of winter in a better state than a normal year, the ends of pathways, walk off areas and fairways have less traffic damage on them and are recovering well. We are starting to see some pecking from birds looking for grubs and leather jackets under the soil. This is something that having golf on the course actually helps. The birds don’t like humans and tend to stay away. 

Corvid pecking on fairways looking for Leatherjackets 

 If golf doesn’t return until March when the schools go back then hopefully we will be through this wet period and moving more towards the spring. I would just say, don’t have unrealistic visions of the golf course just because people aren’t playing it. It’s still winter, it’s still wet. It’s getting a great rest and that will put us ahead when the good weather arrives.

 What’s been happening on the course? 

We have been busy, very busy but the jobs we are doing are taking a lot longer as we can’t use machinery due to the wet conditions. 

What we are achieving is some really good detail works around the range project to help blend this in to the course. 

Wet conditions digging out the back of 17th 

Work in progress on 17th 

We are now so wet the only option to do work is to use wheelbarrows to bring the heather into the areas we are working and then dig by hand the areas out and put the spoil into the same wheelbarrows and walk them back to the main pathways around the course. This as you can imagine is a very slow process. All the heather turf has arrived and we have three weeks to get this out onto the course meaning the weather and time are against us but the team have been fantastic and pulling together to get this done. Over time this will establish and become visually stunning but natural looking. 

Work around the 10th tee has now been completed. The re- turfing of the path edges, adding Heather to the new mounds to give a clear divide between the 9th and 10th tees. This mounding also help hide the pathway and the new platform area. We plan to add a patio area at the rear of the 10th championship tee for use during the summer months as a halfway stop for major events. 

Next on the list for the team was the 4th hole. Following the tree planting on new banks from the range the team set about adding heather to the bank to help age the bank and to blend this in with the natural heather in the carry. Once the grass establishes on the bank this will look really natural.   

Digging off the grass ready for Heather

The new look heather bank from the Range project 

 We have refurbished bunkers on the 1st Fairway (second left) also known as the ‘Blandy bunker’ after Richard Bland, as this was one of his requests during the bunker project when working with the architect. 

The two fairway bunkers on the 11th, the two fairway bunkers on the 6th and to the right of the 17th bunker also have been re heather plugged in areas to repair the extreme drought damage to them and to make them more visible from tee. We are going to install water in different forms to these bunkers in the spring to allow these areas to watered during the summer. 

Jack heather turfing the 11th fairway bunker right 

6th Fairway bunker before

Newly heather turfed 6th bunkers

Finally the fairway bunker on the 18th (first left) has been clad in heather. The team have taken advantage of the odd day of cold weather and ran in top soil at every opportunity as I mentioned in the last blog, replaced the revet turf (fairway end), shaped and heather added to give us the impact we required from the tee. The Architect wanted the bunker to be more punishing the further left you hit it. This means if you just miss the fairway the shot will be easier, if you pull it left towards the range the shot now will be to take the medicine and play it safely. It really does make the hole feel more like a dog leg now and has made the 18th a better finishing hole. I’ve always struggled but some of you I know find this easier. For example Andy Sullivan during the Clutch Tour hit Driver, 9 iron into the green! 

 Some of you will have noticed we used some of the soil from the wetland area project and added a platform behind the 18th tee. This will be a new championship tee. It will need a year for the soils to dry down and then for us to start draining, adding rootzone, irrigation and turfing. I am hoping this project to be done by the end of 2021. Watch this space... 

 Other works have included fertilising tees, spraying greens and a lot of work in the really wet periods cutting up fallen trees from the wind and collect debris and piles of wood off the course. The team also lifted the trees in the car park that were over hanging members car parking spaces. Again a small job but taking advantage of the empty car park during lockdown. 

Removing and burning timber from around the course is time consuming but a great job to get done to keep the course looking tidy. We have left selected ‘stacks’ around the course in line with our ecology policy. Some of these are real breeding grounds for insects and birds. These have been left in 'out of play areas'. 

The bed next to the putting greens has had its shrubs removed to open up the view across the 18th and 1st from the clubhouse. This was something the was brought up by both the course consultant and the architect as looking out of place now the main hedge had gone. We replaced the shrubs with more heather to compliment what’s already established really well in that bed. It will take a year to catch up with the rest but it will look stunning in the future and is lower maintenance allowing us more time on the greens. The shrubs were transplanted and added to the area around the rear of the 10th tee. 

 As you can see, even with the awful weather the team have done a great job in getting things done. Going back to wheelbarrows is a bit old school but needs must and we are trying to reduce damage. We have only managed to cut the greens and fairways once this year so far due to a mix of cold and absolutely soaking. 

Luckily we have had very little growth. I can’t remember a time when we had so many rain days in a month. The problem with that is doesn’t give the place a chance to dry down before the next wave of rainfall. The only positive from the lockdown is the lack of damage being caused during this awful period of weather. We are starting to see signs of bird damage on fairways now due to the lack of golfers being about and the start of a big issue for most clubs... Leather jackets. Following our trials our numbers are high. So this is going to be an issue for us like most clubs in the weeks, months and years ahead. With the chemistry now revoked and new chemistry taking time to come through all the legalities. We are in a no-man’s land. We are going back to the old cultural practices. We need to make Starling bird boxes, use silage sheets on the ground to bring the grubs to the surface and then physically remove them. We will scarify when dry enough to try and cut some of these grubs up. As an industry this is a very big and very real issue that won’t go away and you the golfers will notice. I can assure you we are doing all we can to learn and develop a new strategy to beat this problem. 

A before the heather photo of the 17th. Amazing shapes in the winter sun

 As I finish this blog the snow has now lightly dusted the Course while the team continue with Heather work behind the 17th and on the 18th with a wind chill of minus 4! in total 820m2 of heather has been hand dug in around the course and more turf is turning up as I write this. For those of you that have had the vaccine, I hope you are well. For those who haven't yet it won't be long  Roll on the spring and summer, and more importantly golf coming back. 

 Hopefully see you all soon 

 Matt