Mother Nature levelling things up!

 

Hi All,

 

Finally a chance to sit down and write another blog. It’s been a while and what a season we have had. Record breaking temperatures and the benefit of a full irrigation system in a year described as the hottest in 500 years.

I know from our data the green performance has been higher this season compared to the last five years and with the benefit of the investment made by the club we managed (at a cost) to keep grass coverage on the fairways and playing surfaces. I have no doubt we would have been in the same situation as we were in 2018 if we hadn’t installed the irrigation system.

11th Hole 26th October 2018

11th Hole 26th October 2022 

If we look back at 2018 I can remember the huge sums of money needed to repair the course and the months of work to get some kind establishment back. I don’t think the fairways fully recovered until 2020. Again after lots of hollow coring, over seeding, staff hours and patience from the membership.

So the good news our insurance policy against the drought was needed this year and the irrigation system has us going into winter in a better place than in previous years.

Now we face Mother Nature ‘levelling things up’ this was always going to happen after a relatively dry winter last year and drought summer. We are still a long way off our yearly rainfall average with only 601mm falling year to date and our yearly average at 900mm, with September recording 97mm, October 91mm and November so far (11/11/22) up to 107mm of rain so far. That’s nearly half the yearly rainfall falling in the last nine weeks. If I was a betting man I would expect us to be finish the year around 850mm meaning another 249mm of rain between now and the end of December. That’s a lot of water and something that will become more common as the climate changes.  

Course Closures

 

The impact from all of this rain has meant the course has become saturated at times and slippery in areas meaning walking around safely can be an issue. At this time we have to make call and sometimes this means the course will be closed.

Like in any other sports like Football, Cricket, Tennis and even Rugby (my son had a game called off just last week as there was a risk of drowning… yes drowning as players end up under one another with their face in the water laying on the pitch). This is only a problem in golf for those that lay on the greens to line up the putts but sometimes we need to make a call on safety and that’s final. When this happens we move the staff onto areas they can work or catch up on jobs back at the workshop and around the clubhouse or even in the ditches to help drainage flow. Safety must and always comes first.

 

 

We will also use our agronomic qualifications and understanding of site when looking at implementing closures, winter mats or trolley bans. How much damage can we sustain? How much will this cost to rectify? Will this damage be recovered in time for the main golfing season? This and so many more thoughts as we make a decision.

 

I can promise you that any course closure is the last thing we want to do, as greenkeepers we would love to have the summer months all year round and have no issues with course conditions but we are in the UK and our weather patterns are varied.  Further north of us most of the countries end up with snow cover being the natural course closures, some for several months. Below us the weather patterns a lower altitudes tend to be drier or similar to us and even nearer the equator hugely different with completely different grass species.

 

Even locally there are huge differences from north to south, east to west, especially rainfall and temperatures with the west being normally hit the hardest rainfall wise and the east bone dry and struggling with high temps and if we break this down even more locally we see huge differences between Parkstone, Hayling and even Corhampton to us rainfall wise.

I remember Charlie (greenkeeper here for 44 years, who worked with Pete Marsh who worked 50 years at the club) telling me “it doesn’t rain here in the summer”, do you know what, he was right!

We would watch daily radars tracking in and moving around the Isle of Wight and splitting towards Parkstone and Hayling. We have low levels of rainfall compared to the other sites but as the direction of the jet stream moves for winter we get the rainfall. The beauty now is we can all see each other’s weather stations but that’s not all to the puzzle and we understand that.  

The soils

Perhaps the biggest difference locally are the soils and these make a huge difference. Clubs perceived similar terrain wise and nothing like us. Hockley and the Winchester Courses are on chalk with the other Heathland Courses like Parkstone, Ferndown, North Hants, Liphook and Broadstone all on sand. Hayling as we know is a links course on sand and gravel so it couldn’t be more different.

At Stoneham we are on London Clay, 150 meters deep pure clay, this gives us an advantage in the summer months of staying greener longer meaning we require less irrigation to maintain a good coverage compared to those on sand. This summer has been hard year on those courses as the required amounts of water to keep them fully alive against taking into account evaporation was almost impossible.

However during the winter months those table turn to them having the advantage, especially if we have a lot of rain days

Rain days

What do I mean by rain days? Well not the amounts of rainfall, like I have been talking about above but the amount of rain days. Days or hours which allow for drying down times. The beauty of our new soil scout technologies in the greens means we can track a greens performance in the summer for play and its decline to un-playable in the winter and back to playable with hard data to back this up.

 

We have just recently, since the 22nd October gone through a very wet period, especially from the 1^st November with one dry day out of seventeen days. Meaning the drainage has been working but this cannot cope with the level of rainfall and no drying time. It felt relentless for the greenstaff on the course.  

soil scout sensor in 18th green showing heavy rainfall and dry downs highs of 56%

 

The 18^th Green shown here, shows all the heavy rainfall patterns coming in over the start of November. You can see immediately when the rain stops and the greens go from a very scary 50+% moisture content, which is completely flooded and then saturated to a point of drying down. The speed of the drain down has improved significantly since we have added drainage but this must not be mistaken for a sand based USGA green.

The sand based short game green showing under 20% moisture 

 

A bit of History

Greens from the early 1900’s were designed and made from the local soils, with a lot of the better courses actually clay lining the greens even if they were on sand to hold water in the winter. Stoneham had an abundance of clay and it was this clay that was used. Again another issue is not all greens have been made the same like now in the modern era, all greens profiles are made the exact same way. This gives consistency when dealing with moisture and is easier to manage.

Stoneham like most from before the 1990’s were typical old clay push up greens designed to hold water in the winter as irrigation systems didn’t really get going until the 1970s.  

Golfs history for the inland courses would normally be played in the summer months and on a links in the winter months. Now we tend to play all our golf at one course and are making changes to these courses to allow them to be played all year round. 

 Drainage

 

Our recent drainage works in the greens has now given us an outlet and overflow for a bath if you like and will cope with rainfall, as long as we get a break to allow it to work. When comparing it with sand based short game area green which doesn’t really change, you can see how far apart these are in the winter but the cost of renovating all greens to a sand based green would be in the millions now and completely unachievable and something I am not sure I would want to do. We have fantastic greens and great complexes which are a challenge and can catch you out, such amazing design work by Willie Park 114 years ago.

 

12th Greens drainage 

13th greens drainage 

Talking of drainage, we have finished hopefully our last two greens to be drained with the rope system. You will have noticed the 12^th and 13^th have been done in the middle of October and are recovering well. We have cored the drain lines twice and would normally go again before the season starts again to help smoothness. This now means we have drainage in all greens except the 7^th and 16^th. These have been left as they have a higher sand content or sit very firm all year round and our data is showing they aren’t a concern at the moment.

 

In the future we may need to add a secondary or third type of drainage system to get the greens to perform even better. This maybe sand or gravel banding. Meaning small slits across the greens back filled with sand or stone. This is being monitored daily now.

 

This now means some of the greens 5^th, 13^th, 14^th, 17^th have pipe drainage and rope in them with the 1^st and the 10^th also having gulley points in them along with the rope drainage.

The investment means quicker dry down times, meaning we can get the course back into play quicker, even though sometimes it might not feel like that, it could actually have been worse.

 

The club have recently placed an order for our own drainage trencher which will allow us to continue installing drainage in the worst areas around the course in house giving us flexibility to do this at the right times. Watch this space for updates!

Going forward 

Winter Mat trial 2022

 

You will also notice we have a mat out on one of the Par 3’s. This will be moved from hole to hole to give you all a go at various length shots for feedback. Finding a mat that fulfils all of our needs is hard. Some like to put tees in them or to play from the deck, some like them firm, some soft and we like them light enough we can move them around the tees to spread the wear.

Our long term aim and something we are working with golf architect James Edwards of EDI on is new teeing areas. Areas that are fit for purpose of a modern club. Big enough to cope with winter golf meaning no mats are required. WHS compliant, free draining and away from shade issues and with an option for a variety in shots from various tees fitting for the standard of player.

We hope to be able to show something on this soon but for now we only have 0.6 ha of tees compared to the minimum requirement for the modern game being 1.5ha of teeing ground. Another example of how the game has moved on since its original design. Until then we may need to add winter mats on tees to cope with the lack of recovery or during particularly wet periods.

Please let us know your thoughts on this mat as we plan to get others made if the majority approve.   

The club held an Open consultation evening for the reservoir project on Wednesday 9th November evening with members and local residents dropping into to see the plans and talk to the team behind the plans. This seemed madness but also correct to be talking about water harvesting from the course when we had been closed in the run up to it. Please take a look at the plans in the clubhouse if you get chance. Water is going to be a big talking point for our industry in the future and being more sustainable can only be the right thing to do.

Conclusion 

The investments in pathways, bunker liners and drainage on greens and fairways allow us to recover heavy rain periods in a much better state than ever before and course closures are always the last resort and we asked for your patience during these times. We know we aren’t perfect and we know Stoneham is on a heavy clay. A site that gives us the beauty in the spring and summer months we all enjoy.

 We must ensure the game can be played in a safe manner on a safe course and minimising the impact and damage to the course. We must remember damage now does need to be paid for and we need time to recover. The level of both of these is down to how we treat the course now.

Roping off of areas around 3rd green 

 

You will see we have added ropes for those that need a trolley to follow and allow us to protect the most vulnerable areas.

Please follow these with a trolley at all times. Please if you can make every effort to carry your bag if you can. 

A small bag with a few clubs can be great fun and means you walk less distance. These small things like this protect your course.

 

That's enough from me, I've taken up too much of your time already. Let’s hope I am wrong about the rainfall predictions and we go into a lovely frosty (we need the leaves down to tidy them up) sunny spell… Back to clearing leaves.

Until then take care and see you soon!

 

Matt

 

Maintaining good greens

Hi All,

Another blog, thought I would share with you what’s been happening on the course and mainly why!

One thing I will say is the Bluebell stands and gorse look particularly good this year and Cow Parsley & Campion will soon be joining them along with the Foxgloves.

Like I mentioned in the last blog, April had been a problem month for growing grass and one of the reasons was high E.T days. This was caused by the wind and not like the summer months which are mainly due to heat.

Now as we head into May things are starting to warm up naturally but we will still have those cold mornings when you grab and jumper or cardigan before leaving the house but things are warming up especially this weekend. Normally consistent temperatures night and say kick off (pardon the pun) from around the FA Cup Final It’s almost like the weather knows the winter sports are finishing and the summer sports are just starting…

Greens

May is the time of year when the Poa is now switching into seedhead mode, it is diverting most of its carbohydrate reserves to seed production rather than root development and shoot growth. Again, this can cause us issues on smoothness but we have now lowered the heights of cut on all surfaces to summer heights. The impact this has on the greens is it reduces the difference between the Bent grasses and the seeding Poa. We have started to brush greens daily to give a smoother cut, regular Topdressing will take place throughout this period as it does wonders for smoothing out the surface and adds to our yearly total.

Topdressing greens behind over-seeding 

I think now might be a good time to talk about Topdressing and why we do it. Every year following our soils and Organic Matter (OM) lab tests we set our targets for applications throughout the year. This year we are aiming to apply a minimum of 150 tonnes. A similar figure to last year but way behind out 2015 -2018 figures of 250/300 tonnes per year.

Why?

This is because we are now fine tuning our OM levels and control of this within the surfaces. We currently around 4-5% OM on the greens in the top 20mm and all on target in the other areas (20-40mm, 40-60mm, 60-80mm) and are around 2-4%. These are now within the target guide lines.

What’s Topdressing and OM got to do with each other?

Well, we need Organic Matter on all the surfaces, our soils need this to survive and continue the biological circle within the soil life (more on that soon). If we don’t have OM or thatch as some know it on the surface’s we would be left with soils bursting through the surfaces all the time or the ball  would react like it’s hitting concrete on the greens in the summer and bouncy yards away.

Too much OM and the greens become soft and spongy. Diluting the OM with sand so it becomes more friable rather than compact and tough helps water movement and seed development within it. When it’s compact, aeration, seeding and playing golf all become an issue. It’s all about balance and we are always lab testing this to help us make better decisions and gives us hard data.

Back to our OM targets and where we started this journey back in 2015 (@14%) we were miles away and the performance of the greens was poorer all year round. This was a knock-on effect of, a lack of aeration and topdressing due to a common but misguided approach not to do any maintenance to the greens as this would upset the golfers.

 Yes, it does, but what we all need to realise it is a necessary evil. We don’t like it but it’s got to be done. Like going to the gym or visiting the in-laws…

Thinking about it from the greenkeepers perspective for a minute but putting into your life. Would you want to do something that made your job dramatically harder for days and maybe even weeks at a time, If you felt it wasn’t doing anything? I think the answer would be No. Nor do we but it does make our lives harder, it’s stressful and hard work but we know the benefits.

Now we have worked hard for years to get into this ‘maintain’ stage rather than ‘renovate’ stage, we need to keep up the little and often approach. That way recovery is quick almost the same day rather than weeks on end.

I am not saying it’s always going to be in the ‘Maintain stage’ either. We could have a long, wet winter and OM levels get away from us as the natural thatch break down wouldn’t happen and we would need to be a bit more aggressive again but for now we are in a good place. 51 tons YTD (99 tons remaining before October). Today we applied our first over-seed of the year now temperatures and getting more consistent.

Again, this is so important and as we go into the season to get full coverage back and give us new seed coming through ahead of the competition season. Giving us better greens.

We will be seeding a creeping bent grass. This will help with the blend of the Poa and Bent mixes and creeping bent likes you to be aggressive with it. Like summer heights if cut and brushing… this is then finished with a topdress and brush.

I have a had a couple of comments about us doing maintenance work to the greens at the moment but I am hoping this had made sense and you can see why we need to do the work.

The course is now busier than it has ever been. Working habits have changed during lock downs and Covid. Many working from home and able to play week days plus more competitions than ever. There is no doubt this is great for golf but we are having to work differently and having to do work when maybe others wouldn’t have noticed before but we have to do the work and keeping the greens healthy is one of our main objectives.

Sometimes we will do a little aeration to help with compaction in the soils to help root development, drainage and soil life. Next, Topdressing for OM dilution and smoothness. Then over-seeding to establish new grasses and build a better mix meaning we won’t need to be as aggressive and we will have grasses that are more disease and water tolerant in the future. This along with a good soils feed and fertiliser program plus an Intergrated Pest Management (IPM) program are the bases for a good green’s strategy.

 

What else has been going on?

The new look 15th as we push the apron out now we have irrigation to this area

Course starting to get its summer look

The season is now on us and this has meant an increase in all mowing areas. This maybe a standard cut or reverse cut to tighten up the swards. Regular fertilisers, growth regulators and wetters being applied along with Humics, Aminos and Carbs to help the soils and the plant health.  

The greens have had another micro aeration and top-dress last Monday. This being the only day with a competition for over a week at the time. This is all part of our monthly works as set out above.

Hollow tining the drain lines on 9

Roll after clear to help lower

Finished ahead of any golf

Hollow coring of the drains on the newly drained greens on 9,10 and 11 took place last Wednesday morning. These have been hollow cored three times now and that seems to be the ‘magic’ number for getting the surfaces level. You will notice we haven’t top-dressed the holes afterwards. This is done to encourage the drain lines on the greens to drop down, making the surface level. If we were to fill it with sand this would change the levels. They would in fact raise. When cutting at heights of 3mm, getting the surfaces level is a must. We are hoping that’s all we need to do now on those greens along with some over-seeding to fill the last of the lines up to blend this in.

 

What’s been happening to the putting green?

 

Over seeding greens 

As discussed last month, The putting green has suffered from the winters compaction and lots of putting drills in the frost and wet. This is something we are going to have to manage in the future as the scars from December/ January are still visible.

 I said in a previous blog, the PG underwent some renovations to alleviate some of the problems. We may need more works and to micro manage this going forward but it was essential to get tackle the issues straight away.

Putting Green 

What you will notice is the drain lines in areas are still showing up. This had us questioning why this was happening. Had the rope drains moved. Had they pulled up? After some investigation work and discussions with our Agronomist we have realised the rope hasn’t moved and the actual problem is caused by the level of compaction. When we are trying to decrease this compaction with aeration it in fact is moving the compaction around and it’s breaking at the weakest seam. This being the drain line that are back filled with sand. Unfortunately, this for us means short term pain for long term gain as the aeration works are needed to open up the pore spaces and allow roots to grow in the soil so we may in fact get more heave before it gets better.

I now know we need to protect these areas more in the winter. I wanted everyone to be happy to finally be back playing golf this winter and maybe I should have, looking back with hindsight, could have shut the green for a certain periods to rest it. Maybe we should alternate between the Putting green and Short game green in the depths of winter. This would give each green a needed rest and allow for some recovery and would still give us somewhere to putt before going out. Again these just ideas to help get over the issues.

We live and learn. Learning from our past and reflecting helps make us better. Not only individually but as a club and before I hear the mob starting to gather outside my office, let’s remember we all look back with hindsight sometimes and wish we had done things slightly differently. For those of you that say ‘that’s not true’. Remember I watch you playing golf daily and see some of the shots;-)

 

Going forward

 

Well for the putting green we have been plugging the worst areas and over seeding by hand to help this and our plan is to seed, seed, seed and feed.

On the course you may have noticed the new signage made by John Bolwell one of our amazing members. These look so much better than the old rotten ones. These will now weather over time to be more like the finger posts around the course. Thank you John, for all the hard work.

Next on our hit list is the 150 posts and setting these in a metal bracket like the signage in a hole these are replaced after being taken out for shots and left level in the future. Big thanks to Adie our Handyman for making the brackets.

The weeds have popped into life and will be next on our list of jobs to do along with detail works and lots of flymoing and Strimming on the course.

That’s enough from me today. Hopefully this has given you an insight to why we do works to greens. What we are doing on the course and what’s happening in the coming days.

I will do a blog soon about the odd week we have just had as I’ve ran out of time Don’t worry it won’t be as long as this!

 

Happy golfing

 

Matt