September 2019

Course report Sept 23^rd 2019

It’s been a difficult summer greenkeeping wise due to the high level of growth on all areas of the course and practice area. Routinely we cut things such as tee and bunker banks, semi-roughs, range etc on a fortnightly cycle but this year has seen us struggle to keep up on these jobs as everything is needing done more often and more grass equals more time to do each job. The range has been particularly difficult to keep on top of (with a weekly cut) resulting in a lot of smaller jobs just not getting done.

Rainfall in August measured 106mm and that is approx. 3 x more than a normal summer month. Nonetheless the greens have performed very well and the fairways continue to improve with the wet weather.

Greens

Little work on the greens this summer apart from cutting and occasional rolling. Two wetter/seaweed/potassium carbonate sprays with a little Nitrogen have gone on June and July just to tick things along. A verti-cut last week and another seaweed/calcium/iron spray to try and dry up a little Fusarium marking here and there. The top putting green was hollow tined and Graden scarified (Mon 16^th Sept) with some bent grass seed introduced. Recovery has been pretty quick due to the weather of late. This week we will be solid spiking and following up with the scarifier/seed (bent seed at 5g/m2) and top dressing. A wet start today slowed things down but 12 greens spiked and 5 greens scarified/seeded. Rolling to re-enstate surfaces and keeping an eye on moisture levels for recovery and enhancing seed germination.

Going into the autumn I would like to carry out some slitting then late autumn (late Nov) the greens will need another hollow tine with 6mm tines and also a deep verti-drain with larger 3/4” tines during December. All this work will enhance drainage and surface firmness, promote deeper root growth and help combat fairy ring. In turn they will become more resilient for next year.

Roughs

Majority of tall roughs cut and collected and will be sprayed with Laser to reduce course grasses within.

Semis

All semi roughs were sprayed with herbicide to treat Plantains and clover

Tees

Some tees have been spiked/sanded and seeded

Pro shop/office work – site prep work (Oct 14th)

The area of the yellow/red tee where the putting green is to be extended needs stripping back first + RHS of this tee. (Approx 6-7m)
Re locate RHS tee sprinkler.
Strip turf in front of Medal tee approx 6-8m and lay aside.
PG extension area then needs to be excavated and contoured to desired putting green level with sand amended through the soil. De stone. (require mini digger)
Stock pile soil front medal tee.
Lift turf from car park end of putting green and re lay onto new extension. Lay apron turf as required and excess turf below 1^sthole whin carry.
Enlarge and raise medal tee and re turf

Removal of the dust path to the left of the yellow tee at 6^th and some of the turf lifted from the putting green side could be used here.

Course notes 29^th July 19’

Periods of heavy growth this summer with 82mm of rain this month and plenty of warm days thrown in. Therefore it has been difficult to keep up with high level of grass growth and in turn taking longer to complete each task. Normally going into July/Aug growth has slowed down as soils become drier but not so this year! Staff are beginning to take there summer holiday week off and this further puts pressure on us to get jobs done. The weather has benefited the partial recovery of the fairways but also brings with it turf disorders (fusarium/fairy ring/nematode) markings and plenty of nuisance mushrooms popping up everywhere.

Greens –

The greens have performed well this summer being reasonably firm (not too many pitch marks) very true and decent speed. Automatic irrigation has only been applied on 4 nights since the early May installation so this highlights the amount of rain that has fallen this year. They have had a couple of liquid seaweed sprays with very little nutrient and have been ticking along nicely. A verti-cut was given last week which has cleaned up some surface debris accumulation and the height of cut has remained constant at 3.9mm which combined with some rolling is providing good surfaces to putt on. Comparing our greens with Lahinch, Portrush, Renaissance and Lytham we are definitely leaner and equally as fast it would seem. Heading into autumn maintenance week (mid Sept) I would like to Graden scarify the greens and introduce some bent grass seed. This will create a bit of mess while doing the work with plenty of debris to scrape up but after a couple of cuts should get back close to normal.

Some Fairy ring disorder is re appearing therefore a cluster hollow tine will be required early winter plus a 3/4” tine with verti-drain rather than early Spring in order for getting into shape sooner next year.

Aprons and approaches–

As with the greens performing well and getting cut twice weekly but could do with three cuts (all time consuming)

Tees–

Lots of grass on the tees following the summer feed which went on a bit later this year. Two cuts per week (could do with three) and we are only just keeping on top of them but generally looking healthy with no real problems.

Fairways–

Throughout May and June the fairways were getting a fortnightly cut and since start of July it has been each week (twice before BI Open) therefore much more manpower for this compared to last year. Lots of thin areas from last year have now filled in with Meadow grass and divoting mix grasses and are slowly recovering. The rain this year has certainly helped. Ideally late Autumn, recovery would be enhanced following a hollow core and drag and clean up with the Super 500 flail/collector machine. This would be a very labour intensive job taking probably a couple of days to complete one fairway therefore we could try the 2^nd,3rd and 4^th and see how we go from there. The 1^st fairway is too stoney to hollow tine although the diamond spiker may help it.

Rough–

The tall roughs will be cut and collected later part of August

Archives for September 2019