George Paterson

Course report – Friday 20th July

At long last a dry and warm summer has brought firm and fast playing conditions to our links. Rainfall figures have been low for the past 3 months – April saw 31mm, May 21mm and June 13mm. Combine this with almost furnace like heat and the turf doesn’t take long to dry out. We have been watering the greens on a regular basis apart from the odd shower of rain that we’ve had. Today the heavens have opened and we have puddles everywhere apart from on the greens. That’s good news. The rain will soak in and help the grass recover along with giving some well needed moisture to the divot filling.

 

The Scottish Boys U16 Championship went well with a couple of dull and damp days to start then a lovely sunny day to finish. We were nursing the greens along as it was so dry before the event and doing a bit of hand watering to areas under stress. When the rain came it greened up the greens and prompted more growth than I would have liked. We double cut and rolled the greens for the last 2 days and gave an extra roll before the final round producing a perfect speed and test for the boys to enjoy. We had a truly International field and the winning score of -9 par was excellent from Italian Matteo Cristoni.

Our fairways had only been cut once in a month just before the boys U16s and this week just to go over any green bits. I prefer to keep a bit of grass on the fairways during drought weather as it really does help them sustain cover in difficult times. We are also saving on diesel! The wetting agent applied in spring also provided a little insurance. Thank you again to all the helpers giving up their time to help with the fairway patching.

Irrigation system – the system has been put to the test this summer and has had it’s fair share of problems. The system was installed in 1981 and is now 37 years old! I was noticing some greens were looking more stressed than others and others particularly green looking and realised that  some greens were sticking on and others not coming on at all. There have been a few issues with valves needing cleaned out or renewed, electric coils and decoders replaced and 3 burst pipes to contend with. The tees sprinklers on most tees are at most inefficient and wrongly placed and need re configuring for more efficient water use.

Burst pipe next to 6th greenside bunker

 

This uncertainty has required the irrigation cycles to be watched at night to see that everything is getting water as it should because it seems like we are getting one problem after another. Just the other morning the 4th green stuck on and it got 50 minutes of water before it was noticed. Not easy to keep the greens consistent when this happens.

The system is limping along with old components at breaking point and it is around 10-12 years overdue in being replaced. Speaking to an irrigation contractor recently he indicated a renewal price of roughly 130-140k for a full replacement of the system.

 

 

The tall roughs received a cut back of a few metres in early May and there has been little regrowth since then. The remaining uncut taller roughs have thinned out as well and the balance seems fair with not too much searching going on. No complaints so it must be ok!!

Overseeding – the competition calender eases a bit in the middle of September and it is then that we hope to spike, seed and dress the greens in order to improve the grass cultivar quality. Longer term this improves turf hardiness, appearance and playability with reduced water reliance. Dates are 10 – 12th Sept for this work.

Hoping for a continued warm and dry summer

 

Geeorge Paterson

Head Greenkeeper

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

18th April 2018

Spring has finally arrived after a prolonged cold winter this year. The fairways received there first cut last week and other areas are starting to show a little growth as the soil slowly warms up.

Following on from hollow tining the tees back in March we have recently verti-cut to refine the sward and today applied a slow release feed. We applied 14 bags of 16.2.10 + 2%Mg + 3%Ca + 6%S which equates to 50kg Nirtogen per Ha / 6kg Phosphorus and 32Kg potassium per Ha. This is the recommended rate to give the turf 3 to 4 months of required nutrient and steady growth to enhance the appearance and aid recovery from wear and tear.

The greens were also vert-cut last week and the height of cut lowered to 4mm. Our 4th sanding of the year went on this Monday to help fill in any imperfections and the 17th green and two putting greens were spiked and seeded to try and ultimately promote some denser turf cover. The greens were also given their base feed today with an organic mineral fertiliser. This contains 5 different forms of nitrogen for a gentle release as temperatures rise.                                                  13.5 bags were used over the 20 greens and this provided 17kg N and K/Ha. This is intended to last for around 7 to 8 weeks to which point liquid feeds will take over as we enter into the hotter summer months. The greens will be slightly slower for a few days until the feed has fully broken down into the grass sward.

Leatherjacket grub activity so far has been minimal and maybe it is due to the cold spring? I’m keeping my fingers crossed that numbers will be low and not cause any real superficial damage as and when they do start to feed on the roots and fill out.

Bunker work

We have over the past couple of months replaced the very fine sand in many bunkers. Some have been dug out down to the membrane and new sand put in and others have had an up turned sod base put in before the new sand added. It seems to be working with not nearly as much sand blow as previously which will save a lot on our labour.

New swailes at 6th hole

These two swailes are taking a little longer to bed in than first expected and mainly due to so little growth. They have been previously sand dressed a couple of times and also rolled, fed and given a flymo recently. Once some regular cutting takes place they will begin to fill out properly and be brought into play then.

 

 

Right hand greenside bunker – Hole 2

This is one of the bunkers very prone to sand blow and it took up a lot of our time having to re shape during dry and windy weather. The depth of sand was also an issue leading to plugged balls when the sand dried out and the unpredictability of the recovery shot within.

So much of the fine sand was dug out and the base re shaped with the use of old revets /turves before a fleece bunker mat was cut and pegged in. We added back in some fine sand and topped up with a 3” layer of new sand from Balachladich quarrie Muir of Ord.

The new sand once settled and weathered in should offer a more consistent depth and firmness allowing a more predictable bunker shot.

Like all of the turfing work it takes time to knit in and establish therefore we will hope to have all newly completed bunkers open around the middle of March.