Oct 11th
As we come close to the end of the playing season the course is gradually greening up again after the dry summer. 71mm of rain in September and 20mm so far this month has helped restore moisture levels in the top few inches. The water system was used more this year with around 1860m3 used on the greens,approaches and tees. The temperatures are still above average recently which is keeping some growth going with only one cut of the greens missed last week.
Greens
We are still cutting at summer height of 3.7mm with much less grass coming off at present. The last PGR (plant growth regulator) has worked a treat for our busy end to the season.
Our planned mini coring, scarifying and top dressing is taking place next Mon 18th – Wed 20th Oct. This is required to keep thatch levels at a minimum and in turn bolster new root growth, strengthen the grass plant and ultimately keep the greens reasonably firm. Last autumn we didn’t put on an autumn feed and with that the reduced fertility gave moss an opportunity to creep in. Therefore we have a symbio 5.2.10 + 1.3Mg to go on after the coring and this will help with recovery and keep the turf stronger through the winter months. We will also look to deep slit and verti-drain the greens at some point in November and apply a penetrant-wetter to keep the rootzone as dry as possible through the wetter months.
Fairways
Worst drought and Leatherjacket damaged fairways at 3,4 and 12 have been cored and drag matted to return a little humus back into the turf. I don’t think I have ever seen so many Daddy Long Legs on the go this autumn which again is a bad sign for the course in general heading into next year. The aeration holes will help moisture penetrate into all the little dry areas. These fairways have now been dimple seeded with a four way mix of Chewings, Slender, Strong and Hard Fescue. Fingers crossed we keep getting some showery weather and decent temperatures to see some re establishment. We are currently giving these fairways another sand dress which will help cover any seed lying on the top surface.
Hopefully we will get the fairways deep slit a couple of times this winter and do some much needed verti-drain work. An iron spray will also go on in the next few weeks to knock back any mossy areas.
It really would help if more members could be encouraged to use their portable fairway mats this winter which would also help our semi-roughs from getting destroyed. You get a great lie every time!!
Recent work
Early Sept we’ve been coring approaches and added grass seed and sand to the weaker ones. The winter greens have also been cored, double verti-cut, seeded and sanded as some areas of fairway that we normally place our winter greens on are worse for ware after the dry summer. The new winter tee at the 4th has at last been seeded a few weeks ago and has germinated very well. We just need to keep cutting it every week and get it to thicken up before it is open for winter use. Some walkways have been cored and seeded and some dimple seeded and will require roping off shortly to help let them recover.
Winter work
All remaining long roughs to be cut and collected.
We will have our normal 10 or so bunkers to re-vet.
More bush removal up the left of the 4th hole and sand scrape areas created here and in front of the tee itself.
Removal of last years cut stumps on 13th ridge.
Removal of a couple of sections of whins along 1st bank.
Aeration work.
1st tee path.
George Paterson