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We are now 90% complete with our winter projects. We have resolved the issue with the sand scrape left of 4^th fairway. Some grasses will be planted in the area to build a root structure to try to help hold the sand in place.

We have removed the white stones @ 5,12,13,14 and replaced them with wooden posts that can be easily removed. This makes these areas look a lot smarter and will help the green staff maintain the areas better and quicker. In the future we will consider doing the same down the 4^th roadside.

The ridge at the 16^th fairway has been stripped and reshaped, the old fairway bunker at 17 has been levelled and the re-vetted turf has been removed.

We have cleared gorse by the tee at 12 and hope to build a new winter tee in its place for the gents as the current tee I feel is too small.

We will now spend the remaining time focusing on the course and getting that ready for the start of the season in less than 6 weeks. The greens have coped well through some cold periods and we managed to verti-cut them last week and solid tine them 2 weeks ago to help firm them up.

The number of unrepaired pitch marks on the greens this winter has been concerning. Unrepaired pitch marks make it incredibly difficult to have the quality of greens we want.

When arriving on greens could members’ please repair any pitch mark they make. It would also be very helpful if members could also look for and repair at least one other pitch mark whilst doing so which would be really appreciated.

Thank you!

David Munro – Head Greenkeeper

Recent discussions between the Greens Team and the Council have highlighted a number of areas where developments to the course are being considered in order to continue to deliver a high-quality experience on the course for all members, guests and visitors.

Below is a summary of works proposed (or already in hand). If you have any comments or suggestions, please submit these by email to the Council at the following address secretary@fortrosegolfclub.co.uk.

 

Area	Maintenance	Development	Implications/ Comments
Practice Area	Routine; ongoing	Purchase and installation of replacement artificial turf.	Provide a more consistent surface for play and improve alignment of practice surface; better protect caravan site and road from errant shots.
Area behind the Pro Shop & Path beside the 1st Tee		Resurface this area and relocate electric charging points for buggies.	Improve approach to course; improve drainage; move buggies off the course to the area behind the pro shop.
Hole 1	Routine; ongoing	Cutting back of gorse to the right of the fairway to encourage regeneration.	Reduce number of lost balls; speed up pace of play.
Hole 2	Routine; ongoing		Gorse will not encroach nearer the fairway than its current position.
Hole 3	Routine; ongoing		Allow the grass bunker on the right side of the fairway a year to settle to assess turf quality and impact on play.
Hole 4	Routine; ongoing	Fill the large sand hole on the left side of the fairway and stabilise the surrounding ground.	Make the area safe for golfers/walkers; allow golfers a viable shot from this area.
Hole 5	Routine; ongoing
Hole 6	Routine; ongoing	1) Bury power supply cables to the left of the fairway. 2) Install rock armour at seaward side of tee.	1) Improve aesthetics of the area; reduce risk to persons being hit by rebounding golf balls. 2) Shore up tee against collapse.
Hole 7	Routine; ongoing	Bury power supply cables to the left of the fairway.	Improve aesthetics of the area; reduce risk to persons being hit by rebounding golf balls.
Hole 8	Routine; ongoing	Remove 2 bunkers situated in the left rough: the bunker the shortest distance from the tee, and the bunker furthest left of the fairway.	Allow players in these areas the opportunity to advance the ball a reasonable distance
Hole 9	Routine; ongoing	Reduce the heights of the lips on the bunkers short left and short right of the green.	Improve the aesthetics of the hole; align more with the tradition of links courses featuring “pot bunkers”
Hole 10	Routine; ongoing
Hole 11	Routine; ongoing	Long term: consider extending the white tee to widen it – in the direction of the 8th hole	Provide a wider selection of tee placements; provide even greater opportunity to emphasise the dog leg nature of the hole
Hole 12	Routine; ongoing
Hole 13	Routine; ongoing	Removal of one patch of gorse to the right of the fairway next to the 14th tee on the downslope.	Reduce possibility of lost balls; speed up pace of play.
Hole 14	Routine; ongoing
Hole 15	Routine; ongoing	Removal of mound on right hand side of fairway sited between the fairway bunker and greenside bunker.	Enhance ability to maintain this area of the rough to a consistent standard.
Hole 16	Routine; ongoing	1) Removal of rough mound on the fairway and restore it as fairway. 2) Reshaping of mound running across the fairway	1) Enhance aesthetics of the hole. Allow players in this area the opportunity of a reasonable recovery shot. 2) Allow maintenance of turf to a consistent standard; more consistent lies.
Hole 17	Routine; ongoing
Hole 18	Routine; ongoing	Gorse on left to be controlled.	Gorse on the left of the fairway will not encroach nearer than its current position.
Out of bounds area to the right of the road on the 4th hole, just short of the “holiday house”.		Erection of a shed for storage of sand, leaving space for a turning area for greens’ vehicles.	This will allow sand to be stored dry, speeding up its application & assimilation onto greens across the season.
Wooded area behind 7th green and ahead and to the right of the 11th tee.		Provision of electric power supply.	No cost implications to the club; Gives the club the option of the possible installation of a “halfway house” in the future.
Area beyond and to the left of the 5th green at the rear of the Chanonry Point car park.		Installation of new electricity substation and removal of large pole.	Improve aesthetics of the area.
Area on shoreside of the path behind bushes near 8th green/9th tee.		Installation of new electricity substation.	Necessary for burial of cables.
All bunkers	Council ask that players replace bunker rakes in the middle and bottom of bunkers after use.		Reduce the likelihood of balls entering the bunker and resting in unplayable positions.

Members are asked to contact the club using secretary@fortrosegolfclub.co.uk should they have any rubble, hardcore, sand etc. that they wish dispose of as it could be of use to the greens staff.

GREENS

Hollow Tine/Heavy Sand/R117 Fescue Seed (mid-October) – DONE

Feed Terralift TX10 (mid-november)

Spray Greens against Leatherjackets(early/mid-November) Acelpryn

Spray Greens with Instrata Elite Fungicide (mid-October) – DONE

Spray Greens with Pervade Penetrant, Defender & Fiata Stressgard Colourant (November/December)

Pencil Tine (weather dependant) periodically & put on a light top-dressing

TEES

Feed Tees (early November)

Feed Winter Tees

SL6 Solid Spike Tees (3/4″ solid tine)

Spray Tees with Krista Mag + Iron (November)

Verti-drain Tees (December/January)

Core & Sand Weaker Tees (holes 3, 6, 7, 8 & 16)

FAIRWAYS

Spray Fairways Krista Mag + Iron (November)

Solid Tine approaches (October) – DONE

Sand Weaker Fairways (February/March 2026)

Granular Feed Weaker Fairways (March 2026)

WALKWAYS

Verti-drain and rope off heavily used areas & sand/seed any weaker areas

Turf over heavily worn areas

Edge and dust paths and re-dust where needed

ROUGHS

Cut and collect tall rough (October) – DONE

Granular Feed weaker semi-roughs on holes 3 & 4

Spray with Laser (March 2026)

GORSE MANAGEMENT

Cut back remaining bushes on the mound to the right side of hole 1

Cut back encroaching bushes on areas to the left side of holes 8 + 10 plus both sides on hole 18

BUNKERS

Revet the second bunker on the right side of the 6th fairway (October) – DONE

Reduce the mound on the front greenside bunker on hole 8

Reduce the mound on the left greenside bunker on hole 9

Revet the 10th greenside bunker on the right hand side

Revet the 11th greenside bunker on the right hand side

Re-do the middle section on the 15th fairway bunker on the right hand side

Other bunkers on the Links will be revetted as normal throughout the off-peak season.

MATS ARE COMPULSORY ON ALL FAIRWAYS, APPROACHES & THE FIRST CUT OF ROUGH.  YOU WILL PLAY AS NORMAL FROM THE SECOND CUT OF ROUGH.

THESE RULES APPLY FROM MONDAY, 10TH NOVEMBER 2025 THROUGH UNTIL FRIDAY, 13TH MARCH 2026

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