4th August
The weather. Witnessing today our worst day of summer weather this year with high gusts of wind up to 60mph with heavy rain at times thrown in. As was last year the better summer weather took place pre July as the slow moving jet stream eased the low pressure both North and South of the UK. It was particularly dry from February onwards with rainfall readings of 16mm February, 27mm March, 23mm April, 42mm each in May and June of which all occurred in the last week of May and over 3 days in June. 82 mm fell in July giving a total of 267mm for this year compared to 415mm for the same period last year. That’s a deficit of 148mm and to put that into perspective it would be like a pretty wet winters month of rain. Nonetheless our water system has been put to good use with irrigation of the greens starting as early as Feb 26th this year! and overall for a total of 43 days to combat the dry weather. The tees have had 19 irrigation cycle days and the same for fairways. This did help the fairways sustain themselves and was never so important with the level of golf traffic experienced this year. Our greens team have been extra busy keeping on top of fairway and tee divotting which keeps the surfaces in a presentable state. As like each year we have our band of merry crows pecking out the divots in Spring and early summer and it is one of the joys of greenkeeping!!

Moving onto the greens. Our greens have been playing pretty well for the most part and it has been quite difficult without natural rainfall at prolonged times. We have kept the height of cut at 4mm to leave a little more leaf on the plant and also eased off aggressive verti-cutting treatments. Once the weather turned we went on with our longer pencil tines and this has helped with uniformity and with the recent rainfalls it has helped re hydrate the soils beneath. Last week we gave them a light verti-cut and we plan to give them a light top dress in the next week or two to improve surfaces further.


Our tees are standing up fairly well and again are getting divotted up to 3 times a week and getting cut twice weekly. We purchased new tees cutting units with brushes for the back rollers in spring this year. They are doing a great job and are also saving the lads much time in not having to constantly clean them.
Practice range. We seem to be spending an awful lot of extra time this year on the range keeping it looking presentable. Mountains of broken tees to pick up along with divots galore that need picking up before we cut the grass. We have provided a couple of broken tee caddies at the back of the range mat and it would be helpful if you could deposit broken tees into these please. We are also spending a lot of time picking up golf balls that have been hit over the fences on either side which I find incredible that so many people can hit a golf ball that far offline aiming for the centre of the range! If people are going to hit from the sides can they please still aim for the middle of the range as the amount of golf balls getting lost is costing the club money.
Bunkers. We have trialed a new sand in the bunkers this summer and so far it seems to be working ok. The sand is finer although not the same colour but we have been blending it in with the old sand and seems to be giving an acceptable mix. We are also on most occasions flat raking up the sides which is leaving these faces firmer and less likely for a ball to plug. Bunker maintenance and sand topping up is an ongoing thing and it is difficult to keep them looking and playing perfect all of the time. Members can help by being a bit more diligent when raking over and leaving the end of the rake handle of the bottom step when they depart.
Looking ahead to Autumn we have our greens maintenance week starting on October 13th and then towards the end of October/early November SSE will be taking down the power lines and poles on the West side of the course. The power lines will be then trenched undergound which will improve our outlook along this side and most importantly not get in the way of a well struck drive of the 6th tee!!
Enjoy the rest of your golfing season.
George Paterson
Head Greenkeeper




The 11th Medal tee extension is progressing well and we just have the teeing surface to turf and with a good grow in should be ready for use around May time. This new tee really opens up the dogleg aspect of the hole.




7th greenside bunker
Work on the greens took place in February when we gave them a solid spike followed by a Graden scarify and a heavy top dressing. This was quite aggressive at the time and happily they settled down fairly quickly after a week or two and much improved after another couple of dressings of sand. Growth has been extremely slow this year so far and we have only just lowered the mowers to 4.5mm. Our next target is a star spike and a little refinement with the verti cut units, a liquid spray of seaweed/molasses/humic acid and Nitrogen, some more light sand dressings and a Spring feed towards the end of the month. If we can get a wet day without any wind then our first application of wetting agent will go on.
Coastal erosion. Note. Last Autumns high tidal surge coincided with one of the lowest atmospheric pressure readings since 1916. As you are aware plenty work has gone on at the 1st and 2nd holes over the past few weeks. Rock armour has been placed by GF Job at the 1st and 2nd tees to protect these most important areas. In between a short term fix of sand and Marram which was salvaged or reclaimed from the far end of the course and built up back to the exposed manhole covers and re gaining the core path once again. Two rows of chestnut fencing has been staked in to help protect this sand material and aid in any Marram regrowth. Subsequently and unfortunately last weeks high tide has taken a fair chunk of the sand away from the beach edge and some of the fencing will have to be moved inwards. . Long term this area can be re charged with sand and backed up with rock armour when enough funds are raised and become available. The core path area is to be soiled and seeded shortly to restore grass onto it and will be roped off meantime.
helps dilute fibre and in turn promote better soil characteristics for fine grass to tiller into. Some more selective sanding will go on.


We also dug out the last group of whins on the left of the 4th fairway which gathered a lot of golf balls. We have created another sandscrape which will again catch the stray shot and make for a tricky recovery, meanwhile speeding up play.

greens in an effort to re wet these bits. We also gave all the greens a close pencil tine down to 5″ to help enable any water to penetrate more evenly. We have more wetting agent to go on at the next opportunity which will hopefully bring back a full recovery. My thoughts are that the Meadow grass (Poa) component in the sward doesn’t like the dry weather and will always be susceptible in weather extremes and when the greens are pushed for speed. The fertility in the greens is also low and particularly the sandier greens which suggests that a light organic feed is imminent and would benefit things overall for the rest of the playing season. We are currently cutting at 3.7mm which is low enough for our site and greens make up but ultimately, if players want faster greens then the greens swards will require more Fescue grasses.
Our roughs have pretty much looked after themselves this summer with no summer cut required as they have thinned out with the dry weather. Plenty of colour in them with with dandelions and wild flowers here and there. A cut and collect will be done end of season.
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.
With the recent dry weather cutting has eased off a bit on the fairways and are only being cut as necessary to avoid any unnecessary additional stress. We have been relentlessly patching and tidying the fairways each week this year with the high level of play and birds turning over divots in search of Leatherjackets. Warne, our new summer labourer has helped greatly along with our staff in keeping the place neat and tidy. We intend not to broadcast spray the fairways for weeds again this year and just to spot treat with the knapsack over the next few weeks. Mainly isolated plantains to deal with here and there. The greens surrounds were blanket sprayed back in early June treating mainly plantains, daisies and bits of clover.

and firming the surfaces up. An Iron and Ammonia spray has gone on last week and a granular feed and wetting agent is planned next.
The range got its first cut this week and is looking great. The downside is that it took almost 2 hours to rake up all the divots and collect golf balls before it could get cut. This is time we can ill afford with a small team of four greenstaff. It would help us greatly if the mats provided could be used or if hitting from the grass then a couple of minutes spent replacing your divots after would be greatly appreciated. Can I remind also that no iron play from behind the main mat and please do not leave divots sprayed over any of the small greens on the range. Thank you.