Tee to Green July

The Downs Course

After reaching the half way point in the year, it's pleasing to see the success of the playing surfaces so far and the improved consistency of the greens. Green speeds have been consistently stimping around 10 feet and 90 to 100 percent true. The health of the greens has been the most impressive, as they have been disease free so far this year, this is the first time in eight years we haven't had Anthracnose and dollar spot creep in during the summer months. Having healthy greens means we can cut the grass lower and continue cultural practices, such as verti-cutting and sand dustings, which we normally have to reduce if these diseases are present. Hopefully we can continue to keep disease free for the rest of the season and winter giving us an even better base to start with next year, which in turn will improve the greens for the following season. 

Aprons, collars and fairways have come back nicely after they started to burn off a bit last month with the hot and windy weather. This was aided by spraying a wetting agent / seaweed mix when the rain finally came. This has greened up these playing surfaces nicely. All these surfaces have good grass coverage and are in good health. 

We have had a few irrigation issues the last few months with our water system failing on a few occasions. Unfortunately, this was during the hot weather period we experienced last month. We were without water for a few days whilst we had issues with our storage tank and low water resource. This is why some areas burned off slightly and had to be brought back to good health with a lot of hand watering spot treatment, which is labour intensive, but by far the best way to restore the grass back to good health. We have also been struggling with the electrical side of the system., which keeps putting up sprinklers which it is not meant to. We apologise if anyone has experienced an unsuspecting shower from random sprinklers, whilst we were trying to water other areas. 

Because of the extra hand watering and higher growth rate than normal, our bunker sand top up programme was slightly delayed, because resources had to be prioritised to the playing surfaces. We have continued to top up sand in the rest of the bunkers from starting them in late spring. Before the sand shortage we topped up bunkers on holes 1 to 8 and 16 to 18. We have now continued, completing holes 11,13,14,15 at the time of writing this blog, with 9,10 and 12 remaining to fill up in the upcoming weeks. So far this year we have added 90 tonnes of sand to the bunkers. Stones are an issue, however we try our best to remove these, when we can. The bunker liners (which is upside down turf) was installed previously, so when the sand was changed over the liner starts crumbling away, as they deteriorate over time. Bunkers are a living part of the golf course and a bunker life span is usually only 10 years at best, before they will need relining and re-edging again. From our data which we collect, we spend 50% more labour time on bunkers than we do on our greens. Which may surprise you, as greens are our priority over everything. This just shows you how labour intensive these hazards are. 

Badgers continue to cause damage on the course. All we can do is repair these areas, when any digging happens. 

Matt Mitchell, one of our apprentice Greenkeepers, has now passed his agronomy exams and has now become a fully qualified member of the team. Please join me in congratulating him on passing. We currently still have two apprentices going through their greenkeeping qualifications as well. 

Look forward to seeing you on the course!

Rob Dyer, Head Greenkeeper, The Downs course

The Park Course

This month we welcomed Festival of Speed. A global event which is very important for the The Goodwood Estate but it does impact the course. The course is closed for over a week but we do take full advantage to recover the course in the middle of the season and get ready for Club Championships and rest of the year. During this time, we do maintenance on greens and tees and get full recovery by the time we reopen.

This year we had to change the plan a bit because of the bad weather forecast. We verti-drained the greens with 12mm tines to a depth of 200mm then applied one tonne of sand dressing to each green followed by a 10mm solid tine. The dressing was then brushed in. The Copse had a smaller maintenance with a 10mm tine and dress. These are USGA spec greens which are new and have more sand based then the push up greens on The Park. Greens and have recovered well with a flourish of growth due to recent weather and fertilisers apllication.

While the weather has been up and down, it’s helped with the course using less irrigation. The fairways have come back from dry spell but it wasn’t good for the Festival of Speed build and during the event. Talking of irrigation, we had a few problems during the Festival of Speed build as contractors hit our pipes, twice! Good news is that they all got fixed and back working.

As mentioned in previous blog some holes are hugely affected by the event. The 10th is the Supercar paddock and main entrance, 9/15th is mini airport for helicopters and we have crossovers on 14th/17th holes for public to enter FOS. 3/12/13th holes are VIP car parking.

Over the event we make sure the public are following the walkways and all fences and ropes are up to protect the course. We continue with general course maintenance as best we can.

Once the crowds have left and the course becomes ours again, and we can see what damage we have. Unfortunately, the 10th took a beating with the rain coming at the wrong time, same as LHS 17th and back of 8th green. The 10th fairway also had a burst pipe from the estate which flooded the whole area. Some areas have been rutted with heavy machinery on it.

We’ve now started the recovery process on areas impacted by the event. We have verti-drained to 8 inches with inch thick tines to relieve compaction, terra rake areas to stand up and remove dead grass, overseed where needed and then apply a foliar feed to help get growth back. With weather looking warm and dry, hoses will be out watering during the day. Please stay clear of these areas when possible.

See you on the course!

Scott Peterson, Deputy Head Greenkeeper, The Park course