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Tee To Green November

18th November 2024

Find out the latest from our Greenkeepers in this month's Tee to Green.

The Downs Course

Last month was a very busy month in terms of maintenance. Firstly, greens maintenance was very successful. We started off with a 12mm deep verti-drain to a depth of 200mm, followed by the dryject machine, which injected sand shots into the greens, adding 35 tonnes of sand into the soil profile. This is to improve percolation rates, moving water away from the surface quicker, and firming up the putting surface. Then we hollow cored behind this process using a 7mm core to a depth of 75mm to relieve the compaction in the green. The greens were then rolled, ironed, brushed, and sprayed with a foliar feed to aid recovery. The greens are still slightly bumpy from this process, as we have not added any dusting of sand to improve the trueness yet, due to the high disease pressure we are currently experiencing. If we add sand to the surface and brush it in, it will more than likely activate the disease again, as it is kind of like rubbing sandpaper over an old wound to your skin. Therefore, we have aired on the side of caution to do this. However, when the disease pressure decreases, we will start dusting the greens again.

Other maintenance has included shockwaving the fairways to reduce compaction and improve root depth, which in turn means healthier fairways and improved playing surfaces. After this process was completed, you may have seen an influx of seagull activity on the course, this was because worms and grubs became easier to feed on after the process was completed. This has helped us with the worm castings on the fairways too. Also, the farm has cut and collected all the flat areas of the long natural rough areas, although there are still some areas which need picking up. Throughout the next few months, we will start strimming down the rest of these areas as part of our ecology plan.

The 5th tee will soon go onto the matt for the winter and the surrounding banks will be hard pruned to allow more light and airflow to the tee. The tee has always struggled with the high volume of golf in its micro-climate of poor light and airflow. After the pruning has been completed, we will install additional drainage to the tee and then it will be turfed, ready for the spring next year. Also, a mat has now been installed on the left side of the orange tee of the 12th and we will start to bring this into play once the growth rate reduces and seed from the divot mix is not producing anymore due to the colder temperatures. Strike mats will also start coming into use when we deem necessary, this will be in specific zones like the beginning of this year.
Post and rope will continue to be added around the course to protect areas from wear and tear. Please do not go under any post and rope as they are there to manage the traffic and help in providing a better course for next year.

See you on the course.

Rob Dyer, Head Greenkeeper, The Downs Course

The Park Course

This month on the course has been a challenge with weather conditions. Although it has been dry, it’s been overcast with limited sunshine and no wind. This ramps up disease pressure on all playing surfaces as the morning dew doesn’t lift and the grass stays damp all day. We’ve seen a lot of big orange patches of fusarium on aprons, tees and fairways, but the greens have been clean. This is due to our regular feed and fungicide programmes keeping them healthy and strong. The Copse greens, especially 5th and 6th have been hit with fusarium. These 2 greens from end of September through now the winter hardly get any sunlight due to being surrounded by trees. With cold weather now on the way, disease pressure will drop but we will still be keeping an eye out.

You will be pleased to see all the natural rough areas we could do with the tractor are now cut and collected. We had to raise the height a little bit due to the fact it was so long and thick due to the wet summer. We would like to cut again before next season but we will have to see weather/ground conditions and timings for birds nesting if we can. The areas we couldn’t get to with the tractor will be done over the next few months with our flail and strimmers.

Aeration is vitally important during winter on all playing surfaces. This relieves compaction and aids drainage through the winter keeping them firm. Greens had a 10mm tine end of last month and we will continue this monthly throughout winter. Fairways have now all been vert-drained to roughly a depth of 7-8 inches. As you may understand, moving 10 tonnes of equipment for every 4 ball is pretty much impossible so thank you for your patience during the process. While doing the fairways we managed to get most of the aprons done as well. This is the second year for verti-draining fairways and saw great success last year. They were much drier in winter and summer they didn’t burn out as quickly. Next, the tees will get some form of aeration with either a tine or verti-drain. A big thank you to the Motor Circuit grounds team who lent us their tractor and vert-drain and we also use the tractor for the natural rough areas. Between us and both grounds teams from Motor Circuit and Racecourse, we have pretty much all the equipment we all need so we don’t have to hire or get contractors in and help each other out. Benefit for working for a large estate like Goodwood.

It’s now that time of year when the leaves start dropping and in their millions. We clear greens and tees in the morning with back blowers but at the moment they are falling quickly and some greens are covered again by lunch. Some days we are not winning the battle but we are still trying to keep greens clear. We use turbo blowers and collect as much as we can in the afternoons. Thank you for your patience as we try and stay on top of them.

See you on the course.

Scott Peterson, Deputy Head Greenkeeper, The Park Course