Tee To Green October

The Downs Course

Another month of intense rain showers has caused more flooding and created issues with the monthly work schedule. As we get into winter, some areas may be longer at times as we have struggled in the last few weeks to get the mowers out to cut the areas. However, The Downs being a free drainage course allows us to cut after a few days of dry weather.

The greens are performing well and received a 6 tonne sand dressing this month, although this sounds a lot, it is just a dusting over the 1.1 ha worth of greens surfaces we have. I know I keep mentioning it in the blogs, but sand is a vital part for making the greens consistently good. Health wise, the greens are in good condition for this time of year. There is a few spots of disease around and with the warm wet weather during the month, this has spread the disease, but only very slightly. Not many people would notice it's there, but with our nutritional and fungicide program, they are in a very good place.

Aprons and tees have also had a liquid feed and have helped in recovering divots, especially on tees. We will still divot tees with seed and dressing throughout the winter, as hopefully some of this will grow in lower temperatures. Leaves are now becoming a major issue and it will be a daily occurrence now blowing playing surfaces off. All greens and tee playing surfaces will be blown off on our daily set up, however sometimes we have a lot of leaves failing even after we have blown the areas. We will collect where we can or blow into the woodlands where possible.

The long rough has started to be cut by the farm and most of the larger areas are complete, some still need collecting which have been cut. This has been a huge success so far, saving roughly 6 weeks in labour hours. We still have areas which need doing, however we share our cut and collect machine with 3 other departments, so this may take a bit of time to complete over the next few months.

We will also be shock waving the fairways to de-compact a very busy golf course. This is being done by contractors and is a slow process. There will be times when the tractor will be on the fairway you are playing, please just bare there safety in mind whilst playing, as they can not move from their strip once started. This process has a massively positive impact to the fairways and will only improve there health and playability. Thank you in advance for being patient.

At the end of October we will also be doing greens maintenance. Will be be injecting sand into the greens to improve infiltration rates and firm up the greens before winters play. We will also be vertidraining the greens prior to this, to make the Dryject shots of sand more efficient for the profile. We will try to micro core behind too, but this will depend on time. The greens will be sandy for a few weeks after, but again it is a mechanical practice we need to do to improve the greens. As we move into winter the use of post and rope for traffic management will shortly be appearing on the course. Also some tee mats will be in use on the 5th and 12th hole, as well as strike mat zones on 2,3 and 5 which can be left in the marked off area.

Lastly, I hope everyone enjoyed Greenkeepers Revenge, it is always a fun day setting up the course for a fun round playing around with various obstacles.

Rob Dyer, Head Greenkeeper, The Downs Course

The Park Course

Playing Areas

After a busy but successful September with the greens on the course, we now move our efforts to The Copse greens maintenance. This involves hollow coring all the greens including the putting green.

Let’s explore what hollow coring with sand refill is and why it’s so vital for the long-term health and benefits.

Let’s start with the benefits:

- Improved drainage (hollow coring promotes better infiltration reducing surface build up)

- Reduced compaction (Removing soil cores creates space for roots to grow and access air, water, and nutrients)

- Enhanced root development (loosening the compacted soil encourages deeper roots making the turf more resilient to stress.

- Improved airflow (allowing more oxygen to reach the soil, benefiting microorganisms)

- Reduction of thatch (Hollow coring breaks up the thatch barrier enhancing turf quality and reducing disease susceptibility)

So, it is a critical practice for maintaining golf greens and fine turf even as young as The Copse greens, promoting better root and turf health, ensuring a strong resilient playing surface.

After the cores were cleared any access debris was blow off and any imperfections were turf ironed out.

Next the greens were top dressed with a lot of sand. Ensuring all holes were filled up and a thin layer across the entire surface of the green, to help playability with a smooth even roll.

We hope to see a very quick recovery with the greens being in such good health.

Why do we cut and collect our natural areas?

- Thins out and removes unwanted weeds/course grasses

- Allows natural fescue grasses a chance to grow by not being over powered by the courser grasses

- Allows wild flowers to flourish

- Gives the courses definition whilst still maintaining its playability

- Carried out this time of year so it doesn't impact on nesting birds or wildlife 

We should see a big improvement in these areas over the spring and into the summer. A uniformed fescue dominant look is what we strive to achieve.

With rain throughout September and October reaching 211mm (over 8 inches) Conditions are very challenging around the course and as a result buggies have been RED.

This is not only for the protection of the course but also the golfer. Saturated ground conditions around green and tee banks are extremely dangerous in a buggy.

Let’s hope for a dryer November.

See you on the course.

Scott Peterson, Deputy Head Greenkeeper, The Park Course