Friday 28 February 2014

Scarification units set and ready

Scarifying units all set at 8mm ready to start the greens next week.
We scarify to remove thatch and moss and is an important part of our maintenance.
In the spring we would be expected to carry out a form of 'scarifying' to reduce the lateral growth in the sward, and also remove the dead foliage.

For this, a cassette would be used in a professional mower or a specific machine designed for this purpose. These machines use a series of three-pointed sharp blades that will cut the lateral growth and thin the sward to encourage new growth. Again, if the blades mark the surface of the soil, it will not cause any problems because a golf green is usually a high sand content soil. 



Wednesday 26 February 2014

Feb 24th-27th 2014

Finally a little bit of sunshine and a few dry days this week, allowing us to get the mowers out and cut some grass.

Lots of other odd jobs completed as well - here's a clear sighting of Venus above the moon on a clear Wednesday morning.
Experiment's taking place on our 19th green with different chemicals and how they react with Moss and different grass species.
Evidence of the new 10th drain working even after minimal rainfall these past few days.
Evidence that Ollie has finally brought me a chocolate bar after nearly 15 years of working together!!





Saturday 22 February 2014

17th - 21st of Feb - Check out the storm damage photos

Well a lot of our week was taken up tidying the 5 trees last weeks storm brought down on the left hand side of the 3rd green!! Not small trees as you'll see below!







Thursday 13 February 2014

More drainage completed

Yet more drainage installed in and around the 13th green, we added a new pipe underneath the green and connected it to an existing pipe and also added a new drain on the right hand side of the apron stripe (just off the green), hopefully collecting some of the surface water running down the bank and on to the green. With now 4 new pieces of drainage installed the 13th green should be a lot drier in the wet winter months.








Tuesday 11 February 2014

Late January and early February Rainfall and New 'Pin marker indicators'

New 'Pin marker indicators' on holes 4 and 10, hopefully this will help golfers see from a distance if the pin position is at the front, middle or back of the green.
With a digger hired in for a few days we managed to open back up the ditch which used to run along the left hand side of the 10th hole, this should hopefully help water drain off the start of the fairway a little bit quicker now.

With record rainfall in January (155mm) (around 6 inches) and with 60mm already fallen in February, we've spent a few mornings pumping and pushing water off some of the low areas on our greens to keep the course open.

Friday 7 February 2014

More Drainage work completed left hand side off of the 13th green

Drainage pipe which leads off the green in to a soak away was replaced with a new pipe after we found it was partly blocked and not allowing the water to get away as quick as it should








Saturday 1 February 2014

Another part of the 13th drainage system was this week dug out and replaced

A branch on the left hand side of the green was dug out and replaced and rejoined to the new main drain we installed over the last few weeks -