Belgium Score-board!! Golf De Pierpont open!!

Still sure Damien should have had 22 points and not 40 and I'm sure I got 35 points :)

More photos from the Belgium trip!!! CCTV footage..

We managed to catch CCTV footage of myself and Brett on the course lol..

After 3 rounds of golf (must be a record for me) i had pretty sore feet as your see below :)
Also below a few more photos of the weekend.. If anyone is interested in a trip to Pierpont please speak to me or Brett and we will happily try to help sort a good deal out for you all! If you see Damien please make sure you greet him with a lovely big kiss ;)

20th-23rd March - Belgium Trip

Since working a couple of months at Championship Course Golf De Pierpont last summer, I've always promised to take the lads there at some point to see the course, play abit of golf and sample the cracking Belgium beer, so once our greens maintenance was complete we booked up for the weekend after being invited to play in there first open competition of the year! We all played pretty well, with Brett picking up third place in section a and somehow Damien (dub) claiming 3rd place in section b, must have been a mix up with the scores we reckon lol.. Highlight of the weekend apart from the beer was Damien's fine attempt at kissing all 3 of the committee members at the prize giving! (Priceless) thanks to General Manager Gary who made us feel very welcome for the whole wknd :)

19th March Seed Seminar

Today see Brett (head greenkeeper) and myself (deputy head) head to Evesham for a Barenburg Seminar which was fantastic. After in depth talks from different people from different companies covering a range of topics from soil structures to seed production. We then got taken around the site to see all of the trial areas for all the grass cultivars. We also got to see and hear about the new seed coming in to the market ready for 2015. A very informative day with lots taken in.

Week 17th-23rd March

Articulator out in full force this week cutting around tee banks and bunkers, some of the long 2 inch rough and fairways also cut.

Greens maintenance complete - 14th March

What a week! Greens work completed, lots of grass cut and extra hours worked! Greens we're over-seeded with a 100% fescue mix, brushed in, then top dressed with a new sand mix dressing, brushed in again, double rolled and then fertilised and watered in. Fairways and tees had a nice left to right stripe put on them. The verti drain kept going all week and spiked all tees, aprons and walk ways at 8inches deep. Big thanks aswell to Rupert and Nick who helped us out for 2 days! Greens should be back in to tip top shape within a week!
Nice work team!

Greens maintenance part 2

Once the green was verti drained, we then put our rapid core over the green punching more holes approximately 3 inches deep, this also helped closed the bigger holes up! This is then followed up by us ironing/rolling the green to smooth it out. Then finally cut with our Jacobsen ride on triple to complete the tidy up and get the green back in to play. Greens 1 to 14 are complete and the remainder will be completed on Tuesday morning. We then have the remainder of the week planned for over-seeding, top dressing and fertilising.

Greens maintenance part 1

MONDAY 10TH OF MARCH

Greens maintenance week!

Due to the gaffer wanting to get deeper in to the soil profile we hired in a high spec verti drain machine and tractor which allowed us to spike the greens at approximately 13inches (down to the gravel layer)

The normal comments we get from some golfers include... 'You've just got the greens good and then you go and bang holes into them' haha.. Below are the main reasons why this sort of maintenance has to be done -

Verti draining/spiking helps to aerate the soil and to relieve it of any compaction and a number of the benefits from the process include the following:

• Improves and helps maintain a better playing surface

• Improves and helps promote good soil structure

• Promotes quicker drying of turf

• Better absorption of water from the surface to the drainage system helping prevent surface water problems

More

This process is followed by spreading seed and then sand/top dressing on the green and this is brushed into the holes created by the vertidrain machinery to give the green better drainage, another advantage to this type of procedure. This process helps the green grow as well as thickening the grass.  The next stage is then to fertilise the grass for recovery and growth.

Verti draining can alleviate problems that golf greens sometimes face such as compacted surfaces after long periods of continuous use or mud interfering with the draining system maybe. Verti draining can be carried out at various times of the year conditions permitting and is very effective for improving drainage and deep aeration on all turf surfaces and helps prevent surfaces becoming water logged leading to course closures.

Our verti drain below -

Blenheim course - greens maintenance started

Greens Maintenance starts - Blenheim 9 hole course greens are now complete, followed by the main course starting next Monday.
Below are photos from us scarifying in 2 directions, this was then followed by hollow tining, top dressing and over-seeding followed up then with a spring granular fertiliser.