Buzzard? Kite? Or Eagle?

While checking the course this morning i thought this big beauty was coming down to pick me up!!

In other news - we'll be starting more drainage work on the 13th green this week...

Training courses completed

Back after a very informative and educational few days away..
Highlight of day 2 was the Ryder cup seminar hosted by Steve Chappell, Course manager at Gleneagles, lots of other courses attended and also a good chance to see the latest Greenkeeping tools in the exhibition halls..

Training Courses for the team - BTME - Continue to learn courses

Away on turf training courses for the next couple of days to continue to further our education and add credits to our cpd diploma in Greenkeeping - Courses attended today - * working abroad with management differances.  * Endophyte infected grass seeds.  * Irrigation control systems and what makes them tick.  * Using social media to increase communication and visibility.  * Arsenal/Man City/Portsmouth (which was management skills with different budgets hosted by Dan Lightfoot - General Manager at Bearwood Lakes.

The evening was then taken up with a meal with our golf course reps and networking with other Greenkeepers from other courses..
These courses are a brilliant way to carry on developing as a professional and you keep updated with any changes in the Greenkeeping industry.

13th main drain finished

The new main drain is now finished, re-turfed and the green is back in play with a small area which is G.U.R  - please note, at some point we will be going back on to the green to install another small bit of drainage which branches off from the main drain.. The green should now definitely drain better!

13th Green Drainage - more photos and info

This what a herringbone drainage system would look like similar to ours 2ft under the green..

This is what it looked like from the back of the green when we finally found a crushed joint half way through the main pipe..

This is a close up of the materials used to build the original USGA SPEC greens..

And finally myself slowly trying to put the green back together once the new drain was in place..

Continued work on the 13th green drainage

Continued work on the 13th Green - after locating the crushed connector joint half way through the main pipe going through the middle of the green we then cleared the trench ready to be gravelled and new pipe connected up, once the pipe was laid down we gravelled over the top and continued to fill with gravel until it met the line on the original USGA SPEC design, a 3-4 inch binding layer was then put in before 14 inches of rootzone before being levelled and ready to lay the turf back down.

January 2014 - major drainage work being carried out on the 13th green

Due to the 13th green seeming to get wetter each winter we decided to do some investigation work and check out the herring bone drainage system under the green. We used boards to keep it all tidy and off the green. Once we found the pipe we could clearly see it was blocked and the further we dug towards the main pipe through the green the thicker the blockage got... Depending on how far the blockage goes through the green is dependent on whether we'll need a new drain put through the green.. Please keep an eye out on here for further updates..

Jan 2014 - good to see the drains helping around the course!! Next stop the 13th.....

The Hand mowers have been back out again due to how wet the course is!! Lovely sunrises to start the week off at least!!