Updates on course work will be provided by the greenstaff on a regular basis
Monday 8th April
Last weekend saw our new captain Lewis drive in for the new season and the completion captains competition on Saturday. Followed by a couple of decent days for golf we were back to what seems the norm for the previous winter, with over 50mm of rain falling from Monday to Thursday morning. This rain had a major impact on the course, with the ground and drainage system already full this led to the course being closed until Monday morning. This also had an impact across the region with almost all the golf courses in the area closed. There’s a selection of photos below to show the levels of water on the course.
The latest rainfall takes us to 792 mm of rainfall from the start of October last year, meaning that we’ve had over what’s considered the yearly average in just over 6 months.
Work on the course that has be ongoing is the edging of the bunkers, we’re around half way through this job having to work near the paths and tracks as we’re unable to get the machines on to certain areas of the course to remove waste.
The main greens have been mowed again using the hand mowers.
Finally some of you may have noticed that there has been some stakes put out on the tee boxes, White, yellow, red and blue, these are in place for the re-measuring of the golf course.
Thursday 28th March
Its been a mixed bag weather wise for the last two weeks with relatively dry weather from the 18th through to the 24th, where we seen the golf course dry out very well. This didn’t last too long with a downpour coming on the 25th which seen over an inch of rain fall over the next 48 hours taking us back to where we were in terms of wet ground conditions. In that time we’ve seen the greens Hollow cored, this was carried out over two days and completed on the 19th, the following days we managed to get some sand onto the majority of the greens, there are some greens that still need sand applied, this will be done once the ground conditions allow, followed by a second dressing of sand for all greens.
Last week also seen the drain lines on the 17th green get their first roll using the turf iron and cut using the pedestrian mower since the turf was relayed. Its was just over 3 weeks between the turf going down and carrying out this work. The following pictures show before and after the rolling and also the green after being mowed, at this point the green was cut at a height of 10mm to allow for the drainlines.
Anyone that has been out on the golf course will have seen how wet and how long the grass has been on the fairways, the worst being 1,17 & 18, we had to take measures that have not been seen for a very long time by having to mow these fairways using the pedestrian rotary mower. As can be imagined this took a while to do but we got there in the end, over a day and a half later. This did help along with the strong wind over the weekend to allow the fairways to dry out, unfortunately as mentioned before the rain that has come down has now seen them saturated again.
We’ve also had the pedestrian mowers over the greens this week, we have 3 cylinder mowers that have been set up for this. With some of the greens being wetter than the others we’ve got two machines set up at 6.5mm and one set up at 8mm, the higher setting is for the wetter greens as the weight of the machine will naturally bring down the height of cut. The greens that have been drained in the past were cut at 6.5mms including the 1st and 5th greens that were drained this winter. The 17th was among the others to be cut at 8mms. All the greens are looking good after they’ve been cut. We’ll look to continue using the pedestrian mowers to establish a good playing surface.
This week we’ve concentrated our work around the first tee area ready for the captains drive in this weekend. The first tee is looking good after being mowed with the pedestrian mower, the surrounding area has been tidied up with the posts around the area, the starter hut and the starting board all been given a fresh coat of paint. The path has also been given a fresh covering of red track. With another mention on the local weather on tv this week to show off this work and the wet weather.
The greenstaff would like to wish incoming captain Lewis well for his drive in this Saturday and good luck for the forthcoming season.
Sunday 17th March
Work on the ditch behind the 7th green has now been completed, we’ve located a couple of drains that run into the ditch from the 8th tee area and to the rear of the 7th green, these have been rodded and the water is starting to flow into the ditch, hopefully this will help to dry these areas out. In the near future we will be inserting a drain to the right hand side and the rear of the 7th green, the drain into the ditch will allow us to tap into this with our new drains.
The path that runs through the trees on the right hand side of the 13th hole has been extended towards the semi rough using some of the chippings from tree removal on the course.
At the end of the week work started on the the bunkers, all the bunkers will be edged so they’ll have a nice clean edge. Once this has been done we’ll use our mantis cultivator to turn the sand over and rake the sand around the bunker evenly. When this is done the bunkers that require more sand will be topped up with fresh sand. This work will be ongoing and take a few weeks to complete. The photos below show a couple of bunkers that have been edged.
Next week will see the greens Hollow cored, this is a continuation of our aeration program. Once the hollow coring is complete and the cores have been tidied up we’ll be applying sand to the greens to help fill in the holes. This is done to help dilute and reduce the organic matter in the greens profile. Contractors will be on site from Monday for a couple of days, the greenstaff will then complete the top-dressing porcedure.
Sunday 10th March
Following yet another wet weekend work continued on the hedge between 1 & 9, Taking out a substantial amount of the laurel from the 9th side. The pictures below show we now have a ‘corridor’ through which will allow for better airflow to the area. The third picture shows how much sunlight can now get to the area of the 9th green and the surrounding area.
We’ve also had the portable power washer out this week around the first tee area. The picture below shows the results of using this to clean the bin at the first tee, bringing it back to looking like new. The posts around the area and the starter hut were all also cleaned, going forward we’ll be using the power washer around the course cleaning the likes of the bins, steps on the tees and other course furniture.
As the week went on and the course dried out a little we were able to get the greens that have had drains put in over the years mowed with the ride on mower, some of the other greens and the first tee were cut using the hand machine.
The golf club even got a little mention on the BBC local news this week.
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Finally work has continued on the paths this week, we’ve also had the digger out clearing out the ditch that runs through the woods from the 8th parallel to the 9th hole and also the ditch behind the 7th green which will be continued and completed this coming week.
Friday 1st March
The week has been a very productive and relatively dry one on the golf course. The greenstaff have been busy on a few areas this week. Firstly we started on the cutting of the hedge on the first tee and to the right hand side of the 9th green. From the pictures below you can see that the hedge has been reduced in size considerably, this will allow for easier maintenance of the the hedge but more importantly it will allow more sunlight to the 9th green throughout the winter months.
From the 9th side the hedge has been reduced in width, again this has been done for easy maintenance and sunlight, also to try and help to dry out the slope to the right of the green which holds a lot of moisture and sits wet for most of the season. There’s still a little work to be carried out on the 9th side with brambles and stumps to be removed, this will be done in the coming weeks.
Work began on the 2nd path to repair some of the damage to the sides from the heavy vehicles during the drainage work, some of this has been done but it proved to be too wet in that area to carry on. We then moved to the 9th path near pond where some of the path has been damaged over the winter due to the heavy downpours. Once the path was tidied up a fresh layer of red track was put down and was firmed in using the wacker plate compacting machine.
Some of you that have been out on the course would have noticed that we’ve managed to get out and get some cutting done on some areas. The greens and all aprons and surrounds have been cut, also fairways 5,6,7 and the 12th fairway from the rigs have all been cut. As the course dries out we’ll be looking to get as much cutting done as we can. To aid the drying of the fairways we set up our Verti-drain machine to a depth of 8 inches and attempted to Verti-drain a couple of fairways. We managed to get over the 1st fairway and the lower part of the 18th from around the 150 yard mark, the first part of 18 and the 17th fairway have proved to be to wet for now but again we will look to get onto these as soon as ground conditions allow.
Going forward we’ll be continuing to work on the jobs previously stated and also look to Verti-drain more areas of the course such as tees, aprons and surrounds.
Friday 23rd February
Work on the course has been going well over the last few weeks. Our main focus has been on the drainage work on the 17th green, we anticipated a difficult dig like the 1st green, thankfully this was not the case and the work went smoothly until heavy rain hit us on Thursday the 8th of February, this set us back around a week. The work has been completed this week with all of the drain-lines fully turfed. We’ve also had the verti-drain in between the drain-lines to finish the work on the green.
This green has taken longer than anticipated due to the heavy rainfall that we’ve had over the winter. Due to this there has been a substanitial amount of damage to the right hand side and around the back of the green due to the haulage root for getting materials to and from the green. The contractors have leveled out the haulage root to the right hand side once they had finished on the green. All the damaged areas will be seeded and dressed out once the areas have dried out enough.
All greens have been Verti-drained this month to a depth of 9 inches, this is the forth time that this process has been completed since the Hollow coring in September and also the final time before they are hollow cored again on the 19th of march. Looking at the core samples from the greens the Verti-draining has had very positive results with all greens bar the 8th being clear of black layer which thrives in anaerobic soil conditions. The first core sample below shows the typical core structure of the greens. The other two cores are from the 8th green, in the autumn this green struggled with black layer in the top two inches of the profile however the most resent core sample shows that it has been significantly reduced, these can be seen below.
We also Verti-drained the fairway on the 9th hole, this has resulted in the area being a lot firmer and drier than it was.
Following the Verti-draining all the main greens have been mowed, with the 1st and the 5th greens having the drain-lines rolled with the turf iron and mowed using the pedestrian mower. The drain lines are settling in nicely on the two greens. Following this the greens have had their first application of fertiliser.
With the new season only 5 weeks away our focus will now turn to general maintenance around the course, firstly we’ll be tidying up paths around the course, there has been some damage to paths from the heavy machinery during the drainage of the 17th. Once that has been repaired we’ll continue tidy up the paths that have recently been installed, this will consist of putting soil down the sides of the paths where there is gaps and topping up the red stone where needed. The hedge on the first tee will be reduced to a more manageable height also taking it back a little from the tee area. The golf club now have a mobile power washer which will enable us to use this around the course, this will be used to clean course furniture that can’t be removed such as signs on the tee boxes, steps in tee boxes and tee mats around the course. As in September the hollow coring will be carried out in March, this will start on the 19th, as before this will be followed up with a couple of top-dressings of sand. Work to the right hand side of the 3rd green will be continued and will look to be completed by the start of the season. Finally like the greens the approaches, surrounds, fairways and also the tee areas require maintenance such as Verti-draining and fertilising, these will be carried out as soon as the ground conditions allow.
Wednesday 24th January
As reported in the last update, work on the 5th green had started with the contractors on site from Monday the 15th. The week started well with the part of the main drain and a couple of the lateral drains through the green inserted on the Monday and Tuesday.
The work became quite a bit more tricky from Wednesday onwards with hard frosts making the ground conditions harder to dig through, at its worst the frost was 3-4 inches into the ground meaning some improvisation was required to get through the surface. The lads chipped away and managed to get through and the drains were all inserted by the Friday.
From Monday the greens staff began to reinstate the drain lines by topping them up with root zone. Once this was carried out all of the turf was put back in the green and across the front of the apron. All work is now complete on the 5th green.
Yesterday seen the first rolling of the turf on the drain lines on the 1st green. This was carried out using the turf iron. The drain lines are settling nicely and are looking good following their roll.
Friday 12th January
Now we’re into 2024 we hope all members of the golf club have had a good Christmas and new year, thankfully the last two weeks of December seen golfers on the golf course more often than not. The story of the last 3 months has unfortunately been rainfall, with 458mm falling from October to the end of December, this being just over 45% of the full years rainfall. With a total of 1006mm for the year, one of the wettest on record, Compared to 625mm for 2022 which was one of our driest. I think we’re all hoping that 2024 is somewhere in between.
At the start of the year we started work on the trees on the right hand side of the path on the 13th hole, removing the suckers around the base of the trees and branches overhanging the path and parts of the tee box. As you can see from the before and after photos it has tidied the area up nicely.
On Monday we turned our attention to the drainage of the greens unfortunately the ground conditions aren’t suitable to work on the 17th green, so it was decided that we start on the 5th green. We began by locating a main drain for us to join into, we had no luck in finding a drain to the right hand side of the green, moving over to the left hand side we located a 6 inch drain in the semi rough.
Once this was located we cut the turf across the front of the green and the drain lines on the green. All turf has been removed ready for work. A 4 inch drain has been inserted through the semi rough to the front edge of the green and connected to the 6 inch main drain.
This drain has been back filled with gravel and rootzone and the turf has been put back in place. All of the drains dug out through the greens will connect to this drain.
Contractors will be onsite from Monday next week to start digging out the drains through the green. As with the 1st green the greenstaff will then insert the pipe, gravel and rootzone once the drains are dug out. When complete the turf will then be reinstated.
Tuesday 12th December
Following the bad start to the week weather wise we were able to get on with turfing of the drain lines on the 1st green. As you can see from the photos above all of the turf has now been put back in place and the surrounding area has been tidied up. There is still some areas around the back of the green and the back of the right hand bunker which require dressing out with sand, this will be done once we get a break in the wet weather.
As reported last week we had 40mm’s of rain on Monday alone leading to large amounts of water on the course and in the ditches surrounding the golf course. The photos above show the water levels in the ditch at the 17th. The 1st photo shows the ditch at its highest level on the Tuesday morning where it was close to coming over the op of the ditch. The 2nd shows the how much the level dropped, the stone circled was almost covered now fully exposed, this photo was taken on the Wednesday afternoon proving that the ditch works effectively, in that period of time all of the drains from the golf course were then above the water level and working well. The only area of the golf course that required the use of our pump was the on the 3rd hole near the winter tee.
Yesterday we started Verti-draining the greens, continuing with our aeration programme we reported back in September. This time we will be tining down to around 9 inches adding full heave on the machine, this will cause more disruption beneath the surface allowing more air flow into the soil structure. When we talk about heave it means that the tines go into the ground and heave upwards lifting the soil and turf slightly, the same principle as using a garden fork in your lawn. The photo above shows this and the benefits that follow the process. Since September we’ve carried out the aeration process on 4 occasions, starting with the hollowcoring in September, followed by micro tining in October with 1/4 inch diameter tines, in November we tined with 1//2 inch diameter tines to allow more air into the soil with finally December with 1/2 inch diameter tine again with full heave. Below are 3 photos, the 1st two photos were taken of cores removed from our 2nd and 7th greens on Monday when the verti-draining was being carried out. The 3rd photo is a example of what a core with black layer due to lack of aeration in saturated ground would look like. Our cores are looking healthy with no signs of black layer in the profile showing that the aeration work being carried out on the greens is working as desired, and will be continued every 4 weeks when ground conditions allow.
Tuesday 5th December
Work has progressed well on the 1st green with all on the drain lines dug out and the new pipe inserted into the green. The greens staff began to put the turf back into place on the drain lines.
Unfortunately as you’ll all be aware the weather took a turn for the worse from Wednesday last week, where we seen zero temperatures and a few inches of snow, meaning that work had to halt on the green with two runs complete.
Monday seen the weather turn back to the way it’s been over the last few weeks, extremely wet. Monday seen a further 40 mm of rain fall onto already saturated and in some cases frozen ground, below are a collection of photos showing the current course conditions.
As you can see from the photos that the golf course is waterlogged in quite a few areas. Whenever we have rainfall like this we always go around the course and check the various drain outlets to ensure that the water can be allowed to drain away as quick as possible. The photos below shows the ditch that runs down the right hand side of the 17th hole, the levels of this are unprecedented with water almost coming over the top in some places. Unfortunately the outlets to some of our drains are now below the surface of this running water, causing the water to back up in the drains and slowing down the draining of standing water from some areas of the course.
Wednesday 22nd November
This week has seen the start of the drainage work on the 1st green, as anticipated it hasn’t been a straight forward job and progress has been slow due to the materials below the surface. With all the greens we’ve drained so far we’ve experienced issues with large stones and other hard materials but not to the extent of the 1st green. below is a selection of videos and photos showing what the contractors have had overcome. you may have to open the videos to full screen to see the full video.
Once the drainlines have been dug out the greens staff have been following up inserting the pipe, gravel and the rootzone into the trenches. This will continue across the green, once this is complete they will then look to get the turf back into place on the green.
Friday 17th November
The wet weather has continued to be a problem in the area over the last 2 weeks, we were however able to see some play on the course for 6 days before more heavy rain came our way. Since October 19th “30 days” we’ve had 227mm of rain fall on the golf course. To put that into perspective the average rainfall for a month at this time of year is around 70-75mm.
Although we’ve had record rainfall work has continued on and around the golf course. On the greens we’ve had a autumn granular fertiliser applied and they have also been verti-drained to a depth of 9 inches using half inch diameter tines, this process will be repeated throughout the winter every month to allow good airflow into the soil structure.
Last week we had tree surgeons come in to take care of some trees that were in need of attention. Firstly the ash tree next to the putting green had to be removed as it was dying and becoming dangerous. The last photo below shows the dark area in the stump where the tree was rotting from the inside out.
Inevitably there was damage caused to the green when the tree was felled, we did put boards down to try and protect the area but they didn’t suffice. The green has been repaired and will recover by the start of the season.
The large beech tree behind the starters hut at the first tee was also removed to allow better airflow and sunlight to the tee box. There were three dead trees removed from the carpark by the roadside and finally they trimmed branches from the oak tree on the right hand side of 18 and the trees to the left as you approach the green as these were starting to close the gap into the front of the green.
Today we started work on the drainage of the 1st green, we located the main drain that we are going to tap the drains into from the green, as you can see from the pictures below the drain is at a good depth 28-30 inches below the ground allowing a good fall from the green into it. Contractors will be on site from Monday to dig the drains through the green, once they have dug out a couple of the runs the greenstaff will then follow by inserting the pipe, gravel and the rootzone.
Unfortunately these jobs rarely go by without a snag, the ‘boulder’ below was pulled out by the digger from the trench, hopefully this is not a sign of things to come.
Other work that has been carried out has been the removal of an oak tree from next to the ladies 10th tee, this was overhanging the left hand side of tee area leading to restricted tee shots for the ladies. Ivy which was growing on the walls near the front gate has been removed to allow better visibility when leaving the premises and making the area look tidier. Work has also started on the sides of the new paths that have been installed, this is an ongoing job that will be carried out in the coming weeks.
Monday 6th November
July 2023
24th to 26th July : micro tine greens.
27th July : stress buster greens.
August 2023
Last week of month granular feed.
September 2023
4th hollow core greens at ½” tine at 60ml depth.
October 2023
Start drainage works on greens 1,5,6 & 17.
Also new drains on right side of 5th fairway.
November 2023
Fairways cored and some sanded.
Tree thinning programme to start.
March and August 2024
Booked in for hollow core on all greens.
August 2024
Sand injection with GKB machine.
Normal maintenance programme will continue including micro tine every four weeks.
Tee boxes will be maintained to a better standard.
Mondays will be set aside as course maintenance days with prior notice given to the membership of work to be completed.
ARGONOMIST REPORT
The Agronomist visited AHGC on 28/06/23 – a copy of the report will be available in the bar from Thursday.
The report has now been received and reviewed by the Greens Committee and actions will be taken to follow his recommendations with a Winter Work Programme followed by a Summer Work Programme as per his recommendations.
Regular “tinning” has been recommended on the greens to reduce the high volume of thatch in the soil that has built up. Sand and seed (bent grass) being applied on a regular basis will provide a more uniform colouring of grass on the greens and a smoother putting surface.
This will then be followed by Hollow Coring in September 2023 then March / April and August 2024 with sand applied on all occasions.
The Fairways will be verti drained in November to aid drainage during the winter period.
Gipsum will be applied to Fairways on 13 / 14 / 16 in order to aid the breakdown of the clay and again aid the drainage in these areas.
As per the report a number of areas we will have trees / hedges removed to aid drainage and air flow around these areas.
Remove the hedge between the 1st Tee and 9th Green – to be replaced by a smaller more manageable hedge and to allow sunlight / air flow to the 1st Tee / 9th Green.
Remove the trees behind the 1st Green.
Remove trees behind the 9th Tee in order to thin the area out.
Remove the hedge behind the 15th Tee – to be replaced by a smaller hedge to allow sunlight / air flow to the tee box.
All the above to be landscaped as appropriate.
GREENS
Following receipt of the quote from the 3rd Party Company to drainline the greens which ranged from 8K-10K plus VAT per green, the decision has been taken to continue with the work in house with added manpower.
Autumn / winter work to drain 4 greens will be completed on the 1st, 5th, 6th and 17th greens from early October,winter greens will be prepared in advance.
PATHS
Contract handed to 3rd Party to complete Phase One in 2023.
Phase Two to complete work in 2024.
This work is privately funded and not from the Greens Budget.
TEE BOXES
We have a plan in place to start replacing Tee Boxes from the Winter of 2025 through a privately funded project following the completion of work on the paths around the course
IRRIGATION SYSTEM
This is still on track to be updated in September when the Gemini Decoders are due in stock at the suppliers
5th HOLE
Water is draining from the fairway but is becoming “stuck” on the right hand side.
Work to be carried out to drain this away into the ditch / main drain in front of the 8th Tee Box.
6th / 7th HOLE
Due to Health & Safety concerns regarding the uneven area between 6 and 7 and based on the R & A agronomist recommendation it was agreed to cut down and level with soil and allow the heather to grow back.
BUNKERS
It was agreed not to cut around the bunkers and allow the grass to grow to try and eliminate the “bare” areas to produce a better playing area.
As we approach the golf season, we can provide the following greens update.
Irrigation Update
As per the update last year the club have committed to replacing all the current valves on the green and install new valves on all tee boxes in order to make the irrigation system more stable, reliable and efficient at a cost of approximately £50,000.
The materials have been delivered to the club this week and we hope to have the engineer on site during the first week in March to start the work on the tee boxes. Other staff will follow shortly after in March when they have completed their current project at Alwoodly Golf Club in Leeds, and we hope that the work will take approximately 3 weeks to complete. During the work there will be disruption around the course (mainly tee boxes and greens) and the contractors will have priority on the course during this period
9th hole
Work on the 9th hole has been completed and the new turf has started to bed in. As the warmer weather hopefully arrives this will expediate the growth will help from manual intervention by applying fertiliser we hope to get the hole back in play as soon as possible. A review of the hole will be undertaken in mid-March with a further update on the timescales to open the hole to be provided – at the same time, the re-opening of the 8th hole will be reviewed.
8th green
The work on the green has been completed and the green staff are monitoring the recovery of the turf to bring the green back into play as soon as possible. Again, this will be reviewed mid-March but is weather dependant.
6th green
Work on the 6th green will be delayed until next year due to weather restrictions in the last winter.
Tee Boxes
The 3rd Tee Box has been re-turfed, and recovery is being monitored.
Work on other tee boxes will commence once the new irrigation values have been installed.
One of the issues we have found is the number of tree roots that are coming onto the tee boxes and ultimately sapping water from the tee boxes. In order to rectify the problem and aid growth to the tee boxes we are removing a number of trees from around the tee boxes.
Tree / Gorse Removal
Most of the work has been completed with trees removed around the 3rd, 4th, and 15th tees and also around the 15th green.
Other tree work has been carried out on the left hand side of 8th/9th holes and the copse between 2 & 17.
In order to aid recovery of the surrounds around the 15th green, the right-hand side of the green has been roped off. A walk off path has been made at the rear of the green for players to use to save wear on this area.
The gorse behind the 13th green has been removed to bring the ditch into play.
Following work on the right-hand side of the 10th fairway (gorse removal) last year, the stumps have now been removed and this area is NO longer GUR and is in play. Likewise, the areas on the right- and left-hand side of the 5th fairway and NO longer GUR and are in play.
Removal of stumps is ongoing in other areas and if any stump is marked with red paint interferes with your swing / stance then a free dop is allowed.
Agronomist
Following Co-Vid, the agronomist will be returning on 13th March to provide his recommendations on the course – updates on his recommendations and report to follow.
Disappointing update
As reported work on the 9th hole has been completed.
However we are disappointed to report that someone has been “practicing” on the 9th hole with divots taken out of the tee box, numerous pitch marks on the green and up to 50 balls recovered from the pond ! – we are now monitoring the hole, and anyone found playing the 9th hole will be banned from the club with immediate effect.
Footprints and divot taken out of the new bunker on the 9th.
During the winter we have had limited damage to the fairways (due to fairway protection) however we are now finding that more play is being made from the fairways without the use of matts. Hopefully, the fairway protection will be removed shortly so if all players can adhere to fairway protection it would be appreciated to protect the course.
In addition, getting into the habit of repairing pitch marks (not just your own) on the greens would be appreciated.
Next winter
We are planning to include the 6th and 17th greens in next year’s work schedule.
A further update on the above points will be issued during March.