Updates on course work will be provided by the greenstaff on a regular basis 

Friday 20th June

The last 4 weeks have been a mixed bag in terms of the weather, we eventually had some decent rainfall, who’d have thought we’d be wishing for that after the previous 18 month.  Around 60mm over the first two weeks, which is around the monthly average, then we’ve had another dry spell in the last two weeks which has seen the course dry out significantly.

Aeration work on the greens has carried on as usual with the micro-tining every 4 weeks.  We’ve also introduced a new method to our aeration program, this comes on the back of the agronomists visit on the 14th of May.  It was advised that we should slit the greens through the depth of 25mm to help to get through the top layer of organic matter ‘thatch’, this is to allow air into the surface and also allow the grass roots to penetrate the organic matter layer and into the soil structure.  We carried out this operation on Tuesday June 17th using the turf iron which has a spiking attachment.  as you can see from the photos below this has minimal impact on the putting surface.  This operation will be carried out every four weeks along with the micro-tining.

Once the spiking was completed the greens were then cut using the hand mowers.  We set ourselves a target of hand cutting the greens twice a week throughout the season, the reasons behind this is to help improve and maintain a smooth and true putting surface.  Due to the dry spell and the growth of the grass in other areas of the golf course slowing down, we’ve been able to increase our hand cutting to three times a week, currently a Tuesday, Thursday and Friday.

Even though we had the two week period of rain we’ve still needed to use the irrigation system on the greens and the tees, this has been supplemented with the use of the hose pipes with wetting agent pellets on some of the drier greens, mostly the newer drainlines.

As mentioned earlier we had our yearly agronomist visit in May.  This was the first time that Jaey had visited our course, his report has now arrived with some positive results from our core samples.  As always we take onboard his recommendations for improvements around the course and look to start implementing them at the earliest opportunity.  Below is a summary of the report, with the full report available to members with copy of the report in the bar area.

Greens

• Arcot Hall greens comprise a mixed sward, varying from Pea-dominated to bent­ dominated.  Heavy seed head production on greens is more apparent on Poa dominated greens.  All greens will benefit from regular brush-mowing; both seed head removal and bentgrass textural refinement by removing lateral growth of bentgrass will be achieved.  We discussed on site the benefits of brushing to greens performance for surface refinement and versus grooming. The use of the mower-mounted, static brush regularly will bring more benefit than aggressive verti-cutting/grooming operations less regularly without mechanical stress to swards, a little and often approach.

• Greens analysis indicated an increase in OM, most notable on 11th green.  This is broadly typical of 2025 test results that we are seeing from across the country; the wet spell through August, September and October of 2024 produced a heavy growth spurt, resulting in excess organic matter production at the end of the growing season.

• 2024 renovations were three hollow core aeration operations resulting in over 130 tonnes of sand being integrated into greens surfaces.  Additional solid tine aeration had been undertaken within this period also.  The first significant aeration operation of 2025 was completed in March with hollow tine aeration and sand filling completed

• Core samples of 11th green indicate a dense mat of OM ‘organic matter’, corresponding with recently confirmed lab testing results. This layer requires disruption.  Intensive aeration operations provide an immediate soil-exchange opportunity although pressures to recover the surface and reinstate play inevitably lead to increased nutritional inputs.  Increasing fertility will contribute to increasing OM accumulation, countering overall objectives. Increasing the frequency of small-diameter aeration will disrupt the integrity of accumulated OM, providing a conduit for root growth and increased oxygen integration therefore increasing degradation of OM rather than exchanging for mineral content via hollow coring. Replacing a hollow core aeration operation with increased, light topdressing and less disruptive, targeted-depth aeration will have a positive impact of OM degradation.

• Operations including sarel rolling or micro-slitting are ideal for this type of work and Tru­ Turf greens rollers have the ideal attachment to accomplish this efficiently, although care must be taken to minimise turning the machine during this operation to avoid surface plucking.

• In addition to micro-slitting, small diameter (6mm or 8mm) solid tine operations undertaken in a tight working pattern will provide opportunity for air exchange plus create conduits to encourage the development of deeper rooting.  We always encourage solid tine aeration operations through spring to capitalise on the assertive root growth that occurs in spring/early summer.  Surface disruption from these operations is minimal and recovery for play will be swift following mowing or rolling.

The merits of browntop bentgrass (Agrostis tenuis) as the preferred green species were discussed on site and we recommend that all green overseeding operations are carried out exclusively with browntop.

Greens Complexes and Approaches

• Greens surrounds had been expanded to develop extensive greens complexes.  Within the complexes bunkers have created traffic pinch-points on fine turf areas and these will benefit from a dedicated aeration program.  More widely, greens aeration operations should be expanded beyond green surfaces to encompass all fine turf areas of greens complexes, creating the opportunity to increase turf quality.

• Overseeding to refine species content most appropriate to the needs of each area within the complexes will increase both traffic tolerance and increase playability. We suggest that straight, ultra-fine rye grasses are pot-seeded into high traffic pinch points and rye/fescue blends are pot-seeded into wider complex areas.

• We support a policy of improving turf quality beyond screen surfaces to include greens complexes and approaches.  Accomplishing this would improve presentation and play ability of the course year-round.  The first step in improvement would be an increase in aeration to encourage root development and aid infiltration to improve autumn and winter play.

• Extending aeration operations from greens to greens complexes was discussed on site and the issue of efficiency was raised, including the use of slitters.  Concerns over slits opening up during dry spells can be minimised if multiple passes of the slitter are made over the same areas, allowing the effect of soil shrinkage to be spread across more openings, therefore each opening less.

• Traffic management practices will benefit turf quality by reducing footfall.  Consider subtle staking to discourage players from taking particular routes and remember that any reduction in traffic will have a positive impact.

Tees

• Tees were suffering from extensive drought impact and recovery will need two courses of action, each complimenting the other:

• Application of a penetrating surfactant when the opportunity to ensure adequate rainfall integration presents.

• Solid tine aeration when soil moisture conditions allow for soil stability.  Undertaking this operation when the soil is dry will lead to loss of surface stability.

• Progressing beyond recovery, increasing solid tine aeration to two operations per year will develop root mass and depth for turf resilience plus aid infiltration of rainfall and irrigation.  It will also bring benefit in the long term if a surfactant program that aids distribution throughout the root zone is applied from early season and throughout the year, preventing hydrophobic conditions initiating through spring and maximising irrigation efficiency.

• Application of a controlled release, granular fertiliser with an extended release pattern (4-5 months) will provide a continual nutritional source, enabling recovery whenever growth opportunities arise.

Bunkers

• Fairway bunker fringes had been grown out.  Producing areas of long rough that both reduce maintenance regimes and improve definition and identification of bunkers on the golf course.  It is essential that these long areas are mown twice a year and the clippings collected to reduce the likelihood of grass becoming dense and rank.  It may be required to mow a small fringe between the bunker edge and the long rough to prevent seed dropping into the bunkers and thus creating a weed issue requiring further maintenance.

Tree Management and Shade Reduction

• Extensive, dense areas of trees were planted through the 1980’s and 90’s at Arcot Hall.  Until recently there had been little progress in thinning these copses and their maturation has led to them enclosing the golf course, restricting airflow and reducing opportunities for direct sunlight exposure to surfaces. 7th and 15th greens demonstrate the conditions that trees create with the incidence of autumn and winter disease higher here than elsewhere on the course.  The recent improvement of turf quality on 4th tee highlights the benefit of increasing light and air availability.

• Thick undergrowth beneath trees will not hamper light access to surfaces but will greatly reduce air flow.   An example is the scrub surrounding the 15th green, which incidentally has the highest rate of autumn and winter disease.  Also of concern at the 15th green is the rhododendron, an invasive and smothering species with allelopathic characteristics, actively hampering other species welfare and establishment.

• Maintaining a program of shade reduction through tree removal will contribute greatly to increasing turf health.  Identifying significant specimen trees and ensuring their health and preservation while removing inferior specimens and needless fillers will maintain the character of the course but bring benefit to both these trees and surrounding turf.

Monday 12th May

Over the last few weeks the irrigation system has been working night and some days to help keep the greens and tees from completely drying out.  On a night time the system is set to apply water for around 8 hours spread out with over 5 hours to the greens and around 2 1/2 hours to the tees, once this has finished we have then been applying water by hand using the hose pipes and a wetting agent applicator, the wetting agent helps to maintain moisture levels in the rootzone during dry spells.

On the greens we’ve started our verti-cutting for the season, on Tuesday 22nd of April they were cut at level to help remove the longer rougher grasses from the sward.  A week later the were done again, this time at 1mm below the surface, this helps to remove some of the thatch from below the surface.  Going forward the greens will be done fortnightly and the depth will be increased gradually until we get to 2mm below the surface.  The video in the link below shows the rough grass and tatch being removed from the green.

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Work has been done on the bunkers around the course, all of the bunkers have been edged, the faces have all been flymoed and we’re starting to put sand into the bunkers that require it.

All surfaces around the course are now being cut regularly.  Unfortunately we have had a couple of breakdowns with mowers lately.  The fairway cutter was out of action for around a week, while this was away we had to cut the fairways using the triple mower which is usually used on the tee boxes and greens surrounds.  The semi rough cutter has also had a couple of issues, one with its hydraulic system and the other an electrics issue which is currently getting fixed, fortunately due to the extremely dry spell the growth around the course has slowed down in the none sheltered areas.

Friday 11th April

I can’t remember too many times over the years that we have needed to use the irrigation system as early as March/early April,  certainly not the last couple of years.  Due to the prolonged dry spell through March and the application of fertiliser to the greens, the greens and the tees have all been watered every night for a fortnight.  The fertiliser that we applied a product called Greenmaster Pro-Lite Cold Start, this product aids early season growth. The nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium helps to kick-start early spring recovery and growth.  This is now well watered in and taking good effect.

The tee boxes have been scarified, this was done using our tractor mounted rotor rake, once scarified the surface was tidied up using the leaf blower and our triple unit grass cutter.  Scarifying is a maintenance process that removes moss and thatch, a layer of dead organic matter, from the surface, allowing better access for water, nutrients and air to reach the grass roots, promoting healthier growth and a firmer surface for play.

Below is a video link showing the scarifier in action.

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Other work that has been carried out on the course includes the instalation of steps into the 2nd tee side for the ladies to access the red markers.  Work has started on the edging of the bunkers around the course, holes 1,2,8,9,15 & 17 have all been completed to date.  All bunkers have a clean new edge and the bunkers with faces have been flymoed, this work will continue next week.

All surfaces around the course have been cut, with the heights on the fairways, tees and green surrounds all being reduced to ‘summer’ height.  Tees and greens surrounds are now at 10mm and fairways are now at 13mm.  The greens have also been reduced in height and are currently cutting at 4mm.

Next week we will continue with the bunker edging and look to get another dressing of sand onto the greens.

Friday 28th March

Maintenance on the course has ramped up over the last couple of weeks with the hollow coring of the greens and fertiliser application on the fairways.  Prior to the hollow coring, the greens were cut and rolled twice weekly for 3 weeks to help firm the surface to allow for an even removal of cores.

Once the greens were cored we then used our core harvester to clear the greens, this was made easier with the dry conditions.

After the greens were clear we applied around 35 ton of sand to the greens over three applications.  The sand was brushed and matted in each time and the rolled using the turf iron to help work the dressing in.  The drainlines on the newly drained greens were ironed prior to each dressing to help compact the lines and produce a more level surface.  Since being dressed all of the greens are now being mown at 5mm and have been rolled twice this week, we’ve even had to use the irrigation on the greens this week due to the dry weather.

Preparation for the start of the season is in full flow, with all surfaces around the course being cut this week.

The new rakes have been put out in the bunkers around the course, could we please ask that once the rakes have been used can they be placed back in the bunkers and not be left outside the bunkers.  This helps to stop any ball being trapped against the rake outside of bunker, this creates a harder shot over rather than from the bunker.

Over the next week or so we will be looking to apply fetiliser to the greens, surrounds and the tee boxes.  We will scarify the tee boxes prior to applying fertiliser.  New steps at the red markers on the 2nd tee will be installed and the white tee area on 13 will be lifted and leveled.

Friday 7th March

Over the last couple of weeks the golf course has dried out significantly, to the point where we’ve been able to get the machinery out on the course to do some cutting.  The tees, greens surrounds, approaches and the fairways have all been cut this week, added to the tee sides being cut last week.  The greens were sprayed on Tuesday, this was a mix of fungicide and liquid iron.

Hand cutting of the greens has continued, the height of cut has been reduced on all of the greens, the greens that were drained have been reduced from 8mm to 7mm, the rest of the greens have been reduced to 5.5mm.  The drain lines are continued to be rolled regularly with all of the greens rolled on Wednesday.

The greens are starting to firm up nicely following the hand cutting and the rolling, however they are still susceptible to pitch marks.  If a pitch mark isn’t repaired quickly after its made then it can lead to long-term damage to the putting surface, affecting roll, consistency, and the overall condition of the greens.  A correctly repaired pitch mark will recover in 24 hours, while an unrepaired one left for a few hours could take up to two months to recover.  Could we please ask members to take a moment to check for pitch marks and repair these as they go.  Below is an example of how to repair pitch marks.

It was sad to see that there has been a couple of divots have been taken out of the greens on 8 & 16, could we please ask members to take care when they are on the greens to help avoid this happening.

Were coming into a busy period of work on the course over the next couple of weeks.  The main greens will be hollow cored on Tuesday 18th of March.  Once hollow cored an application of top dressing will be applied over the following days, finally there will be an application of fertiliser applied to help with the recovery process.  We’re going to be fertilising the fairways again this year, we’re currently in the process of finalising a date for this but we hope for this to happen around the same time as the hollow coring, this is in order to try and keep disruption to golf to a minimum.  It normally takes a day for this to be completed.  The fairway protection will be coming to an end shortly, the exact date will be forwarded to members next week.  We’ve also been able to allow the use of two seater buggies on the course, currently only members who own their buggies have access to this.  This will be monitored and we will look to get to the full use of the buggies as soon as we feel we can.

Thursday 20th February

It’s been a very busy 2 weeks on the golf course and other than a couple of morning frosts the weather has been kind to us.  We’ve managed to get a further 5 mats into the tees, we now have 11 new permanent winter matts inserted with 2 temporary ones currently being used on the 7th and the 15th tees.  the latest ones that have been done are on 10, 11, 12, 17 & 18.

The process of inserting the mats includes stripping off any turf that we can reuse, some of the turf can’t be reused as it may be too worn or weakened by tree roots.  We then dig out the area and insert a timber frame, we then insert some hardcore into the framework and firm it in using our whacker plate.  We then apply a thin layer of the crushed stone too level the surface, this is also firmed in.  We finally cut the Astro turf to size and screw it down to the framework.  Once the mats are brought into play we maintain them by using our power brush a couple of times a week to keep them tidy.

When we put the mat in at the 17th we removed a couple of trees from behind the tee, these were marked to be taken out along with some others in that copse to thin it out, this is to allow more airflow and sunlight to the 16th green.  These were taken down before we put the new mat in to avoid damaging it, the remaining trees marked trees will be removed before the start of the season.

We’ve continued with the hand cutting of the main greens, these have been done a couple of times over the last two weeks.  The drain lines have also been rolled a couple of times with the turf iron and are settling down well.

Friday 7th February

Following the storm all of the damaged trees have been taken away and work continues around the course to tidy up twigs and other debris.  Since the storm we’ve had a dry although very cold period of weather.  Work on the course has included verti-draining of the main greens, this was done again at 9 inches deep using 1/2 inch tines.  This was the first time that the new drain lines have been verti-drained, holes 6, 10 & 13 coped well with this, however the on the 14th green the drainlines started to show signs of the turf pulling up so we stopped and returned to tining in between the drain lines on this green.  Verti-draining will be carried out again in 3-4 weeks, then on the 18th of March the main greens will be hollow cored.

Staying with the greens they were mown earlier this week using the pedestrian mowers, the four greens that have been drained this winter were cut at around 8mm with the rest being cut at 6mm.  The height of cut will be reduced on the greens with new drains gradually and will be inline with the rest of the greens towards the start of the season.  We will look to continue with the hand cutting of the greens for now, this should help to gain a good surface going into the start of the season.

Work has continued with the installation of the winter mats, the 4th and the 5th have now been completed.  On the 3rd hole we’ve put down some mats to get from the path to the 3rd tee as this area was starting to get churned up.  These mats will be moved regularly to help spread the wear in the area.

Unfortunately at the beginning of the week we noticed that some golf trolleys had been taken across the 16th green, as explained in a email to the members this may well have been done in error but please be mindful of the main greens when the temporary greens are in play.  We’re currently going through a period of cold mornings meaning that the greens sometimes have to come out of play due to frost, when this happens the greens will be accessed later in the day and will return back into play should temperatures rise and the frost lifts.

Next week work will continue on the winter mats and other tidying up around the course.

Saturday 25th January

As the storm has passed through we’ve assessed the damage around the course.  We seem to have got away quiet lightly with the damage caused.  There was tree and a bough down in the copse at the back of the 1st green, a tree to the edge of the copse on near the 6th fairway and a bough down at the back of the 9th green.  The bough at the 9th is still attached half way up the tree, the branch has been trimmed back and has been made safe to pass.  All of the damage will be cut up and removed on Monday.

Friday 24th January

As the temperatures start to rise the ground temperatures still remain low enough to hold some frost.  The greens are currently still frozen just below the surface, they are being monitored on a daily basis and once the frost has lifted fully they will return to play.

As the ground frost lingers we’ve been working on the ditches around the course, clearing the ditch behind the 7th green and to the right hand side of the 10th tee by hand.  We’ve had the digger to the ditch that runs through the woods to the left hand side of the 8th and the ditch behind the 9th green.  Behind the 9th needed further work carried out with the trimming back of trees and shrubs to gain access.  All ditches are now cleared and running well.

Later in the week we were able to get on with inserting some mats into tees.  The 3rd and the 6th had thawed out sufficiently to be able dig the area out and lay the new mats, these are now finished and are in play.

Next week we’re hoping for the frost to be completely out of the ground so we’re able to continue inserting tee mats and also to complete the verti-draining on the main greens.

Tuesday 14th January

Following a period of sub-zero temperatures the golf course is starting to thaw out.  Although the air temperatures are up double figures today the thawing process will take some time.  We’re currently looking at the top 2-5mm thawed out but beneath this the ground is still frozen.  This is why it will take a couple of days to get the main greens back into play.  As the photo below illustrates if the layer above is thawed and the lower layer is still frozen then it can cause the roots become damaged or even snap leading to the turf becoming damaged.  With this in mind should your ball come to rest on the main green then please retrieve your ball via the shortest route, please do not walk across the greens to get to your next shot or the next tee.

The fairway protection has now changed to the use of mats on the fairways and in the semi-rough around the course.  This will be monitored as the course thaws and hopefully dries out.

Tuesday 7th January

The green staff would like to wish all our members a Happy new year.

Following the Christmas period we’ve had our first bout of bad weather, bringing Snow in the early hours of Sunday morning, This falling on already frozen ground, it then turned to rain leading to 40mm, around an inch and a half of precipitation over a short period of time.  As you can see from the photos below there was a lot of standing water around the golf course.  With the rain falling on top of the frozen ground some areas may take more time to clear that usual.  The areas that have drains beneath have been probed down to the gravel layer on top of the drains and are draining well.  Other areas such as the 3rd have had the pump out to them to help clear the standing water.  Looking at the weather forecast for the next few days we’re looking at freezing temperatures up until the weekend, hopefully without any rain/snowfall.

Thursday 19th December

As mentioned last week the steps at the front of the 2nd tee box needed some attention, They have now been extended upwards by a couple of steps to remove the slope from the top of the tee to the top step making them safer.

Another troublesome area was on the path from the 2nd green towards the 3rd tee where it would sit water for a long time following rainfall.  We managed to locate a drain which runs through the area, we then proceeded to dig a trench down one side of the path and top it up with fresh gravel.  On the other side of the path we dug a trench to the next rig where the drain was located, we then dug out a stretch of that rig bottom and topped that up with fresh gravel, hopefully this will allow the area to dry out and be able to take rainfall without flooding as bad.

The greens have had a trim this week and have also had an application of liquid feed, this consisted of liquid iron and Attain.  The liquid iron helps to keep the grass green while the temperatures are low and gives a small boost to growth.  The Attain is an organic fertiliser with a small percentage of Nitrogen to give an extra boost of growth over the next few weeks.  The newly drained greens ‘6, 10, 13 & 14’, were rolled on Monday and followed up with a cut on Tuesday morning, These greens have today ‘Thursday’ have been brought back into play.  The newly drained greens will be in play over the weekend and will be assessed on Monday to see how they have coped with the play of the previous 4 days.

The four drained greens were cut at 8mm compared to 6mm for the other greens, this will be monitored over the next few months and will gradually be brought down to the same height of cut so we don’t scalp the drain lines.  The club captain has kindly purchased some new bunker rakes for the course, these rakes come with a small stand fitted so the shafts don’t sit in the sand.  Two of these have been placed in the bunkers at the 18th, the rest of the rakes will be placed around the course closer to the start of the new season.

Friday 13th December

Since things have now settled down following the storm we’ve been able to get on with fitting the new astro turf winter tees.  The mats have been inserted into the tees on the 2nd and the 9th holes, the mats are going to be placed around the course within 10 yards of the new blue yardage markers, this means that when the tees are on the mats that the course length will still be within the blue course rating.  This work will be continued throughout the winter.

Since we’ve finished the 2nd mat we’ve realised that the steps next to it are going to have to insert a couple more steps to get rid of the little slope that is next to the mat, this will be done early next week.

Also next week we will be looking to spray the main greens with a liquid fertiliser mix, we will also be rolling the new drain lines again and trimming them using the pedestrian mowers.

Monday 9th December

Following the latest storm we recorded 30mm of rainfall from Friday night until this morning.  There’s been quite a bit of standing water on the course, the majority of this has drained away naturally once they were probed through to the gravel on top of the drains.  The worst area affected has been the 3rd in front of the tee boxes, we had the pump out there this morning and the water is all just about gone now.

We were also expecting more damage to the trees around the course following the strong winds, the only tree that we’ve lost on the course was behind the 9th tee, this has been chopped up and taken away.

There has been the odd branch and other debris come down but in all it’s not been as bad as we feared.

Friday 6th December

Its been a testing couple of weeks on the course with the weather, we’ve had over an inch of rain over the two weeks with just under half of this coming as snow.  Unfortunately we did loose a couple of days on the course due to closure.  On the course the 14th green had the drain lines rolled for the first time since the turf has been re-laid This will be repeated over the next week or so.  The drain lines on the other 3 greens that were drained have also been rolled, this being their 2nd roll, they are recovering really well and will be cut at 8mm when the ground conditions allow.

Continuing with our winter aeration program, the greens have been verti-drained this week, they were tined to a depth of 8 inches using 1/2 inch tines.  The greens were also sprayed this week following an outbreak of disease.

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With the wet conditions on the course we’ve had couple of days tidying up around the car park and the club house, the hedges have been trimmed, some reduced in height so they are more manageable.

Over the next couple of weeks we will be starting to get the winter tees out around the course, the mat on the 15th is going to be located on the left hand side of the path at the tee box rather than in front of the tee box.  we’ve currently got on of our temporary mat in that position to give the members a view of what the hole will play like through the winter.

In summary we will be looking to continue with the recovery of the newly drained greens with rolling and reducing the mowing height.  The winter tees installed.  We hope to get a liquid fertiliser applied before the Christmas break, as always this is weather dependent.

Friday 22nd November

Over the last two weeks we’ve seen mild dry weather be taken over by sub zero temperatures and a covering of snow.  Last week saw all of the playing surfaces around the course cut.  All tees, greens surrounds, fairways and most of the semi rough being cut.  The main greens were cut 3 times and the temporary greens cut twice.

The plan this week was to roll the new drain lines on the newly drained greens but since the freezing conditions have taken hold we’ve had to put this off until the ground thaws out.  Other work that’s been done this week has been the removal of mole hills from around the course.  Once this has been done we are then able to see where the moles are working and be able to take care of this.

The pictures above were taken around the course on Thursday and Friday, as you can see there is still quite a bit of snow lying on the ground.

Today we started working on the removal of trees from between the 3rd green and the 16th tee area.  These trees have been marked for a couple of years to be taken out.  The removal of these will aid airflow to the green and tee and also allow for more use of the left hand side of the winter tee on the 16th.

There are more trees still to take out from this area and this work will be ongoing.

Fairway protection will be in play on the course from next Monday ’25th November’.  Members and visitors will be required to use a mat to play from the fairway, they will also have the option of picking up their ball and playing from the nearest side of the fairway in the semi rough without the use of a mat.

Looking forward to next week we will looking to get the new drain lines rolled and all of the greens verti-drained.

Friday 8th November

Our focus this week has been on aeration, on the main greens, temporary greens and the tee boxes we’ve used the slitter.  The blades are on a rolling drum which allows them to go into the ground and work on the motion of the tractor rather than being PTO driven.  The blades go into the ground 6 inches, we will be carrying this job out every 4 weeks throughout the winter while ground conditions allow.  We will also be integrating this into our spring/summer aeration program next year.

Continuing with aeration we’ve also started verti-draining on the fairways this week.  We’ve managed to cover the 1st, 9th, 17th and 18th fairways and also the first part of 10th fairway to the ditch.  We’re using 3/4 inch tines for this and the tines are going into a depth of 7-8 inches.  This process will also relieve compaction from the seasons play across the course.  These areas have been done first as they were some of the worst areas effected by the heavy rainfall last year.

The 6th, 10th and 13th greens that were drained last month have had the drain lines rolled for the first time this week.  The turf has rooted in well and they took the rolling well.  We’ve applied an autumn fertiliser to all of the greens yesterday.  Following this the greens will be given time for the fertiliser to breakdown once this has happened ‘around 2 weeks’, we will be looking to roll the drain lines again, at this point the drain lines on the 14th green will be rolled for the first time.

This weekend is remembrance Sunday, as we have in the past we have the remembrance flags out on the 1st and the 18th greens.

Over the next couple of weeks we will look to continue with the verti-draining of the fairways, we’ll also be going around the course picking up the mole hills.  We will also look to take advantage of the good weather and try and get some of the playing areas cut.

Friday 1st November

This week has seen the completion of the drainage works on the 14th green.  The turf was all back in place on the green itself on Wednesday, with the drain line at the front of the green re-turfed today.

We are extremely happy with the progress that has been made over the last 5/6 weeks on the drainage program.  Now that work has been completed we can now look to the recovery of the turf.  The turf on the 13th, 6th and 10th has now been down for 2-3 weeks and is rooting in very well.

Elsewhere on the course, we’ve seen the continued mowing of the greens and also the aprons and surrounds have been cut this week and of course the leaf blower has been going almost continuously due to the leaves dropping form the trees.

Next week we will look to get the drain lines on the 13th, 6th and 10th rolled for the first time, following that we will be applying fertiliser to all of the greens.  This will help to harden the turf and strengthen the roots for the winter.  We will be starting to verti-drain the fairways next week, we will start on the 1st, 18th and 17th fairways, these were the fairways that suffered the worst last year with the heavy rain so this will help to prepare them better for the winter ahead.  This job can take sometime so please be patient when you come across the machine working on the golf course.

Saturday 26th October 

Following the removal of the turf from the 14th green the contractors were back on site and drainage work started on Wednesday, all of the drains have been dug out and the pipe has been installed in each drain line.

All of the drain lines have had the required amount of gravel installed, and all but one line has had the rootzone put in.  The last line will be topped up with rootzone on Monday, once this is complete the drain lines will be firmed in and we will begin to relay the turf.

Else where on the course we’ve been taking advantage of the drying conditions that followed the storm over the weekend.  The leaf blower has been out to tidy the debris and leaves that fell during that time and continue to fall from the trees.  We’ve also been able to get on with some cutting around the course.  The greens are still being mown daily, we’ve also cut the tees, aprons and surrounds, fairways and the majority of the semi rough.  there are still some areas of rough that remain too wet to get the machine in to.

Finally this week we’ve also Verti-drained the greens, this was done to a depth of 6 inches using 1/2 inch tines.  This procedure will be carried out throughout the winter months every 4 weeks to allow good airflow into the root zone and the soil structure.

As previously said the work will continue on the 14th green next week, we aim to get the turf down as soon as possible.  As the main drain lines have been installed into the green we still need to connect this network up to a main drain, this will be done next week.

Sunday 20th October

All drainage works have now been completed on all 3 greens, the 13th, 6th and 10th greens now have all the turf relayed and are on the road to recovery.  Those greens will now be left for a couple of weeks before we are able to roll the drain lines with the turf iron, they will then be assessed as to how well they have recovered in terms of the drain lines settling and the turf rooting in.

On Thursday we started work on the 14th green.  The drain lines have been cut and the turf has been cut ready to be lifted.  The contractors were due to be back on site on Monday, however due to unforeseen circumstances the contractors will now be on site on Wednesday to start digging out the drain lines.  Our target remains to have the drain lines dug out next week and to have the drain lines all completed by the end of the following week.

Saturday 12th October

We started laying the turf on the drained greens this week, with the 13th being completed on Thursday.

Progress has been a little slower than we had hoped for with the rainfall that we reported on Wednesday.  We we’re looking to get both the 13th and the 6th greens turfed this week however on Wednesday night we seen a further 15mm of rainfall on top of the previous 66mm, taking it over the 3 inch mark for the 3 days, this also meant we had to carryout more pumping of flood water on Thursday from the 11th fairway and also to drop the water level on the 9th pond as it had overflowed onto the path around the back of it.

We started preparing the 6th drain lines on Thursday afternoon and started laying the turf on Friday, There are now two drain lines turfed on this green.  We will be back on this green on Monday looking to complete the turfing and move on to the 10th green, looking to complete this work by the end of the week in preparation for starting the 14th green.

Wednesday 9th October

The last couple of days has seen the weather take a turn for the worse, since Sunday evening we’ve seen 66mm ‘just over 2 & 1/2 inches’ of rainfall with 47mm falling on Tuesday alone.  This rainfall has caused some flooding around the course.  Below is a collection of photos to show this.
The areas shown have all been probed and the water will drain away through the drainage system.

The following pictures show areas that have flooded where there are drains or ditches, these areas take a little longer to clear following such heavy rain but will do so through the drainage system that’s in place.

The last picture shows the 10th fairway.  Years ago this area of the 10th was always susceptible to flooding and would require a water pump to remove the flood water.  With it being a low point following heavy down pours this area can be overwhelmed but will drain away relatively quick thanks to the installation of the pond.

The last of the photos show the 3rd hole just off the tee, this area struggles to drain on its own requiring the use of the water pump to clear the area.

Saturday 5th October

Its been another very busy week on the golf course, the contractors are now finished on site with all of the drains now dug out on the 13th, 6th and the 10th greens.  The progress has been great with the 3 greens being dug out in 7 working days.  The contractors will be offsite for 2 weeks and will return on the 21st of October to begin work on the 14th green which will be the last of the 18 greens in play to have drains installed.  Over the next two weeks the greens staff will be finishing off the topping up of the drain lines and then reinstating the turf.

As the grass is still growing on the course we’ve also been out cutting this week with the tees, aprons/surrounds and the fairways all being cut, as stated before these surfaces are now being cut at their winter height.  The greens have also been cut everyday with and application of liquid iron, fertiliser and wetting agent on Friday morning.

Sunday 29th September 

Its been a busy few weeks on the golf course, all surfaces have been cut on a regular basis.  The 2nd cut of the semi rough has been reduced in height to 2 1/4 inches, this has been done to allow the surface to dry out quicker throughout the winter months.  Other playing surfaces the height of cut has be raised for the winter period, tees and approaches up from 10mm to 12mm fairways up from 13mm to 15mm, this gives these areas more protection for the winter golf.  Greens are currently being cut at 4mm and they will be lifted up to 5mm over the next few weeks.

At the end of  August the greens were hollow cored, this was the third time this year that they’ve been done.  This time they were done using 16mm tines to a depth of 60mm, this was followed up with over 40 ton of sand being applied over two dressings.  the greens have recovered very well from this and have filled in well following an application of fertiliser after the coring.

Tuesday this week seen the started of the drainage work on the remaining greens.  We started on the 13th green, digging has been a lot easier than what we’ve seen on previous greens, the 13th green had all of the drain lines cut out in just two days.

Thursday seen a day off from digging as we had heavy rainfall so we started work on the 6th green on Friday, we’re approximately 1/2 way through the digging on that green.  Once we’re through the 6th green we will move onto the 10th green and finish the drainage with the 14th green.  As we’re using contractors to dig the drains we’re following them and inserting the pipe and gravel.

Monday 5th August

After a dry June, July has seen over 4 inches of rainfall, this has helped with grass growth throughout the course.  The greens have been cut daily, with tees, fairways and greens surrounds cut twice weekly.  We’ve extended the approaches to the 1st, 13th and the 17th greens, these were normally cut out to around 15 yards, they’re now cut out to around 30 yards at a height of 10mm with a criss cross pattern.  As well as looking good this will allow for different shot options from the approach.

The greens were solid tined to a depth of 3 inches using 6mm tines, this operation took 3 days from the 22nd of July.  Following this they were verti-cut and an application of liquid fertiliser.  The greens have been rolled 2-3 times per week depending on the weather conditions.  Verti cutting has been carried out on the greens on a weekly basis doing a single pass at 1mm beneath the surface, with a light dressing of sand on the 16th of July.

The area to the right hand side of the 3rd has been dressed out with old cores from the greens and then seeded and is now roped off until the area has recovered fully.  We’ve started strimming around the bottoms of the individual trees in the semi-rough around the course, this work will continue in the coming days.

Over the coming days we are going to start removing the yardage stones from the tee boxes, coloured stakes will replace these for the time being until the new course/yardages come into play later in the year.

Tuesday 9th July

Greens

There’s been a lot going on over the last few weeks on the golf course.  Work on the greens has been at the forefront with them being dressed on the 10th with another heavy dressing of around 15 ton applied.  This was the last heavy dressing applied following the hollow coring to help fill up the holes with sand.  Following this on the 12th the height of cut was brought down to the height of 4mm.  The rest of the week the greens were cut and rolled using the vibrating rollers to help work the sand into the surface.  On the 17th the greens were verti-cut, this was done with the units set to level to help lift some of the vertical growth on the greens to allow a tighter cut, once this was complete we then gave the greens another light dressing of sand ‘7.5-10 ton’.  The following week ’24th July’ the greens were again verti-cut, this time going 1mm into the surface to start removing some of the tatch layer from beneath the surface.  This process was repeated on the 1st of July, the rest of the week seen the greens cut every day with the height of cut reduced furthermore to 3.5mm on Friday 5th.  The greens were rolled on the Tuesday, Thursday and the Friday using the turf iron in preparation for the club championships on the 7th.  The greens were also cut and rolled on the day of the event.  The greens were sprayed on the 26th with a mix of liquid iron, revolution ‘wetting agent’ and Attain, which is a liquid fertiliser with a small amount of nitrogen to help the greens maintain slow growth.  This process is repeated every 4 weeks throughout the summer.

Rest of the course

From the 10th of June the heights of cut were reduced on all surfaces around the golf course, greens 4mm, tees aprons and surrounds 10mm and the fairways 13mm.  The weather has been kind to us over the last few weeks so these surfaces have been reduced easily with very little mess.  On the 20th we had the Husqvarna robotic mower arrive on demo, We’ve had the mower on site for just under 3 weeks.  We’ve tried it out on all surfaces from aprons to semi rough where the mower has worked well over all surfaces.  Below is a couple of photos and a short video to show how the robotic mowers work and can be used on the golf course.

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Some of the areas around the course that were damaged by the standing water over the winter months have been dressed and seeded these include two rigs to the right hand side on the newly installed path on the 7th hole.  On the 10th there were two rigs which were damaged with standing water, we now have installed gravel drains and connected up to a pipe in the rig in between as a temporary fix to get us though to winter time where we will inspect the drains in those two rigs.

We have had the large cutting deck through the area to the right hand side of the 3rd green to help tidy it up.  work had began to remove the remaining stumps and to dress the area out.  This work will continue in the coming days.

Also on the 3rd hole the bushes in front of the tee boxes have also been trimmed down.

Saturday 8th June

The two pictures below were taken from the back of the 12th green, the first picture on Thursday the 30th of May, the 2nd picture on Thursday this week.  Showing the difference in the course conditions over the seven day period.  The irrigation system has been on overnight to both the greens and tees since Wednesday.
On Tuesday the greens were hollow cored.  This was carried out following the recommendations from the agronomists visit earlier in the year.  They were cored to a depth of 60mm, through the 40mm zone where the thatch levels were high.  Once the cores were removed we then dressed the greens on Wednesday and Thursday.   Before sand was applied to the 1st, 5th & 17th the new drain lines were rolled to help level them further.  In total over the two days we applied 30 ton of sand to the greens, averaging around 1.5 ton per green.  The irrigation system will be running throughout the weekend to water the greens as required and also to help wash in as much sand as possible.  Following this we will look to apply more sand on Monday or Tuesday depending on the weather.

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The rest of the week was taken up with mowing.  All the main areas, Greens, tees, surrounds, fairways and semi rough, were all cut.  Some of the smaller areas such as copses and tee sides were cut this week and we’ll look to get the carry on with all these areas over the coming days.

Thursday 30th May

Since our last update the weather has been the exact opposite, with 97mm of rainfall, almost 4 inches, coming down in an 8 day period with 33mm coming down last night.  Over the first 5 month of this year we’ve seen rainfall totaling 541mm, over 21 inches.  Continuing on the wet weather from last summer with 1337mm, almost 53 inches in the last 12 month, which is around 576mm or 24 inches over the yearly average.  Below is a collection of photos to show the water on the course following the latest downpour.

Wednesday 22nd May

The last two weeks have been extremely dry with only 4mm of rain coming down on Sunday the 12th, with the dry weather we’ve seen good progress on course.  The greens were Verit-cut on Monday the 13th, as it was the first time out this season the units were set up level with the surface so they weren’t too vigorous but allowing to pick up some of the horizontal growth on the greens.  This operation was followed up with a dressing of sand and then followed up with the turf iron to help level the surface.

All surfaces have been cut with improvement seen all around the course.  We’ve used the multi brush on the fairways this week, This removes the morning due and helps to stand the grass up to allow for a drier and tighter cut.

Fertiliser has been applied to the greens, this was one of the recommendations from the agronomist to help with magnesium levels following the soil analysis of the greens.  This will also help to establish good growth over the greens to allow good recovery following the Hollow coring that is booked in for June 4th.  When we do this operation the tines used ‘8mm’, are smaller that what were used last time ’16mm’, which should also allow us to get some sand into the profile and aid quicker recovery.

As some may have seen on the 1st tee there has been an example the new tee yardage markers that will be inserted once they’ve been personalised and we receive them.

Finally the divot bag refill bin on the 6th tee has been moved to the top of the 6th tee where it joins the 13th tee, this is so that golfers can refill on both tees when their bags are emptied.  Unfortunately we’ve seen a reduction of bags available to members, we started off with over 20 bags and this morning when we came to refill them there was only 3 bags remaining.  Could members please check their golf bags, lockers of even car boots to see if they have accidently forgot to replace them in the basket at the 18th, we would be very grateful for any bags that can be returned.

Tuesday 7th May

Last week on the course the main greens were all micro-tined using 1/4 inch tines to a depth of 80mm, this takes us through the organic mater at 40mm deep.  This process will be carried out every 4 weeks throughout the playing season to enable us to get air into the profile and once the ground conditions dry out enough we will be applying sand to the greens, both of these procedures will help to dilute this organic mater layer and help improve the health of the greens.

With fairway protection no longer in play we now have the divot bags ready for use at the 1st tee, some members have already started using these which is a massive help to us and the membership.  This year the club have invested in some plastic containers which are filled with divot mix so members can top up their bags on their way around course, meaning the divots that may have been missed can also be filled in.  These containers have been situated at the 6th, 10th and 15th tee boxes, meaning you can top up every 3-4 par 4 or par 5 holes, so please feel free to use as much divot mix as the course needs.  Please return the divot bags to the basket at behind the 18th green when finished your round.   As always the divot boxes are on the 1st tee and all par 3s around the course.

From the Monday to the Friday the course was drying out very well seeing all surfaces cut and the course looking and playing well, however a heavy downpour ’25mm’, overnight on Friday into Saturday morning saw the golf course suffer again from flooding and standing water.  The course recovered well seeing it back open on the Sunday morning with restrictions.  Some restrictions are still in place today however the course is continuing to dry out and with a good forecast over the next few days we should see things start to get back to normal.  Below is a collection of photos showing the course during the heaviest of the rainfall on Saturday morning.

The agronomists report has arrived with some positive results from the core samples and some recommendations going forward to improve the greens and other parts of the golf course.  Below is a summary of the report, the full report will be available to all members.

Photographic Gallery and Comments

Plate 1: Soil core taken from the 18^th green.  This green was one of the first to be drained as part of the greens drainage program.  Despite heavy and persistent rainfall, the soil profile is dry, uniform and sandy, highlighting the benefits and importance of the drainage system to soil and turf health.

Plate 2: Soil cores taken from the 1^st green main body of the green [top] and from over a newly installed drain [bottom].  The top core is holding intact to a depth of around 80 mm while the bottom core just  20mm.  This indicates that roots have yet to develop where turf has been reinstated after drain installation. Root development is expected to improve with the arrival of better growing conditions.  Better rooting will in turn allow more intensive work to perfect surface levels on the greens that have been drained this winter.

Plate 3: Sward condition on green 2. There is a good content of bentgrass through the greens at Arcot Hall.  However, it has become leafy and course over the winter months with reduced mowing and increased height of cut. As growing conditions improve the turf will become more refined with increase mowing, lower height of cut and some grooming, brushing and verti-cutting operations.

Plate 4: Tree and scrub removal between 3^rd [top] and 15^th greens [bottom].  Trees and scrub have been successfully and sympathetically removed from this area to good effect.  It would be beneficial to remove the rhododendron understorey as seen at the rear of the 15^th green [bottom].

Recommendations

Greens

Organic Matter Reduction & Green Firming

• The data suggest that soil organic matter has declined since it was last tested in 2023.  This is pleasing but work needs to continue if we are to achieve target.  Continue to hollow core the greens to a depth of at least 40 mm regularly.  The plan is to carry out an intermediate micro-hollow coring in June/July before returning to use the 12 mm [½ in.] diameter tines for end of season renovation in August and again the following March 2025.  Each coring operation should be followed with an application of sand top dressing to fill the holes and introduce ‘clean’ material into the soil profiles.  Several subsequent lighter dressings may be required to perfect surface levels should settlement of the sand down the tine holes occur.
• Verti-cut and lightly top dress the greens during the growing season to minimize and dilute further accumulation of soil organic Grass growth will dictate the frequency and intensity required for this operation.

Newly Drained greens

• Continue to lightly roll the turf over the newly installed drains on greens 1, 5, and 17 to improve surface levels.
• Maintain a suitable cutting height that avoids scalping the high spots over the drain Once levels have been perfected, height of cut can be reduced accordingly.
• Hollow core and roll the turf along the drain lines once the turf is better established and a root system has sufficiently anchored the turf to withstand the operation without major disruption/damage.

Sward Species Development

• Hollow coring will also give the opportunity to over-seed the greens.  Over­ seeding should be confined to the drier greens [e.g. those that have been drained and after the mid- season and end of season coring operations when soil temperatures will be warm. Use a mixture of the most highly rated bentgrass cultivars on the BSPB Series G list [e.g. Charles Arrowtown, Cleek] or any that have proved successful at Arcot Hall in the past.

Sward Textural Refinement

• As grass growth increases the associated increase in mowing frequency coupled with reduced height of cut will serve to refine the sward.  Take advantage of peak spring grass growth and/or growth response to fertiliser applications, if more aggressive refinement work [i.e. brushing, grooming, verticutting] are felt necessary.

Fairways

• Overall drainage of fairways will be addressed more significantly once the greens drainage is completed, as per the last agronomic advisory report.
• Investigate whether drains servicing the area holding water the the left-hand side of the 10th fairway and into the rough are blocked with tree roots.  clear accordingly and consider selectively removing any culprit trees.
• Jumbo hollow core i.e. 3/4 or 1 inch diameter tines along the drain lines across the 16tgh fairway to reduce the thatch layer.  After coring apply a heavy application of sand top dressing to create columns that reconnect the surface with the drainage aggregate below.  This work is best carried out once the area has dried out and before next winter.

Monday 29th April

Heavy downpours on the 9th of April once again saw large amounts of water across the golf course, however unlike before the water did drain away relatively quick.  as the photos below show the 1st and the 17th green areas on the Tuesday and then the following day with most of the water gone.  Areas such as the 3rd and the rigs on the 10th hole did require the use of the water pump to remove the excess water.

Over the last 2 weeks we’ve seen good progress on the course with regards to the cutting, with most areas of the course now cut, there does still remain some areas that haven’t been cut yet due to the saturated ground conditions.

The week commencing 15th of April we were able to get all the fairways, tees, tee sides and greens surrounds cut using the ride on mowers.  The greens were also cut twice that week using the pedestrian mowers, this has helped to remove foot prints and tyre marks from the surface.  The greens have firmed up enough to allow us to use the ride on mowers on the greens once more without creating wheel marks.  On Tuesday the 16th we had the the agronomist on site to carry an assessment of the course.  Before his arrival we took  some core and soil samples of the 3 greens that are normally assessed greens 1,11 and 15, these samples are sent to a lab for analysis and the results of this will be included in the agronomist report.  On the day he did take a look at some core samples and had commented that the hollow-coring and verti-draining work that has been carried out since September has been positive in the appearance of the core structure.

Last week we were able to apply our first application of the summer mix of liquid iron, wetting agent and liquid feed to the main greens.  This is carried out every 4 weeks throughout the summer.  We also rolled all of the greens using the turf iron on Friday, giving the new drain lines on the 1st, 5th and the 17th an extra roll.

The 6th green has been very wet at the back of the green, to try and help it dry out we forked the area and spread some sand over the area.  Following this the green is starting to dry out.

Although the last couple of weeks have been drier the month of April has still seen 129mm of rain which has been the highest monthly total this year.  coupled with a few windy days and that the grass and the trees are starting to draw water the golf course has been able to dry out quite well.  The last two Saturdays have seen freezing temperatures in the mornings.  The second photo below shows the frost on Saturday morning with the green not being affected by the low temperatures, this is due to the liquid application from the previous week helping to raise the soil temperatures.

This week we will look to continue with the cutting around the golf course, Micro-tine the main greens and also look to get some rootzone or sand and seed to some of the damaged areas from the drainage and to other parts of the course.

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