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

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