News from the fairways of Arcot Hall

An inspection of the course was carried out, checking the bunkers and moving the tee markers following the weekends play.  The hedge at the 1st tee was trimmed using the new long reach hedge trimmer which the golf club have recently purchased.  Mole hills on the 10th near the green were also tidied up.

Work continued on picking up mole hills from the 10th hole, we also pick some up from the 3rd, 5th and 14th holes.  The main greens were verticut followed up with a cut.  The verticut units unlike normal cutting units cut vertically into the surface.  Verticutting is a process that we carry out throughout the growing season.  The main reason that we carry this out is to help clear the surface of any dead or dying materials and to promote new growth through the surface.  This being our first verticut the units were set up to level with the surface to not cause to much disruption at this point in the growing season, as the grass growth on the greens starts to become stronger then we will set the units down below the surface, normally to depths of 2-3mm, to take out more dead materials which make up the thatch layer below the surface, if this work was not carried out we would end up with a soft spongy surface which would not perform very well as a putting surface.  Below is an example of our units

An inspection of the course was carried out with the tee markers being moved, the bunkers being checked and the pin positions were also moved.  The main greens were mowed with the height of cut being reduced to 5mm and the aprons and surrounds were mowed.

The greens were again mowed, following cutting the drain lines on the 12th and 15th greens were rolled with the turf iron.  Bunkers were checked, the bins around the course were emptied and the ball washers were topped up.  The lawns around the club house were mown as were areas of semi rough round the course.  Tee boxes were mowed with the 1st tee being mowed with the hand machine.

With the captains dinner dance being on over the weekend we had to set up the tables and chairs in the morning.  Following this the 2nd and the 15th tees that were re-turfed over the winter required their first cut, we used the rotary mower for this as to not cut the grass too short for it first cut.  We started to tidy up the path near the first tee and surrounding areas.