News from the fairways of Arcot Hall

The week began with the greens being verti cut, mown, top dressed, brushed and ironed to help work the dresssing into the surface.  The aprons and the 1st cut of semi rough were mown and the cutting of the fairways began.

The greens and the tee boxes were mown, the fairways were completed and the cutting of the semi rough and the tees side began.

The greens were cut, cutting of the semi was continued as were the tee sides, some copses around the corse were cut and some bunkers trimmed.

The cutting of the semi rough was completed, greens and aprons were cut,  some bunker faces were flymoed and trimming bunkers around the course was continued.  The bunkers were fully raked in the afternoon for the league match in the evening.

The greens, tees, fairways and the 1st cut of semi were all mown.  The practice area was mown as was the area that has been dressed and seeded.  3 old sprinklers around the 9th green were replaced with new ones.

The greens and the 1st cut of semi rough were mown.  The following bunkers were edged and topped up with sand, right hand side of 2, all on the 4th and 5th, green side of the 7th and the left hand side fairway bunker on 12.

The greens, tees aprons and the fairways were all mown and the cutting of the semi rough began.

The greens were cut and followed up with the monthly application of Primo Max, Revolution, Attain and liquid Iron.  The tee box’s were seeded and dressed out with root zone.  Trimming was carried out around the trees on the 16th and the ditches on the 14th and the 15th holes.  The practice area was cut and the tee area was seeded, top dressed and fertiliser was applied.

The pin positions were changed this morning and the bunkers were raked, the greens were cut and were followed up with the turf iron.  The cutting of the semi rough was completed and the trimming around the course was continued.

The greens, tees, fairways and 1st cut of semi rough were all mown in preparation for the weekend, the bins around the course were emptied and the ball washers were topped up.  The tee area on the practice has been fenced off to help with recovery.

The day started with the bunkers and the tee markers being checked.  The greens, tees, aprons, fairways and 1st cut of semi rough around the fairways were all mown.  Following the wet and warm weather the growth on the golf course has really taken off none more so than the semi rough so once the 1st cut was completed the use of the tractor mounted blower was required to disperse the clippings that were dropped.

The greens were verti cut, cut, top dressed and the dressing was brushed in.  As was explained before it was recommend by the agronomist that the top dressing of greens was required on a regular basis (every 7-10 days), this may disrupt some of the golf being played on the days we carry this work out but it is a necessity.  The practice area was cut, the cutting of the semi rough began as did the trimming of long grass around the bases of trees around the course.

The greens were cut, the cutting of semi rough and around trees as continued.  The tee sides were mown and some bunkers around the course were trimmed.

The day began with the greens being cut and the pin positions being moved, the aprons and the fairways were mown, the trimming around bunkers was continued and some of the bunker faces were flymoed and finally the bunkers were raked in the afternoon for the league match in the evening.

The greens, tees and the 1st cut of semi were all cut, again the blower was used to help disperse clippings.  Work continued on the cutting and trimming of bunkers.

We started the week with the tining of the greens, they were tined to the depth of 4 inches, this is done to help air get into the root system of the green to help reduce stress and release compaction of the putting surface.  If this job was not done on a regular basis (every 4/6 weeks) then the greens would become too hard and unreceptive to shots into the greens and become susceptible to turf disease.  The greens tees and fairways were all mown.

The tining of the greens was completed, once this was done the greens were mown and top dressed, once the dressing was brushed in the greens were rolled to help work the dressing in further.

Over the course of the two days there was very heavy rain meaning that there was very little work carried out on the course so work was limited to machinery and equipment maintenance.

The greens were mown in the morning with the bunkers being raked and the tee markers being checked.  The aprons and the 1st cut of semi cut were also mown.  Persistent rain throughout the morning  and over the previous days meant that water began to gather on the greens so the water was needed to be removed using the squeegees to get the women’s competition completed.

We started the week with the mowing of the greens, aprons, fairways and the 1st cut of semi rough around the fairways.  The bunkers and markers were also checked and the height on the semi rough mower was changed and the mowing of the semi rough began.

Following the recommendations from the agronomist the greens were verti cut to the depth of 3mm below the surface and followed up with a cut to clean up the surface, once this was complete around 8 ton of top dressing was applied to the greens, this was brushed in and followed up with the turf iron to help work the dressing further into the surface.  The mowing of the tee boxes and copses around the course began.

Following a night of heavy rain it was decided not to mow the greens as this will be detrimental to the top dressing work that has been carried out the previous day.  Once the excess water had been removed from the greens the pin positions were moved and the bunkers were raked for the competition.  The mowing of the semi rough and the copses was continued, the tees were completed and work began to strim the ditches and flymo the bunker faces around the course.

After allowing the greens a day of rest from cutting ‘due to rainfall’ they were cut and rolled with the turf iron, The pin positions were moved and the bunkers were raked in the afternoon in preparation for the league match in the evening.  The new white flags were put out on the course to replace the blue flags that are to determine that the pin position is towards the back of the green.  The cutting of bunker faces, strimming of ditches and the cutting of copses were all continued and the mowing of the fairways was started.  The monthly application of the growth regulator Primo Max was applied to the tee boxes.

The greens were mown and the bunkers were checked.  Once the greens were mown a liquid iron was applied to them to green up the surface and to help fight against the threat of disease following the wet conditions.  The aprons were mown as was the practice area.  The afternoon was spent washing machines and other maintenance that was required  It is our target next week to get the greens tined using 8mm tines on the verti drain machine and the apply another 8/10 ton of top dressing to the greens.

Attached is an interesting arcticle from February’s Greenkeeping publication explaining the key factors affecting green speeds