Spring Start - Head Green Keepers blog

Spring Start

Firstly, may I just take the time to thank all the board, committee members, members on the course and staff, who have welcomed me to the club over the last week or so. Everyone has come across very friendly and I will do my best for the club so that it stays that way ha ha.

The greens staff before my arrival have worked very hard through the lockdown period trying to have the course ready for golf’s return. Also, thanks must go to the numerous volunteers who have given up their time to help tidy areas up.

The course is starting to come to life as we progress from winter to spring, but temperatures are still on the low side, despite some nice sunny days, and therefore the onset of growth is slow to get going. As ever, the more outfield areas such as roughs, tee banks etc will be the first to start growing but the lower cut greens and tees are still showing signs of the winter maintenance carried out at the start of March. As temperatures rise, we will see the surfaces go on to the next level.

The greens have received some maintenance work over the last couple of weeks which has already started to make a difference. The staff have used one of the triple mowers fitted with the cassettes called “Poa Busters”, which are basically grooming the grass, like a light scarify. The object of this is to thin out and refine any coarser grasses, like Poa Annua, and encourage more fine textured surfaces. They will also help to raise green speeds to a better level, and with the added dustings of topdressing, the smoothness of the greens should increase.

The greens this week will receive their main spring granular feed, consisting of a multi layered product which will give the greens the necessary food to cope with the increase in play demands. As well as containing different sources of nitrogen for even growth, it also contains seaweed, humic acid and potassium to aid recovery from close mowing. The greens are still being cut at 5mm while we go through this weather period but that level will come down as temperatures improve.

The tees will also shortly receive another feed to help us maintain them at a better level. Obviously the wear and tear on tees can be quite significant due to the increase of play and so regular tee marker movement and divotting is being implemented to cope with the stress.

The approaches are also going to be fed to aid growth. We are also going to be implementing some slight changes to the shapes and sizes of the approaches, which should help the presentation and playability of the course to improve. A lot of semi rough has grown in over time to stop the run of the ball into the greens, therefore by tweaking certain areas we should be able to create a more pleasing product.

The staff will continue to work hard to improve the quality of the course presentation as we head deeper into Spring. There are lots of tasks on the agenda to improve the course so stay tuned to find out more as we proceed.

Steve Hemsley

Head Greenkeeper