Greens Update June 2022

June has been a mixed bag regarding the weather, with 67mm of rain falling in the month. However, that rainfall came at the start and end of the month, with 15 days of dry weather in the middle. Some of that dry spell produced some lovely warm weather and hopefully in July it will come back to us.

Looking towards the 8th tee and 10th green

It’s always a lot nicer for the team to try and present the course in sunny conditions, with dryer cuts allowing increased presentation. This has been the case in June, however we have tried our best to present the course in all weathers this month.

9th and 10th

We have carried out a bit of maintenance on the greens, using the new Wiedenmann GXi8 aerator. We have spiked the greens down to a depth of about 175mm using 8mm tines. This allows surface water to escape more easily, allows roots to grow deeper down, and it also allows oxygen into the soil profile to aid the microbial life to work in the rootzone.

Lovely example of root exudates, communicating between the roots and the microbes.

We followed the tine work up with a light dressing, which will improve surface smoothness for a better ball roll. The topdressing has a small amount of organic composting in it, which again will give the greens a natural lift. We will carry out this type of work as and when we can throughout the season, with the minimum amount of disruption to the golfers.

It has been quite noticeable how much the tree branches have dropped around the course. Some of the machinery simply can’t now get under the branches safely in some areas, and so we are spending a bit of time trimming them back above the height of the machinery. This work is ongoing.