Greens Update - August 2023
Maintenance Week
It has been a very long week for all the greenstaff, but they have worked extremely hard to carry out all the tasks, which we set out to do at the start of the week. The weather was awful on the Monday, but thankfully it significantly improved in the middle of the week, so that we could carry on with our procedures. Below is a summary of the work that has taken place. Obviously carrying out all this work has meant that some other more routine tasks have been missed, however we will catch up with these next week.
Greens
The original intent was to double scarify the greens down to a depth of -10mm, however due to the conditions on the Monday morning, the scarifiers were struggling to perform well enough and so after just 3 greens (5,3&7th), we decided to switch to verticutting. The verticut units went down to about -5mm and, having more tines on the units, were still able to rip out a large quantity of thatchy organic matter from the greens.
Figure 1: Scarifying before the weather took hold.
The 3 greens above were also given a lighter verticut after they were scarified to try and close their lines up a bit, and they will probably take a small while longer than the others to fully recover.
Figure 2: We took away 4 full trailer loads from the greens!
Once all the verticutting was carried out, the greens were given a dry cut in the afternoon. Then the greens were topdressed and we have used approximately 15 tons of dressing (sand, soil and compost) over all the greens.
Figure 3: Double deep verticut removing thatchy organic matter.
Figure 4: Topdressing incorporated into the profile to smooth out the surfaces.
A rubber dragmat was then used to smooth out the dressing before another final dry cut was given to the greens.
Figure 5: Dry cut on Tuesday afternoon.
Finally, a high humic content granular fertiliser was applied to aid a quick recovery on the surfaces. Due to the poor initial weather the seeding of the greens was postponed from the Tuesday as we needed to finish all the greens first. This task will now take place on Monday morning. A dimple seeder will create thousands of small plant pots for the seed to drop into, and a light dressing and dragmat will finish off the task. Then we should hope to see the new germination in about a weeks’ time.
Tees, Approaches and Fairways
The large Sisis Veemo tractor mounted scarifier was used on all these areas to scarify into the surface. This helps rip out the organic matter that tends to hold water at the surface. Continually doing this will help the course to drain more suitably.
Figure 6: The approaches came up really well after a blow and a double brush cut.
All the debris was then blown away with the tractor blower. Due to the growth of the course over the last week the there is plenty of grass clippings around and we will do our best to blow and remove them as we go.
In general, it has been a very busy week and the staff appreciate the members giving us the time to carry out the work over the week with minimal interference. With a quieter course we are able to carry out much more work, for the long-term benefit of the course.
An important point to make, finally, is that the greens will be softer after all the work carried out. Therefore, it is very important that members and their guests repair their pitchmarks as much as possible.
Steve Hemsley
Head Greenkeeper
