Maintenance, the key to success!

We all see the end result but I think that the actual work that the green staff put in behind the scenes is not thought about by the majority. As the work load increases on the course to raise standards the strain and wear on machinery also increases. We are constantly fixing breakdowns and servicing machinery to ensure we stay as efficient as possible. Our machinery fleet are all serviced 'in house' by all the staff which are trained to carry out greasing, basic serving of air filters,, checking and topping up oil levels and carrying out reel to blade contact checks to ensure they are cutting correctly. We carry out pre inspections of all cutting machinery to ensure there are no oil leaks or any thing else that would be detrimental to the operation required. Check service intervals and marked to indicate any other attention or that the next service interval is reached. Depending on the piece of equipment and its use, work on them may be required such as changing of blades. This is needed on the two greens mowers which are used every day through the cutting season, applying sand to the greens also has an affect on the wear of bottom blades.

As the age of equipment increases the likely hood of repair will also increase, this year so far we seen an 25% increase in repair costs over last year.
We are always planning ahead to firstly to ensure budgets are put in place to fund any course or capital expenditure and secondly to ensure we can present the course in the best possible condition with the budgets set. Currently we are looking at 2014 and 2015 in respect to our aeration work and drainage needs, we are trialing renovation on the 19-27 greens in late August and early September this year with the possibility of a renovation week or fortnight at a similar time of year in 2014 for all greens aeration. The reasoning behind this is to ensure good recovery from tining, correct germination from overseeding and a lengthened golfing season on good greens. Our previous work in October has seen slow recovery although has been very beneficial to the long term health and playability of the greens.
Drainage of the course has also been discussed in respect of improving the drain down time and decreasing the potential of course closure, works on the course will continue and we are implementing a mid to long term plan which is yet to be finalised.
Our seasonal maintenance also has to be timed into the day to day running of the club, currently we are spraying selective herbicide across the course, strimming trees, edging bunkers and spraying grass off on paths. Correctly timed the results speak for them selves.

A good kill on pearlwort on the 25th green.

The last few days we have had really good comments and feed back from the visitors playing in reciprocal, charity day and the seniors open. Regular rolling for these competitions saw the greens running at 11' on the stimp this morning. Malton and Norton Golf Club is a course to be proud of.

View down the 6th