Browsing through my old blogs I came across this post which I thought I would share once more while we are carrying out renovations to the greens to remind all why we are doing the work we are doing. It also illustrates progress we are making over the years.

http://mandngc.blogspot.co.uk/2013/09/soil-samples-old-and-new.html?m=0

Looking at the greens now, it shows how critical timing of the maintenance procedure is. Again tining of the greens done in  October as we did a few years ago showed very slow recovery and poor surfaces for a longer period. We have arguably been more aggressive this year, applied much more sand but seen fast recovery and good surfaces around 10 days after initial work. Obviously soil temperatures and day length are the influencing factors. 

Following the work on 1-18 we have had to replace the blades on one of the greens mowers. The abrasive nature of the sand we put on to the surfaces wears the metals at a much higher rate. To give you an indication, before the greens were sanded the blades lasted around 5 months, since cutting with sand on the surface they have lasted just short of a month. It is impossible to avoid some wear, thankfully with the use of a spare greens mower with old units on we have saved wear on the main mowers, otherwise it could have been much less than a month. The new blades should last until mid winter when the mowers will be striped down and fully serviced. 

A little different problem we have had this week is a herd of cattle escaped from a neighbouring field on to the course causing damage to the 22nd and 23rd greens. With maintenance planned for these greens next week we should be able to repair them.