Pro am prep

Another busy week of golf at Malton and Norton Golf Club. We have a pro am comp on Friday, the tour de yorkshire competition on sat and a busy week of members and visitors taking advantage of the great course conditions. Showers are forecast for this week so should help growth but temperatures are still cool for this time of the year. 

Bunkers were finished and then our focus was on grass cutting.

The greens were groomed on Monday to remove lateral growth and to improve speed. They are now at there lowest summer height so speed should be acceptable with smoothness not bad for the time of year.

They are fairly firm as we have had a good spell of dry weather.

Fairways have been cut and tees/ surrounds cut and brushed to improve appearance.

Also smaller jobs like bunker faces, ditch edging and tidying debris is ongoing.

Hopefully the weather will be on our side for the rest of the week. 

Busy times

The next couple of weeks are incredibly busy. We have had a lot of play on the course with the recent good weather. We have a couple of big competitions approaching and a lot of work to do to prepare the course. Added to this the forecast is for rain over the weekend which will kick growth off adding to our cutting routine. Up to now growth has been quite poor given all the sunshine. This is due to lack of moisture and very cold nights. Over the weekend the course is steadily greening up, so this week we are concentrating our efforts on cutting some grass to ensure the course is presented nicely even though there is little growth. The semi rough is patchy as the winter wear is still evident, where golfer foot traffic is less the semi has grown a few inches. All the semi rough will be cut this week to reduce the patchy growth. We have also been cutting the driving range, tees, surrounds, copses, pathway edges, fairways and cutting and grooming all the greens. The greens at this time of the year get some lateral growth from bent grasses, this can lead to bobbly greens later in the day as the lateral growth gets spiked up by foot traffic. To control this we groom the greens with the groomers on the John Deere mowers. The groomers are set flush to the surface of the green, this ensures that lateral growth is lifted, cut and removed. The greens are then cut to take off any uneven grass and leave a smooth finish. They are being cut at 3.5mm actual height of cut, as the fertiliser we applied last week has started to take affect and growth is much dense than a couple of weeks ago. 

This week we are busy edging, checking and topping bunkers. The team are doing a great job. 

We have also been fixing an irrigation burst on the 23rd. Typically where a join is in the pipe, to fix this we had to drain the system cut out the damaged section and replace by gluing in a extendable joint.

We also have held the annal divot evening where we had over 40 attend. There help appreciated and we divoted1-18 fairways and a few tees.

National Club Golfer magazine article

In Aprils edition of National Club Golfer a article on the work we are doing at Malton and Norton Golf Club has been published. Mainly discussing drainage and the greens improvements we carried out during the first few years. If you are not able to read the article on this blog and want to copies will be availible to read in the clubhouse. 

Changeable weekend

Last week we saw 19 degrees on fri, true t shirt weather. However the weekend brought cooler changeable conditions with rain and cooler conditions. To be honest the course needed a little moisture to start things growing a little more. The end of last week was very productive. We cut most of the course to tidy any uneven growth and improve presentation. Fairways, tees, greens, semi, and surrounds were cut and looking great for the time of year. Teesides and bankings will be cut this week. 

Preferred lies are now off. The grass tee on the range is open, however please play between the white markers only.

The practice facilities at Malton and Norton Golf Club are fantastic. We have a practice green of over 1000sqm and a range a great place to take out your anger ( should you have any ). Unfortunately for the rest of the members we have one member that did this on the 11green

It goes with out saying that this is not acceptable.

We have begun repairing the badger damage on the 5th with other areas continuing this week. Hopefully we will see recovery within a few weeks. 

With frosty mornings still a factor cutting is limited on the greens but as the month progresses they will be cut daily with the height of cut reducing slightly. 

Warm but still slow growth

Unfortunately this isn't Malton and Norton Golf Club but I'm sure after the upcoming weekend a lot of golfers will have high expectations after watching arguably the ultimate of manacured courses and greens running at around 14 on the stimp. It goes to prove that anything is possible with unlimited man power machinery and resources. Even Augusta isn't in that condition all year. A lot of what you see on tv is 'fake'. Imported pine needles to cover areas under trees, plants in pots brought onto the course that are brought into flower for the week of the tournament and they will even regulate the water in the greens by using

a sub air system that vacuums water from the soil to keep speed and firmness. That doesn't detract from what is a fantastic course. 

At Malton and Norton we strive to give golfers the best conditions we can with the resources we have. 

Today we have scarified the greens for the first time this year. The growth is varied on the greens, the bent grasses are starting to grow but the poa is still dormant. This is mainly due to the cold night time temperatures. Day time temperatures have been around 15 all week however we have had a frost each morning. To get consistent growth soil temperatures need to rise above 4 degrees. To boost colour and aid some growth we have applied a granular fertiliser to all greens. 

We have also started to install irrigation pipe into the new 20th tee using left over pieces of pipe from a previous job. 

Preferred lies will be taken off on fri morning and the bunkers on 10th and 12th are now in play. 

Easter bank hols

It had soon come round but when it does it gives us a lot to do. 2 short weeks back to back, warmer temperatures and a lot of golf to be played gives us a busy period. We have been trying to finish the new 20 th tee before growth explodes into action. 

Rich and alistair have been shaping and levelling to get it ready for turfing in a week or so. Now nearing completion the whole project is looking great and given time to recover and once definition of rough and fairways the new layout will be clear to see. 

We have finished the tree work in the copses. The stump grinder is coming on 14th April to remove these stumps plus any others left from winter damage. 

The carpark has been relined ready for the season. 

We have also finished verti draining all the tees

Ready for the long weekend we have done a full cut if the course and it's looking good for the time of year. There are a few areas which are worn from winter wear and a couple if softer greens from play in wet conditions. However as the weather improves these will dry out.