Next week they hope to start on 10-18, weather dependent.
The road crossing from behind the 8th tee to the 2nd was always going to be a difficult one. There is a mains water pipe, electricity, telephone and possibly gas pipes running very close to the road. The road is also covered in tarmac so the trencher cant simply dig through it. All the services have to be found and exposed by hand, a access hole has to be dug either side of the road to allow a bore in to go under the road. Tunneling under the road will allow the access to be unaffected and hopefully leave the services in tact, all this work is being undertaken by the contractors.
Elsewhere on the course we have cut and rolled greens and we have started using an air injection machine to decompact and aerate the greens substructure. The machine injects air via 3 probes which penetrate 30cm before releasing 4 BAR of pressure, we use a 60cm x 60cm spacing pattern to ensure all the green is covered evenly . This impact of air aids better root growth, increases drainage and will hopefully give the aeration without the need for surface disruption. We have the means of aerating the greens using our own equipment however we cant get the depth this machine reaches, therefore continually aerating at the same depth could create a pan where water will penetrate more slowly. This machine is on hire until we have completed all 30 greens.
All debris from the windy weather we had recently has been tidied, sycamore keys have been quite bad and are very difficult to tidy, the only method that is effective is by using back pack blowers to work them into the semi rough.
