Hollowcoring greens

Today we began this years hollow coring process on the greens, for the last 2 years we have been undergoing a severe thatch/soil removal process on all of the greens. We suffered badly with thatchy compact greens, the result being spongy surfaces for alot of the year, leading to a lot of disease pressure, bumpy greens, high fertilisers needs and poor drainage. This is the final year of this severe treatment, in the 3 years we estimate we will have aerated a third of the greens surface. In replacement of the cores removed we put back straight sand, improving surface firmness, rooting, drainage, reduced nitrogen inputs (150kgN/ha per annum in 2008 to 70kgN/ha per annum in 2011) and reduced fungicide applications from 7 in 2008 to 2 in 2012(both preventative). It is very disruptive as we hollow core with 15mm tines and do 2 passes over the green.
Today we only did the front putting green, beginning with coring, the front putting green is very narrow so some had to be cleared by hand.

This is one of our more enthusiastic members helping out clearing up the cores before the professionals stepped in! For the areas of the greens where access isn't so limited we have hired in a John Deere TC core collector from Adamsons to speed up the core removal process, a fantastic bit of kit. The green was blown off with a back pack blower and then heavily top dressed with around 4 tonne per green.

We then spread seed on to the top dress as it dried out, we then brushed the top dress into the holes, mixing it with the seed. We found that this method gives the best germination as it maximises seed/ sand contact.

Following brushing an application of 6-0-28 slow release fertiliser was added and watered in, after the fertiliser granules have dispersed the green will be matted with a drag mat and rolled with a heavy roller to settle the turf back down before the greens are cut. On Monday we are starting on holes 1-9.

We have had over 50mm of rain in the last couple of days, and the course has really suffered. We had a lot of wet areas before this spell of rain so when i inspected the course yesterday morning water had begin to stand in the majority of places on the course.

Today at least the rain had stopped and the greenstaff could get out onto the course to push the water off the greens to allow them to begin drying out. We also open any drains we could up to allow water to run off the fairways.

The drains were all running well, taking the water away at full capacity into ditches and ponds

Today the weather has been terrible, a lot of rain and strong winds so we did our usual checks of the course this morning then the team spent the day inside the shed catching up on some maintenance jobs. We serviced all the tractors, fixed the tornado blower pto shaft, tidied the store room, started making some new fence posts, tried the weidenmann on the John Deere tractor and serviced the Toro fairway mower. This morning we also picked up the range balls and cut the range and set the mole traps on the course.

Water everywhere

This morning we had another dose of precipitation! 20mm to be exact. As you can imagine this year has been very frustrating for the green staff, we have spent alot of time clearing water from the course to keep play on despite the weather. Unfortunately this morning we were beaten and the course had to be closed for the day. There was alot of standing water across the course, on the fairways and semi in the usual spots and on the majority of the greens. The rain didn't stop until 10 am so we couldn't clear the greens until this afternoon. Below is what I had to face this morning when inspecting the course.

 9th green

 Front 18th green

 18th fairway

 18th fairway

 8th green

 10th fairway

 13th green

 15th green

27th green

As you can imagine drainage is the hot topic at the moment, and this has been the main priority for this years winter programme. We hope to drain a lot of the fairway and semi rough in the problem areas.

Its not all doom and gloom as where the course drains reasonably well its still looking fantastic. This afternoon we managed to cut a few of the fairways. We also divoted the tees, moved 19-27 holes, collected the range balls and cut the intermediate rough



Anthracnose attack

Over the last couple of weeks we have noticed that disease  pressure has increased on the greens due to the continued wet weather and the leaching of nutrients due to the excessive rainfall. We do not usually suffer from anthracnose attacks however it has appeared on several greens across the course. We sprayed an application of Instrata fungicide on all of the greens this morning (after several problems withe the sprayer), this will kill off any anthracnose disease also any other diseases that may be present in their early stages.It will also act as a preventive for future diseases over the the coming weeks, especially when we come to hollow core and top dress.

18th fairway drain

This morning Adam, Alistair and Scott installed a drain into a low spot in front of the 18th green, this area has been a problem all year so it was essential to solve the issue. They opened up an existing drain on the fairway to remove the water in the hollow.

Once the water was removed the trench was dug to an adequate depth and pipework installed

The trench was then backfilled with stone and topped with rootzone then turfed with some of the turf we had left over from the 14th pond as the original turf was unusable as it had been stood under water for a long period of time.

Just as I was hoping the course was on the road to recovery, with the recent dry spell yesterday afternoon brought an unpredicted storm shower. We had 14mm of rain in a short period of time flooding the course once more.

To help open the surface and disturb the soil to increase water movement through the profile we mole ploughed some of the wet areas around the course. In the worst areas we double passed in different directions. This caused minimal damage and if it helps move the water away from the surface it will be done again before the winter.

This morning we also finished turfing around the 14th pond

Unfortunately this morning the radiator on the 2110 tractor was damaged, so we had to remove it so it can be re cored by a local company. This delayed our progress with other tasks, although we did manage to rake some of the bunkers start cutting tees, tee sides and fairways which will all be finished tomorrow.

Today the turf delivery arrived and Will, Al, Rob and Rich laid the turf on the banking of the 14th pond which we worked on a little while ago.

I decided to turf the banking opposed to seeding this area as the bank is very steep in places and any seeded area would wash down easily when we get more heavy rain. Within a week or so the turf will have rooted and we can remove the pegs which currently hold it in position. Any areas at the top of the bank that were damaged when removing the soil by tractors and trailers will be seeded.
Today Adam started to cut down the long rough on holes 19-27.

It has been very thick this year due to the amount of rain we have had. Following cutting we will need to tidy some of the laid grass away before the areas are cut again. The long rough on holes 1-18 will be done after we have finished on holes 19-27.

Another beautiful morning at Malton and Norton Golf Club as the sun rose over the trees first thing. We have a little bit of rain over night but not enough to cause any problems. It helped water in some wetting agent we put on the greens yesterday.

This morning we cut the greens then followed with the sprayer applying some fertiliser, iron, seaweed and primo. We then sprayed some poorer areas in the semi with some iron.

Other jobs today were moving holes, cutting tees and semi and strimming long inaccessible areas around the course.

Another fine morning at the start of another week. The course is finally showing signs of drying out with some of the more sandy areas looking brownish in areas. After the summer we have had it seems that we would never be thinking about rain again. Fortunately there are only a hand full of dry areas like this, the majority of the course is still lush and green.

Today we had a shot gun start competition so we were out cutting and rolling greens, and cutting fairways first thing. Whilst golfers filled the course Alistair, Rob and Will levelled the soil on the practice bunker, seeded and watered in. This will have germinated within the next few weeks.

After a great week of wall to wall sunshine the course is looking fantastic and all the greenstaff have been working really hard to catch up on lost time.

Also this week we have seeded the 12th soakaway area after the work done last week.

And the 14th pond has had topsoil spread over the banking ready for some turf next week

This morning Alistair, Will and Rob raked and seeded the old 26th fairway bunker, which was filled in a couple of weeks ago with the spoil removed from the 14th pond. Topsoil was led to the site and the excavator we had at the time levelled and tracked it down. The greenstaff raked the topsoil and shaped it to match the surrounding contours. The area was seeded using a bent/ fescue seed which will match the grasses in the area.

Another dry day helped us get all cutting done, a dry cut gives all areas definition and the course looks fantastic.

A break in the wet weather gave us chance to get a dressing of sand on the greens, which was about 2 weeks overdue. We were unable to get the dressing on due to the wet weather. This morning I groomed the greens, Rob cut the surrounds then Scott and Adam followed with the top dresser, dressing the greens with around 1 tonne sand per green.

Will followed with the drag mat when the dressing had dried. This afternoon when the dew had burnt off we got a dry cut on the fairways and tees, with the amount of growth given the high temperatures and moisture, the dry cut certainly gives a quality finish which gives the course good definition once more.

Today was Joe Marucci's last day raking bunkers for us during the summer holidays. I would like to thank him for all the effort put in over the last 6 weeks, given the amount of extra work this year has brought for the greenstaff, we have certainly appreciated his help.

 Joe hard at work