Storm, what storm?

I think we were very lucky in the end to miss the worst of the rain and the strong winds from the storm that passed over the uk on Sunday night and Monday morning. We had no damage to trees and only had around 10mm of rain in the 24 hour period. All that was left in its wake is leaves........everywhere. Nothing a couple days of tornado blowing on the back of the tractor wont sort out.

The 1st hole after Rob had carried out leaf clearance.

On Monday although there was less rain than expected it fell heavy at times causing water logging on a few of the greens and making the course unplayable for 3 hours. The team did a sterling job to reopen for 12 and the afternoon was fantastic, if anyone fancied a game. Today, helped with a drying wind there were no signs of the wet weather. The vertidraining of fairways has helped get the water off the surface, and the newly installed drains are working effectively. Vertidraining is continuing on fairways 1-9 this week. Leaf clearance is on going and the bunkers are being blown out and thoroughly raked to stir up the compact sand. next week we will begin our routine closure of 9 holes, starting with holes 1-9 on Tues, Wed and Thurs.

Irrigation work, leaves and vertidraining

Now we have a little more time to concentrate on the smaller tasks, we are looking at a few sprinkler heads we have had problems with this year. Adam has been checking a number of sprinklers for leaks and puddling around the head after use. Replacing where necessary, adjusting heights and replacing the soil for a more free draining alternative.

11th greenside sprinkler head

Areas near sprinklers receive little aeration as not to damage the head so rooting is limited in places causing turf issues in these current wet conditions. Nearby trees can also have an effect such as here at the 12th surround

Poor rooting of surround turf

 

Other jobs have been blowing and collection of leaves which are falling thick and fast. Tees and greens are cleared with the backpack, other areas are blown with the tractor mounted blower in to heaps before being collected.

All young trees are being inspected to see if guards and stakes can be removed. Verti draining of fairways is still on going with 7 fairways completed. Here's the machine in action, hopefully you can see the heave it creates within the soil profile without disrupting the surface too much.

 

How to repair a pitch mark correctly

Now the weather is turning and pitch marks will become more of an issue. I found this short video on the internet that describes the correct method to repair them, done by the STRI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YvNVBjI3rhs

We have had a mixed pattern of weather over the last week or so making it difficult to predict and plan maintenance on the course. We have recently applied some slow release fertiliser to the tees to strengthen the sward coming into winter.

All the tees have been sprayed again with carbendazim and iron to discourage worm activity, then we have started to spray the fairways with the same mix. Cutting continues in most places although frequency has reduced. We are making good progress tining fairways, 5 have been completed, it is a slow process as we are using a lot of heave and at close spacings, however the results should be worth it. The 12mm tines are getting worn fairly quickly.

This is the wear after 4 fairways, showing around 100mm of lost material, wear is mainly through continual grinding of the soil on the metal, the excess compaction will accelerate the wear rate as it is harder for the machine to push the tine in to the soil. The ground is very firm, mainly due to compaction but the dry weather and a thatch layer has caused a water repellent layer to develop. We had 11mm of rain last night, which should have soaked into the ground. However this is the condition of the soil on the 16th fairway 1cm below the turf.

Bone dry!!!!!!!

As you can see from the pictures there is a lot of organic matter build up, which is mat like, holding and preventing water from moving into the soil. This in turn is restricting water uptake of the grass roots, what ever roots there are, are shallow, so when we get hot periods in summer the grass thins as it can not cope with the drought stress. Vertidraining is the first part of our plans, this will at least allow water deeper into the soil structure increasing water uptake by grass plants and improving density and growth of the sward.

 

Scott Paterson

It is with deep regret and sadness that I have to inform members, Scott Paterson, a valued and dedicated member of the greenstaff passed away on Saturday 12th October. He was an intelligent, talented young greenkeeper, with his future in his own hands. I once I told him he could be anything he wanted to be, moving up the ladder one day to become a deputy or head greenkeeper. Scott joined the greenkeeping team soon after school working his way through his education in sports turf, gaining level 2 and 3, PA1, 2 and chainsaw qualifications. We are a very close team at Malton and Norton so the loss has hit every one hard, our thoughts also go out to Scotts family during this difficult time. We are proud to have had Scott as part of our team and he will always be in our thoughts.

Wind

A stark reminder that winter is on its way, today brought wintry conditions, feeling cold and very windy. The wind also brought disruption to play as gusts of up to 40mph swept across the course. Leaves and sticks were a problem all day, all areas were blown continuously to help play run smoothly and to cut areas of turf without causing damage.

Once the lads had been out the course was in great condition

All the tees have now been solid tined so we are now concentrating on 10-18 fairways, starting on the 15th this afternoon, they are being tined with 12mm solid tines at a depth of 200mm with 15 % heave(set on the weidenmann machine) This is going to relieve compaction, increasing drainage and creating healthier growth. The aim is to vertidrain all 1-18 fairways in October, A second pass will be done if time allows, then all 1-18 fairways will be tined again in March, before fertiliser is applied. We have identified that the fairways are compact hindering water permeability, the long term plan includes drainage installation, surface aeration and sand banding, however de-compaction will help us move forward in the right direction.

Else where we are continuing to cut where needed, semi, tees, teesides and fairways still being cut regularly. We also have remarked some of the car park out and continued with the 8th pond.

Winter series am am

Today we had the first am am of the winter series held at Malton and Norton Golf Club. They picked a fantastic day, hardly can call it winter just yet! This morning we managed to cut and roll the greens, cut surrounds, blow leaves, cut fairways and tees, rake bunkers and move holes before it began. The course looked superb for the time of year, helped with the sunshine.

Credit to the team, they always put in the effort to maintain the course to a high standard. Once the am am had finished going off we started divoting tees, cutting semi, tining tees, blowing more leaves and continuing with the reed removal in the 8th pond.
The rescue application on the surrounds has highlighted just how much coarse rye grass was in some of the surrounds, now in full die back its easy to see.

Fortunately there is a lot of other grasses mixed in the rye sward so they should start to fill in the bare areas, however some denser patches may need more time to fully fill in.

Aeration contiuned

With the surrounds and approaches just about finished our attention turns to tees and fairways in the coming weeks. We are using the same technique, 12mm solid tines with around 12% heave to fracture and de-compact the soil structure. Over the last 2 years some areas have been overly compacted due to traffic, both golfer and machinery, leading to poor growth. We saw on a few of the approaches the lack of root structure due to compaction, starting to aerate could pull a few areas up but regular tining will gradually improve the turf quality.

Tining the 14th fairway

 

Removal of reeds out of the 8th pond continues next week, winter tees have been cut ready for when the weather changes, they wont be in play until into November. Preferred lies are now on due to the tining more than wet ground conditions. An application of fertiliser has been put on the greens, a

 4-0-14 partial slow release fertiliser applying 9kg N over 5-8 weeks.



Back to the aeration

This week we are continuing with our aeration programme. Yesterday we completed the micro tining of 1-18 greens, again using 8mm tines, which open the surface but cause very little disturbance for play.

Following tining the greens were cut and rolled using the vibrating rollers.
Once the greens had been completed we started on the surrounds, this time using 12mm tines with a good amount of heave to relieve compaction built up over the season.

The surrounds we sprayed with rescue for rye grass are starting to show signs that the rye grass is dying back, initially turning white, before dying off.

Rye at the edge of the 15th green

Elsewhere we have cut tees, semi, range, general growth is slowing, coupled with the dry weather. Now we have a little more time due to less cutting we have flymo'd bunker faces, clipped sprinkler heads and are starting to clean out the pond in front of the 8th green.