Unexpected rain

Today was supposed to be a reasonable day weather wise, a few showers to start with then brightening up. With a schools golf tournament starting at 9 we hit the course preparing it for the day. Cutting fairways, surrounds, moving holes, rolling greens and setting all tee markers.

The course looked in great shape, until it rained and didn't stop for 3 hours. So what turned into a couple of showers was more like persistent heavy rain, with just over 10mm falling. Unfortunately for the schools tournament play had to be suspended for an hour due to scenes like this. 

Play did resume but not in the conditions we would have liked. The green staff did a great job just to get them back on track, and play finalised. 

It did however test all the drainage, most working really well, all the new drainage working very well, some of the older drains and gulleys need a clean out as perculation was slower than required in a couple of areas. 

27th looking dry : ) 

Other jobs done this week are staining bins and seats, turfing bare areas around tees and tree stumps removed, cutting tees, moving putting green holes, and servicing the rest of the machines. We have used some of the parts from other older mowers to repair our back up greens mower. 

I also want to say a big thank you to Rich Brown who has just stepped down as the Greens Chairman after 9 years of dedicated service not just to the club but to the green staff and myself. Rich Brown has helped us develop the course and club over the years working closely with my self and Adam to put our ideas into the ongoing course development policy. 

Replacing Rich our new Greens Chairman is Colin Webster, an enthusiastic member who has experience of green keeping and has a lot of time for Malton and Norton Golf Club, so should be able to slot into the role comfortably. 

Finishing off 20th

Yesterday and today we concentrated on finishing the 20th bunker and the dead area of turf on the 27th. We ordered in some turf from Fineland Turf as this would give us a better finish on the face of the bunker and would be easier to lay.

With the face laid the only thing left is to put sand into the bunker. The bunker and surrounding area will remain GUR until the turf roots and knits together. 

The area of dead turf on the 27th was first removed and topped up with root zone before new turf was brought in. 

The fallen oak at the back of the 16th tee is being cleared away by one of the members who has a tree logging business, K and L timber. We had two of our staff helping to transport the timber to the car park where it will be collected tomorrow. 

We have also been working on the seats and bins from the course. They are brought in, dried, sanded down and stained ready for the coming season. 

The last of the machinery servicing is coming to a close, work done on the second John Deere greens mower. As with the other machine new cylinders, bottom blades have been fitted, on this machine we have also replaced the groomer blades as they were very worn. 

New blades on the left clearly show the wear. We also did some alterations on the lift heights as parts had also become worn causing clearance issues. We did repairs to our back up greens mower which had several hydraulic leaks and starting problems, parts salvaged from another machine should keep this running for another season. 

20th bunker

A quick update on the 20th bunker that we have been working on today. First task was to remove all the turf from the area which we were working. Turf cut into rolls around the green where the turf was good and stacked at the side on order ready for re laying (pictured above). 

Next job was to remove the mound, soil scrapped off was very good so this was taken to the 19th where we have been filling in a bunker. Once the levels were ok , the soil shaped by hand.

Turf being relaid and further shaping.

The landing area now a lot flatter and fairer for approach shots. Next bunker shaping.

New bunker shape marked out and excavation begins, again using the good topsoil on the 19th bunker.

Final shaping done by hand, the rest of the turf relaid on the top of the bunker bank, turf needed for the face will be laid mon and then just sand to be put back into the bunker. The transformation went very smoothly and the team worked hard to get it completed before the weekend. Overall the major projects we have completed over the past 3 weeks have gone very well and this project brings us to an end of this winters planned course works. Well done to all the green keeping team. Now bring on the cutting season.

Start of the 20th green alteration

Now the drainage is finished, we took the opportunity of a dry morning to cut greens, surrounds and tees. The greens were cut for the first time following the fertiliser application, with it washed in via irrigation there was minimal pick up. It has started to take effect and the turf looks great and look to be rolling well.

The tees were brushed then cut with the triple for the first time, checking alinement and burning in the summer stripes. 

 The16th green drainage was finished today, another fantastic job done by the team. Let's hope we see an improvement  on this green this year. 

The pit has been filled in where we had a break in the irrigation wire. 

We have now moved on to the last project for the spring, the 20th green surround and right bunker.  

The surround has a mound on it at the front of the green which makes it difficult to play approach shots to a front pin and obscures the view of the pin from the tee. We are lowering the mound and extending the bunker slightly to make it easier to rake. 

Drainage is coming to an end

This week is the final push in finishing the drainage projects we have had on the go this spring. The 26th drainage has all been dug, we are now working on the front 26th bunker to ensure this is drained and connected into the system correctly.

Once connected we had to strip out an old soakaway which had been done previously to allow the new pipe work to feed across the bunker at the same level. 

This was then back filled with pea gravel and will be covered in sharp sand before the final layer of bunker sand. 

Another drainage project to finish off is the 16th green. This was started some time ago however with other jobs on the go hasn't been completed as yet. 

Two trenches are to be dug along a low lying area on the back left of the green. This will be connected into the pipe work laid around the green previously.

This then runs into the concrete drain towards the 14th ditch. 

Yesterday an application of 4-0-8 + Fe fertiliser was put on the greens and surrounds to give 15kg N and 30kg K. With showers forecast and the temperatures cooling down for the end of the week it was an ideal opportunity. The fertiliser will be washed in before the surfaces are cut again. 

Whilst using the irrigation system a burst pipe has been identified right of the 17th. 

This bubble in the turf shows clearly the break. This would have bee caused by a tine when deep vertidraining the greens. 

The large oak tree on 16 the came down on Friday night. As mentioned in my last blog it was very rotten. With only 30 cm of the outside of the trunk in tact I'm surprised it lasted this long. 

This will be cleared towards the end of the week once all other jobs are complete. 

Irrigation opens up

Our irrigation contractor came on Wednesday to open up the system. This involves priming the feed pump, coupling up the filtration basket, filling the tanks, priming the pipe work with water and bleeding air out of the system. Once the system is pressurised Adam inspects all valves and sprinklers to see if they are operational. Rotation, lift and spray quality are checked, any problems will be recorded and repaired. The irrigation contractor also fixed a break in the main electricity feed to the pump station.

Drainage continues, the 27th and 17th is finished. All turf is put back and is now gur. We have started our final piece of drainage for this spring which is the 26th front bunker and green side area. 

The bunker drain was routed into a near by ditch on the 17th. Due to the depth of the bunker the entire trench had to be excavated to ensure adequate fall. 

We had to deal with a couple of irrigation pipes whilst excavating the trench which crossed going to the next hole. Fortunately we careful and they were undamaged. 

Unfortunately we have discovered one of our old oak trees behind the 16th tee has  begun to fall over. This tree has had signs of rot and disease for a number of years. 

Unfortunately the strong winds we had a number of weeks ago has started the process, blowing a big canopy with a structurally weak trunk. We noticed cracking starting to grow around the trunk and today has increased it's lean angle. I'm afraid it's only a matter of time before it's down. 

The area has been cordoned off for safety and under no circumstance should players enter this area. First thing Monday the tree will be dealt with. 

Time for a trim

Well what a week of sunshine, glorious days for March. Even though the temperatures aren't high, there is a lot of strength in the sun. The night time temperatures are still cold, with frosts most mornings but they soon give way when the sun peeps through.

This week we are continuing with drainage work with most of 27/17 done. A great effort by the team, with other jobs on the go we have only had alistair and rich working on the drainage most days, leading away has created very little mess. 

The dead grass area on the 27 will have to be turf once all the drainage is finished. 

Elsewhere we have taken advantage of the dry conditions to get shortly mown areas cut. Greens have been cut with the triple, height remaining at 4.5 mm bench setting, which equates to around 3.75 mm actual height. Following that they were sprayed with phosphite and seaweed to act as a bit of a tonic before we apply some granular fertiliser when the weather breaks again. Fairways were cut at 18mm, surrounds cut with the hand mower set at 12mm and we have also trimmed round sprinkler heads ready for the system being opened up. 

Today we micro tined the greens to get some air into the roots to aid growth and density. With the greens being firm and in good shape they tined well with minimal printing and recovery should be very quick. I would expect they will be back to normal within a couple of days. 

To help smooth the surface they were vibrate rolled afterwards. 

Good weather = productivity

We couldn't have picked a better week to start our drainage work on the 27th, dry, reasonably warm and it looks like next week is going to be similar. We have had a couple of frosty mornings but that hasn't stopped us working on the drains.

We have currently installed over 120 m, although we have been working hard, this is what we are up against and why water stands on the surface for so long. 

Solid clay, around 30cm down which is impermeable creating a basin which has been holding water for some time on the 27th. 

The worst area had seen grass loss as the water had been sitting there for a long time. Now a drain is run through it we should have resolved this issue. The area will need returfing when dried properly. 

Filling in is fairly straight forward thanks to our high lift trailer, once the pipe is laid we are backfilling the trench with 5-10mm pea gravel and then topped off with 200mm of root zone. 

Then the original turf, where salvageable,  is relaid to ensure continuity and top dressed off. 

We have also been working on the back of 16th green, installing the pipe work and root barrier and backfilling with pea gravel. This is ready for topsoil and returfing tomorrow and the greens drains will be dug next week. 

We have also applied fertiliser to 1-9 fairways, same as mentioned in an earlier blog post. All worn areas from over winter has been treated with the same fertiliser. Also fertiliser has been applied to 1-18 tees and approaches, this is a soluable slow release product, ideal for areas where we remove clippings and scarify. 

We have returned to the majority of summer tees with only the small and wetter tees still on winter positions. 

Start of 27th drainage

With all path work finished off this morning we moved on to the drainage work we have planned for the 27th fairway. We have around 150m to install which will be connected to existing drainage around the 17th. 

We have also another 50m right of the 17th that we hope to start before the end of the week. 

The rest of the team started applying the fairway fertiliser to holes 10-18 as they were closed for the day to carry out the maintenance safely. The fairway fertiliser is the same as we applied last year, a 5 month release product which is temperature and moisture released to ensure good consistent growth. A 24-5-10 analysis applied at 30 gms sq meter using hand spreaders, the dewy conditions this morning was perfect as application was easy to see. 

The other fairways will be done before the end of the week. 

Work to be completed over the next few days is to finish hedge cutting, continue with the 16th green root barrier and finish the 4th bunker drain. 

With the weather looking milder towards the end of the week we may get other areas of grass tidied up, such as tees, fairways and teesides. 

We also may return to some of the summer tees.