Machinery maintenance

The last week has been difficult in terms of weather, short of time and short of staff. The bank holiday weekend gave us a four day week to get all cutting done however this has been further cut by a day due to another day of rain.

Today another 18 mm fell and fell throughout the day. Above is the 18th during a downpour at 7.30. The team went out in the rain to do some priority tasks, moving holes and cutting semi. After a thorough soaking we had to call it a day on the course around 9 am as ground conditions weren't suitable. 

The drainage that we installed was working well. The 15th green was dry throughout. However a low spot in front of the green still needs attention as seen above. 

Other areas such as 9th green did puddle in the heaviest of down pours however drained fast once the rain eased up. 

Yesterday we cut fairways, semi, some tees and double cut greens. 

The 8th looking good

The rain has given opportunity to fix and service more of our machines and implements. The wooden trailer we have to run small hand tools about was in desperate need of attention. The floor was rotten and the sides broken in places. 

First job was to remove all the rotten wood. Tidy all the existing metalwork then refit a wooden base and new sides. Should last a good few years yet. 

We also did first service oil and filter change on the 2 new mowers. Tidied out the shed and reorganised our fertiliser store. 

Changing weather

The start of this week brought more great warm and sunny weather and helped us continue to present the course in fantastic shape.

The warm temperatures and drying winds started to take there toll on a few of the sandier parts of the course and round some of the trees. The root barrier we installed on the 5th round the pine trees is working very well. The idea to prevent the roots raking water from the semi rough where a lot of balls land. 

To the right greener lusher rough, on the left drier barer rough under the trees. 

The irrigation was used to give the greens a little water. 

The majority of the week has been spent cutting, with another bank holiday looming. 

We have also started strimming trees, and filling some bunkers with more sand. 

Now we are into the middle of May it is around the time chafer grubs start hatching out into beetles. These then lay eggs ready for the next batch of chafer grubs. To help break the cycle we are trialling chafer traps to catch adult beetles. This is alongside chemical applications. The traps look like this, please do not touch them as they contain a pheromone to attract the beetles. 

Growth potential

After a week off I've returned to find the course looking great. Adam and the rest of the team had a busy week trying to get all the usual jobs done plus finishing some of the outstanding jobs off. Bunkers have now been edged and a few more topped up with sand. Tee sprinklers have been clipped around and the 20th bunker brought back into play after the renovations we did in the spring.

One issue was an up rooted tree at the side at the 14th tee, after the heavy rain the one sided canopy decided to fall. Fortunately it is away from play and will be dealt with soon. 

The weather has been great for the last 7 days. After nearly an inch of rain around 10 days ago growth of grass has increased dramatically. 

In simple terms when you get heat and water at the same time that creates growth. In a more scientific view, we call the relationship between soil/ air temperature levels throughout the day and moisture 'growth potential'. 

Basically when the temperature reaches a level that a grass can grow at it's maximum, given the right supply of nutrients, water and light, this is it's maximum growth potential. We can control the amount of nutrients and water to some level, and using plant growth regulators we can regulate growth. 

During the last week growth potential has been incredibly high. The last application of growth regulator was applied around 12 days ago at a low rate as at that time growth was slow due cooler temperatures. Today we reapplied growth regulator to greens, this time the amount of growth regulator was increased due to increased temperatures, upcoming rain and an scheduled application of fertiliser. This should take the flush of growth from playing surfaces. Tees, surrounds and approaches are to be sprayed this week also.

Greens have also been double groomed and cut with the height now at 3.5 mm bench setting. This equates to around 2.5mm actual height of cut. 

This is taken using a prism gauge. 

Overall the course is looking great, let's hope the good weather continues. 

Stormy weekend ahead

Although the majority of the week has been dry last night and today has been wet and wild. We managed to work around the showers to get the majority of jobs completed.

Following the aeration and top dressing we carried out at the start of the week we got an application of primo and iron on to the greens. This was about the only oppertunty weather wise so we had to take it. We also sprayed the tees with wetting agent, this was done with rain forecast to wash it into the soil profile. 

All areas have been cut ready for the weekend. 

We have strimmed all areas that can't be reached with a machine, tidied the mounds on 16th, tidied round the 8th pond, strimmed sides of 17th ditch and cut copses with the stiga. All intermediate rough has been cut and bunker edges continued to be edged. 

The forecast for tomorrow isn't great so I'm pleased we have completed all tasks

Micro tining and top dressing

After the long weekend were back to business, first priority today was to get greens 10-27 topdressed, micro tined and tidied afterwards. Fortunately the weather has been on our side, after overnight rain we have had sunshine and wind.

First up we double solid tined the back half of the 12th green with 12mm times to a depth of 200mm. This was to improve the soil characteristics of this green as it is prone to flooding. 

The green was tined, sanded then tined again before the sand was brushed into the holes using a brush. 

The rest of the greens on 10-27 were tined using 10mm tines to a depth of 100mm. 

Again the greens were sanded. 

Before tining

Then brushed

And finally cut

A great result with minimal disruption. 

Greens 1-9 will be done first thing in the morning. 

A course to be proud of

What an enventful few days. This week we have been preparing for another long weekend, fortunately temperatures have dropped and we have been lucky enough to miss all the rain that swept across the country on thurs ( 1mm of drizzle ). In some respects I would have been happy with a few millimeters of rain to keep things ticking along, however there were areas not to far away from us that received 50mm of rain, we certainly didn't want that.

As previously mentioned the divot day was held on Wednesday which saved is a lot of time and effort. Divoting of tees was finished off and the range was renovated with practice areas over seeded. 

One our main jobs this week was to start edging bunkers. After the faces were initially cut, the edges were shimmed, strimmed and then sand pushed back up the faces. We have made good progress on holes 1-9 and we will continue next week. 

We have groomed greens along with daily cutting and occasional rolling. 

The greens are looking and playing really good and we are pleased with how they are performing at the moment. We will be micro tining this coming week. Please be aware of this, recovery will be seen within a couple of days. 

Finally a full prep for this weekends play, all cut and bunkers raked. Another great effort from the team, and a course at the moment we all should be very proud of. 

Divot day

On Wednesday we held a divot day at the club. This was to help the green staff divot the fairways on the course, but it also gave members a chance to talk to green staff about course work and setup.

I'm pleased to say we had a very positive turnout, the afternoon session saw around 12 members, the evening session over 50 gave up there own time to help finish fairways and tees on holes 1-19. 

I want to pass on my thanks to all who turned up to help throughout the day, I appreciate the effort and time our members gave, it is members like those who care for the club that makes Malton a great place to play. We had volunteers from age 8 to 70 all did there bit to help. 

We hope to hold another divot day in September so please put your name down for that if you can.