Tining complete

The last day of 19-27 closure was today, tomorrow we will try to cut or roll the recently tined greens. With starting them a day later they won't be in the best of shape come the weekend but will get back to something like for next week. It is really difficult to do anything with them on a morning as the dew makes the sand sticky and pulls up on the rollers. Whilst the holes were closed we finished edging the rest of the bunkers.

The greens have been sprayed with fertiliser and seaweed to keep growing the anthracnose out and to help fill in any sandy areas left on 10-18. 

Before the verti drain machine was taken off we tined surrounds and some compacted areas on holes 1-18. 

Next week we are on to another big job, cutting and collection of all the long rough on the course. This is done to enable us to collect leaves and for regeneration of the grass next year. 

The final 9

Well we have started on the final 9 greens on the course, the same process as we went through on the other greens. 

We have been lucky with the weather for all 3 maintenance weeks. Today has been dry and windy, ideal for working the sand into the turf canopy and down the holes made with the verti drain. As the 19-27 greens are smaller than the others we managed to complete all 9 greens in the day. Again following sanding over the next few days we will roll fertilise and water until they are ready for play on Friday. 

The other greens are recovering well but we have had an outbreak of anthracnose.  This has been triggered by the abrasion of the sand, exposing the soil and excessive watering to help the sand bed into the green. This has been treated and will grow out over time but unfortunately doesn't look great. 

The rest of the course is still looking good thanks to the hard work of the team. We are trialling a different way of cutting the approaches, with more work going into making the quality of turf better we have cut some with the surrounds mower to give a better visual impression leading up to the green. This may take too long to do so we may have have to compromise on which approaches we do. 

Browsing through my old blogs I came across this post which I thought I would share once more while we are carrying out renovations to the greens to remind all why we are doing the work we are doing. It also illustrates progress we are making over the years.

http://mandngc.blogspot.co.uk/2013/09/soil-samples-old-and-new.html?m=0

Looking at the greens now, it shows how critical timing of the maintenance procedure is. Again tining of the greens done in  October as we did a few years ago showed very slow recovery and poor surfaces for a longer period. We have arguably been more aggressive this year, applied much more sand but seen fast recovery and good surfaces around 10 days after initial work. Obviously soil temperatures and day length are the influencing factors. 

Following the work on 1-18 we have had to replace the blades on one of the greens mowers. The abrasive nature of the sand we put on to the surfaces wears the metals at a much higher rate. To give you an indication, before the greens were sanded the blades lasted around 5 months, since cutting with sand on the surface they have lasted just short of a month. It is impossible to avoid some wear, thankfully with the use of a spare greens mower with old units on we have saved wear on the main mowers, otherwise it could have been much less than a month. The new blades should last until mid winter when the mowers will be striped down and fully serviced. 

A little different problem we have had this week is a herd of cattle escaped from a neighbouring field on to the course causing damage to the 22nd and 23rd greens. With maintenance planned for these greens next week we should be able to repair them. 

Rest week( from tining anyway )

With 1-18 greens done and recovering well we are concentrating on a few of the cutting jobs which we have left over the past 2 weeks. 

We have had some severe down pours over the last few days, this again highlights areas for improvement, especially drainage of some 10-18 bunkers. Over the last few years we have made massive progress with drainage and the amount of time it takes for the course to become 'dry' after prolonged rain. We have a lot more drainage planned for this coming winter, including the 10th and 12th green, 13th tee areas and a drainage ditch around the driving range. 

To make time for the drainage planned we are starting to cut down all areas of long rough ready for the start of the leaf collection season. 

This will be collected up as and when it is cut. 

With cutting of all areas underway this week the course is still in great condition. 

Definition is really good and surfaces are in superb condition. If time allows we hope to treat 'rougue' weeds on tees, surrounds and fairways before the season is over. 

End of the maintenance week 2

We have reached the end of the first two weeks of course maintenance. Overall it has been a great success. We have triple tined 1-18 greens and both putting greens, put around 100 tonnes of sand on the 20 greens, fertilised, topdressed tees, surrounds and approaches. 

They are now in the recovery period where we will still work on them to get then smooth as possible.  

The 10-18 greens for there first cut today and will be back in play tomorrow. Over the next week they will recover in similar time as 1-9 did. 

We have also finished edging 1-18 bunkers and tidied the shrub border near the first tee. 

The work we have done on the greens will supply air and nutrients into the soil where new roots will grow making the grass plants healthier and stronger. Here the tine holes can be seen full on sand which is exactly the result we were hoping for. 

We finished work just in time as we had a cloud burst at 2.30, this will have washed the sand in well but didn't please the golfers on the course. 

2 week of maintenance

Into week two, this time 10-18 are being tined sanded and brushed to get our annual aeration programme completed.

The weather this week hasn't been as kind to us, a good start on Monday was soon slowed by sharp showers. These didn't bring much rain but wet the sand on the greens surface and made it difficult to work into the lower profile where it has the greatest benefit. 

The ground was also initially damp due to 24mm of rain on Sunday afternoon that brought a halt to ladies captains day. 

With our routine finely tuned we worked around the problems and managed to complete all greens by dinner time today. 

The greens we worked on last week are coming along nicely, the more days that pass the better they become. Growth is fairly vigorous so they are slower than previously but we had to promote growth after sanding to increase speed of recovery. 

Over the next couple of days we will start spraying them with growth regulator to control growth and speed through the day. 

Maintenance week on 1-9

The start of our annual maintenance on the greens couldn't of started better. The weather perfect and ground conditions ideal. Dry warm weather is ideal to aerate the greens as little surface damage is created from vehicles and sand can be worked into the holes easily.

The first task is to get sand onto the putting surfaces so it had the longest time to dry out. 

Around 3.5 tonnes was initial put on. 

The green is then tined using 12mm tines to a depth of 250mm with slight heave to relieve compaction, twice over in opposite directions. We find this give more deconpaction and less turf disturbance. 

The green is then brushed with the sand dry to push as much as possible into the time holes made. The green can be brushed as much as 6 times to maximise the sand on the surface. 

The green is then given another 1.5 tonnes of sand and tined again before brushing the sand into the new tine holes. 

Finally the green is heavy rolled to consolidate any uneven areas and given a granular fertiliser to aid recovery. 

Irrigation is then used regularly to encourage growth and recovery. With high soil temperatures and plenty of water the holes soon fill in. This the putting green 7 days after initial tining. 

Today approaches have been given a light sanding 

And work has started edging bunkers.