This week has brought a little drier weather. Which is good for the overall condition of the course. We slowly have brought back the full greens in to play and now most holes are open. We have a couple of issues still. Firstly the 13th tee path was flooded due to the fishing lake which is behind it overflowing after the floods and covering the path. The level of the lake has slowly dropped and now the path is beginning to dry again. We also had severe frosts not long after the floods and where the water remained,froze causing safety issues for golfers.
One real concern is the area around the 16th green. The surround and approach is saturated and the surface is becoming increasingly unstable. We think there are fundamental drainage issues, these need addressing over the next couple of years. We can't do any immediate work as firstly the land is too soft and secondly we need a primary drainage outlet to run any secondary drainage into. It is being discussed to install a drainage ditch across the 16th and towards the 15th ladies tee this is to be confirmed and any plans will be put to members before any work commences.
This was the scene on holes 21-24 on Monday.
Taken from the same place today.
We finally have some improvement after nearly 4 weeks of flooding.
Other areas looking better on the same flood area.
Following the cold night on Wednesday night (-3) a lot of the water froze leaving ice everywhere.
It did however give us oppertunity to finish leading stone to the paths we scraped off.
The range path and the 20th path completed
We have started shaping the ski at the rear of the 20th new tee. This soil was put here following the new ditch excavation around the current 20th tee. It is all sub soil, mainly heavy clay and shale. So we are removing the good top soil beneath shaping the subsoil before covering with the topsoil.
Alistair making a great job.
On Tuesday we finally had an oppertunity to trim a few of the very long fairways. 19, 10, 12 and 9 all completed. I would like to have done a few more however an dropped pitch mark repairer jammed and damaged a unit bring our only oppertunty this week to a sharp halt.
Some were incredibly long after such a mild autumn.
The greens after getting cut have been knocked back slightly due to the cold weather, we hope to get some iron on to them soon.
