Tidy

This week has been mostly frosty which somewhat limits us getting out on to the course to do maintenance tasks. 

With vehicles limited we started to dig out the dead trees ready for the delivery of the replacements and the extra ones. 

The trees were easily removed and this shows the problems with the roots which were mostly severed when they were lifted. 

Hardly any fibrous roots remaining. 

It has been very dry for a change and we have managed to get all holes back on to the greens with the only exception being the 21st which is still very wet from the flooding. Some of the winter cups were needed due to the surrounding areas of the greens being very soft. These would have been quickly chewed up from daily play. The greens on some of the holes were ok however getting to them was the issue. Now we are creeping towards spring these should reduce. We hope you can appriciate the need for them, even if we don't like playing to them. Long term we will all benefit from a better course come April/ May. 

Friday was without frost so we got out on to the course to tidy sticks under trees and in copses. The first time we could do this due to ground conditions this year. 

Cold and DRY

After the snow that we had last week the weather has turned colder and cold weather usually brings dry air, which it has. Air flow coming from the north is a lot drier than from the west which helps limit rainfall but the down side gives overnight frosts. After the thaw last wednesday we had rain straight after which didnt help matters.

We had 18mm of rain a lot of which fell on semi frozen ground which stood instantly, even on the driest areas of the course we saw puddling

The river Derwent rose quickly flooding the areas around the 21st and 24th once more. These areas often see flooding over winter but this year we have had a number of flooding 'incidents'. This is simply the saturation of land from the rainfall stemming back to the Christmas period. It only takes minimal rain to swell the river.

This week is a lot better, drier and warmer in the sun, gives us an opportunity to finish the jobs on the course. The soiled area to the right of the 20th new hole is now complete and just requires seeding in the spring. Overall this area has been greatly improved, the thorn hedge planting is also complete which finishes the hole well and gives a definitive boundary. We have continued with the remaining plants down the right of the 25th hole where we started last year.

The greens have also been cut, This time we have managed to get on them with the John Deere triple mower, Other than a few of the wetter ones. All in all not looking to bad considering, some areas around the greens are suffering a little however. These will be sanded in the next week or so. 

We are having some trees delivered this week to replace the dead pines from last winter.

Tree Planting

The last few days has brought our first batch of snow of the year. Not much but enough to close the course for a day. We used the time to start planting the new stretch of thorn hedge to the right of the 20th. A 1000 whips have been planted so far with another 1000 to go. This will create the new boundary for the hole. It also allows us to keep some land for excavation and store any thing we might need. For future years. The hedge runs across the end of the range and therefore will screen the out field in years to come. 

Over the next few weeks we will be planting another batch of new trees on the course. Many of the members will have noticed the new trees we planted on the course last year, the pines to be more specific, have died off. A total of 9 pines died over the space of this year. When lifting the dead pines to investigate we noticed a distinct lack of fibrous roots within the root ball.

 Just so all are aware a root ball tree is mechanically lifted using a tree spade. The tree is grown from young in the ground allowing its roots to grow outwards finding water and nutrients from where it can, opposed to a container grown tree, as the name suggests keeping all its growth in a container for the duration of its life until planted. Root balled plants have to be cut from the soil with a tree spade which cuts down into the soil around the base of the tree. Some roots are severed but most fibrous roots should be maintained within the root ball.
Now to solve our situation. Talking to Wykeham Trees where the trees were bought we have identified 10 trees were lifted with the wrong size tree spade. The spade was too small for the size of the tree, severing all of the fine roots. This would have meant no water or nutrients could have been taken up no matter how much we watered them. This confirms the fact they were planted correctly and watered sufficiently as the remaining 34 pines planted have survived and are doing well.
Wykeham have agreed to replace all the dead trees free of charge, we have also got a number of other trees to plant across the course.
We are creating a stoned area outside our shed to make storing equipment and machinery easier and solve the water standing where we travel through.
Wednesday was an incredibly wet day so we carried on with machinery and painting/staining posts and bins from the course.

Continuation of paths

 

Over the last week the weather has been far kinder to us. It has been mostly dry however last weekend we had around 14 mm of rain which flooded around the 21 and 24 green once more as the river derwent rose quickly again. Fortunately the dry weather meant it went down as quickly as it came up. 

Those two greens are still out if play due to saturated ground conditions. 

The wet ground conditions still remain in a lot of areas. A lot of these areas are made worst by constant play and foot traffic going across them. Please avoid all wet looking areas especially of they are roped or hooped off. The winter cups are used to protect greens and surrounding areas, these are not meant to be puttable, simply to keep the course open and the enlarged holes make it possible to chip your ball close, discretion from playing partners has to be used as to wether the ball is finished into the hole or not. It's not a priority for us to ensure they are cut and trimmed regularly. They are simply to keep the course open as much as possible.  

Last week we continued with pathways. This time working on the 13th. 

The stone path running from the 12th to the 13th was partly stone and green matting which due to high water levels in the lake was saturated and made the matting uneven. We decided to remove the matting and simply replace with stone as we feared the same might happen again.

We started at the rear of the 12th.

Before working around the tee.

We built up the height of the stone around the rear of the tee to dry out the walkway. Using boards against the fence to hold in the stone. The whole path was then given fresh stone. We also scraped out an area for the winter mat which will double as a place for the large summer benches. 

We have also been busy with machinery and tidying our shed area as we have had a few cold mornings where machinery is limited from going on the course.

Paths, tracks and turfing

This is where we left off from the last blog   Started the 10th track going across the fairway. Wear from vehicles accessing the fishing lake have made quite a mess of it due to the lack of maintenance. We striped the old stone out on both sides before putting new stone in. We also lifted some turf to lower an area where water was being held on the track. 

A great job done by the team. 

We also finished the 20th bunker, turfing the filled in bit. This is gur until spring. 

This should make it a lot better to land a ball short to get to a front pin. 

The mounding at the rear of the 20th new tee has also been started to be turfed. 

Water is back in the ditches on holes 21-24 we were also able access the two greens surrounded by water. 

These haven't been cut since before Christmas. You can clearly see the benefits of hollow coring and aeration. The tine holes clearly visible by the stimulated growth caused by increased air. There obviously was quite a bit of grass on them. But they look great considering they have been partially submerged for 5 weeks. 

Unfortunately we have had one buggy user not abiding to the rules when using a buggy on the course. We review the course everyday for use of buggies on each hole. There are very strict rules which state where can be accessed and which areas can not. This is what happens when buggies go where they shouldn't. 

If this continues to happen then all buggies will be restricted more and more. The member that did this will be dealt with. It's not a matter of just the mess but there could be a serious risk of injury when driving in unsafe areas due to poor ground conditions. 

Elsewhere we are having a few alterations done to the clubhouse. Installing new windows and new decoration and furniture throughout. We have also had a fence put up around our shed, this is to improve safety of golfers around our facilities and increase security. There have been a number of incidents where golfers have walked in front of machinery when we are working around the shed. It was a direct access point to the short game area so we felt it was only a matter of time before an accident happened. The fence will force golfers through the new access points we have made to the short game area. 

Time for a trim

As we finally get a period of drier weather we got on to the course to trim a few of the longer areas. We cut the remainder of the fairways that were dry enough. There are still some that are too wet to get on without causing damage. The height was set at 20mm for this cut as they were extremely long in places and the last thing I wanted to do is scalp or make more mess. 

We also got all the tees and surrounds cut. Again some very soft from golfer damage but the continued slow growth meant we needed to keep on top of growth. 

The greens are being hand cut at 5.5mm.  Some are softer than others. The wet areas of the course have really suffered over the last few weeks. These are hooped and roped off so please avoid them at all costs.  

Due to softer ground conditions pitch marks are really bad at the moment, golfers HAVE to repair all pitch marks as they will leave long term scars on the greens and will be a detrimental factor going into spring. It's is still unbelievable how some of them can be missed. The 18th green had over 20 unrepaired pitch marks yesterday from the weekends play. 

We have 10-18 holes closed this week so we are continuing with projects. The 10th track is our next job. Replacing and tidying the stone crossing the 10th fairway. 

The area at the end of the range is being tidied and all mounded soil levelled ready to be seeded in spring before a new boundary hedge is planted. 

The flood water has finally receded into the ditches leaving a little debris to clear and a very sticky area which will need time to dry out.