A lot to catch up on

A few days since I last updated the blog, and a lot has been happening on the course. We carried on from where we left off from the previous post. Trees. We have completed all the course planting and are now moving on to felling and thinning. We have removed a number of trees from the right and left of the 14th green area.

Three thorns from the left and 4 thorns from the right. Some of these were dying or dead and the others were causing issues cutting the area with large equipment. There was also problems with grass growth to the right of the 14th green where the walk off is to the 15th yellow and white tee. 

We have removed 3 large trees which reduces the shading and competition for light on the floor. The existing trees will slowly grow into the gaps. after a couple of years we will reassess to weather more trees need to be removed or not.

Initially we had another period of heavy rain which took us back to winter greens and shortened holes, merely to keep the course playable and open, in some areas of the region there was snow cover, fortunately we missed that and just had water to contest. 

Some areas of the course were fairly saturated, thankfully the weather has been a lot drier over the past few days so we have been all go trying to get some of the jobs done which were simply impossible over the last couple of months. The last of the paths were completed, the 11th and 2nd paths topped with new stone.

We started felling some leylandii which are growing into each other. We have removed one from the back of the 1st green, this was a poor tree and the area to walk to the 2nd tee was decreasing, creating a lot of wear. With this removed we will monitor the situation to see if it improves or another tree needs removing.

We have remove one more leylandii from the copse left of the 7th hole, there are a few which we will remove over time as the new pines grow bigger, the tree removed will make cutting the copse a lot easier. All stumps will be removed with a stump grinder once all tree work is complete.

We have lifted a poor area of turf and roots near the 8th tee, this is to be returfed.

With the greens and tees being a lot drier we have finally got on to do some maintenance to both. Firstly the tees have been cut using the national until the ground firms up. Then an application of slow release fertiliser was applied. this should aid recovery in to spring. The drier summer tees are now back in to play, more will be moved back on as they and the surrounding areas dry out.

The greens have been slit tined which is a non disruptive way of aerating the soil. it also cuts the roots to help create new fibrous roots which are more able to take up nutrients and water. They were tined in 2 directions at a 150mm depth.

Following tining they were cut with the John Deere at 5mm to roll and tidy any uneven growth.

Some of the bare and wet areas around greens and tees have been sanded, this will help dry out the surface increasing grass growth and recovery from high winter wear. They will also be fertilised using the same slow release fertiliser as on the tees.

We have managed to start some drainage which was scheduled right back in November. We have to prioritise the worst areas because we will not have time to complete the whole drainage schedule for this winter now we are into March. First up is an area which is always wet in winter, front of the 13th. There are a number of low areas in front of the green and is starting to effect the turf. We are running two parallel drains running into one main drain which will be connected to the main drain on the 10th hole. An open drain will added at the front of the green to ensure no puddling occurs.

We have also repaired a couple of sunken wet areas near the 17th ditch. 

Should the dry weather continue we should make good progress