This wont help growth as soil temperatures will be knocked back down again and we need consistent soil temperatures of around 6 degrees to maintain steady growth. Overall though given the winter we experienced the course is looking good and we are happy with how its recovering going into the summer playing season.
Last week the greens were given an application of fertiliser and bio stimulants which help perk the grass up during these poor conditions, they will receive another application this week as well.
After application its washed into the soil so its an ideal time to test the sprinkler heads and check for arc, application and coverage. Any damaged sprinklers have been replaced this week. We have reduced height of cut on tees and surrounds now growth is improving. Greens height will also be lowered slightly in the next few days.
We have started to brush greens much more to stand laid grass up before they are cut, as growth is not strong and temperatures are cool I feel it is too early to start deep scarifying or grooming heavily as this would just set them back further. Hopefully as things improve we can carry this out and get an application of sand on to them which will help smooth them out, especially the pitchmarks which seem to be evident on every green following the wet winter.
On the course we have put out new flags cups and ferrules, we have also a new hole cutter for the season.
We have done a little more tree pruning, this is not the most ideal time of the year as the trees are soon to be in leaf however we need to get some areas complete so the machines can cut the areas of grass without risk of damage. This will be continued as and when we can. All dead trees have been removed and we will be getting a stump grinder in soon to remove the remaining stumps.
The irrigation has been opened up and we have a couple of electrical issues on the system we believe there are 2 breaks in the cable that sends information around the course to turn sprinklers on and off via the computer. This needs to be fixed by our irrigation contractor. A new cable needs to be moleploughed into the ground to rectify the issue.
