Start of annual maintenance

On Monday this week we started the annual maintenance, don't panic we haven't touched the course greens as yet, this is still planned for 1st August. We have done the two putting greens (leaving) a small area to putt on. The rest of them have been hollow tined with 12mm tines, followed by 12mm solid tines. We are experiencing a few issues however, the dry weather we have been having for the last couple of weeks has created a hard pan near the surface, this creates excessive heave around the tines and where rooting isn't as strong, can actually lift the turf. We were hoping to get 3 passes, one hollow tine, one solid tine and one cross tine. The third pass has had to be left for the time being. Immediately after the work the greens were sanded with straight sand and brushed into the holes. With the soil being very dry we were able to get a lot of sand down the holes, improving the soil structure. We put around 2 tonnes on per 500 sq/m. 

The greens were then soaked to prevent the sward drying further. The aeration work naturally dries the soil as air can now penetrate below the surface, it also can get water from the surface, drainage and water penetration should be greatly improved. The green will take around 10 days to get to a puttable state, even then they will still be sandy until the sward has grown over the tine holes. The dry weather will unfortunately not help recovery as growth is stunted in these conditions. We are also in a position where we cant apply any more water than we are due to the irrigation system.

On other areas of the course we are edging around all bunkers once more, this should take us through until after the annual maintenance, when if needed they can be done again. We also have the tree contractors in finishing off the last bits in the copses to the left of the 26th hole. The debris will be cleared in this area in the Autumn.