A day in the life of a greenkeeper

Times have been fairly busy over the last week or so and its been a while since I updated all progress and work on the course. I really would like to update this blog twice a week but I have been on a spraying marathon, coupled with falling leaves and darker mornings have left me with very little time. I thought I would just give all members an insight into a typical day in the life of a greenkeeper, from my viewpoint.

4.50am up and getting ready for work, checking for any problematic weather that would affect golf, course playability or scheduled work.

5.30am arrive at work/ schedule jobs for the day

6.00am quick briefing with the team to organise jobs, ensure vehicles are available and to work around golfers, for example on this particular day we were brushing greens and fairways, cutting greens, moving markers, cutting fairways, cutting teesides, cutting long rough and starting spraying for worm casts. Answerphone message updated and proshop/office email stating any restrictions for the day sent.

6.15am onto the course in the dark, working by torchlight and vehicle lights to complete tasks until light, the initial tasks on a daily basis are always to concentrate on greens and tees to ensure they are all playable, at the moment leaves are a real issue and most greens and tees are covered most days. To ensure we keep in front of golfers we have to start in the dark at this time of the year, as we have 27 holes we concentrate on 1-9 first then 10-18 then 19-27 as the welham course is the most popular for daily play. We would alter this pattern if competitions dictate. It takes one to brush, two to blow with back packs, two to cut greens, one to blow fairways with a tractor blower. The markers are moved until the light is sufficient to start cutting fairways. The fairway mowers and the surround/tees mowers are the only ones without lights currently.

7.15am sunrises and golfers are starting to tee off on the first tee, we are well underway with tasks, usually up around the 3/4/5 hole by this point.

10.00am break time

10.30am back onto the course on to secondary jobs, up to two staff cutting fairways to ensure we get them all cut in the day, teesides started, spraying started, long rough started, blowing fairways continues in front of cutting.

2.00pm start thinking of work schedule for the next day, again looking at weather forecast, receive updates from work done on the course, consider any delays/ breakdowns. Prioritise any initial/secondary tasks for the week. Speak with greens chairman regarding feedback/concerns on the course.

2.30pm finish

Still at this time of the year we are cutting fairly regularly, every day we cut we have to ensure the leaves are clear as they could damage the machines and the cut would be effected. This takes time, it may seem that we are not clearing areas of the course, but as mentioned previously there is a point where they are falling at such a rate. This IS that point. With 27 holes and as mentioned above the priority being greens and tees, other areas that are usually lower priority, we spend time on when the initial morning tasks are complete.

Initial tasks also include :
cutting surrounds/ approaches
moving holes
cutting tees
tidying around clubhouse/shop
servicing of machines
brushing and cutting greens
rolling greens
blowing leaves/debris
spraying greens
irrigating
topdressing
moving markers
emptying bins
clipping holes
checking/raking bunkers

We try to concentrate on any tasks that effect the playability of the course and that would effect us carry out the maintenance due to golf on the course. After 10.00am we are then able to work around competitions, busy periods that we know are weekly routine for our members to continue with secondary jobs. To ensure the above jobs are completed every week, some of them multiple times during the week we have to be organised and willing to start early and work in less than perfect conditions, when golfers come to Malton and Norton we want to ensure they get the best conditions weather they play at 7.30am or 3.00pm. When golfers come to play I hope this short blog highlights the daily routine we put in place to ensure the course is the best it can be with just 7 greenstaff.

Course work update

Over the last week or so a lot has been happening on the course, Firstly to update all on the construction work on the course.

As mentioned before the excavation of the ditch is now complete, all surrounding areas have been tidied ready for the final stage of turfing and shaping of the sides, the path is complete and has been stoned. This has improved the area in front of the tee greatly, this was a very wet place on the course and an area where traffic was 'bottlenecked' to reach the fairway, causing more wear and mess in poor conditions. Before the path was stoned we drained it to ensure there is little chance of standing water through winter.

At the 20th green banking, the subsoil has been shaped and topsoil added from the end of the range and raked ready for seeding or turfing.

The bunkers between 18 and 27 have also been covered in topsoil and are ready for seeding

The 22nd tee has been covered in rootzone and shaped/ levelled ready for turf

The hedge that was between the 23rd green and the new hedge that was planted at the end of the range and the 20th semi has been removed as was agreed during the original planned layout of that hole. That is to be tidied this week.

The last few days have brought us wetter conditions, over 25mm of rain falling within a 48 hour period. This has caused some issues due to the ground being so firm previously, after the recent spell of dry weather. Once the surface began to soften the water has drained away relatively easily, however the barer areas are looking chewed up. We have put out hoops and will need to start roping off areas if conditions prevail. Please try and avoid areas where they are starting to wear. Preferred lies are now on due to worm casts and softer conditions.

The white tees and the driving range tee will continue to be used until the tees get wetter, some tees are being placed on the front sections and such as the 11th are on the back tee of the 9th hole as the 11th tee gets very wet due to the underlying construction. The bigger markers are being put out to ensure they can be seen in the leaves that are falling.

The rainfall has tested the ditch on the 16th however. Even after such a small amount of rain there was water in the ditch which is always a good sign. It is worth noting that we don't expect to see water in the ditch all year round, the way we have excavated the base,will allow water to run to the outfall near the 15th ladies tee.

The greens have had an application of granular fertiliser, granular fertilisers are preferred at this time of the year as the amount of rainfall can be varied, heavy rainfall can leach the nutrients more quickly if applied via liquid. The granular fertilisers rely of water to breakdown the granules then to be taken up by the plants, therefore safer at this time of the year. 19-27 greens have had an application of lawn sand. This is a high iron content fertiliser, using sand to dilute the mix so it can be spread on to turf. The lawn sand we use is 1-0-0 + 9% iron, but there are a number of different mixes available with differing contents of nitrogen, potassium and iron. The application rate is also quite high to ensure even application is gained.

Work has started with regular blowing of greens, tees and fairways to remove leave debris, after the last week of cooler weather they are coming down fast. The leaf cage has been assembled and is ready to go within the next week or so. To try and look at more efficient solutions to problems, namely leaf collection we have been looking at alternatives to what we currently have. We had a demo of a collection machine, which could not only be used for leaves but to cut long grass as well. The Amazone machine is a great piece of machinery which takes leaf or grass collection from a 3/4 man job to a 2 man job, saving a lot of time through the autumn. As mentioned we could also start to thin out some of the long rough, we cut and collect long rough, however using a rotary mower has its limitations. This something that will have to be discussed with greens committee.

Autumn has arrived

Monday saw the lowest overnight temperature since last winter, getting down to 2 degrees C and giving a hard grass frost. This lasted until just after 10.00am. This will help slow the grass down a little, which is still growing at quite a rate. We are also seeing the trees changing colour fast and a few leaves are starting to fall. The more the weeks roll on the more we will have to go out clearing greens and tees before play and before they are cut. There is always a spell when the leaves start to fall when we can not keep up with collection, they simply come off the trees at such a rate that within an hour of clearing an area its covered once more. Once we get through that spell we are then able to keep on top of them and present the course in a reasonable manner.

Currently we are making great progress on the winter/autumn work, the ditch across the 16th has been excavated and the pipes joining it to the out let pipe near the 15th ladies tee is complete. We have still to tidy the edges and turf the entire ditch when we have more time before the end of the year. The most important thing was to get all excavations finished before the weather turns wetter and therefore minimising damage to the course. We also work shorter days during November and December so time is also an issue. We are hopefully going to complete the 15th path this week.

The excavated soil has been used to complete the mounds to the rear of the 20th green, this is to make the green more defined from the tee, the right and left hand edges of the green were difficult to be defined as the putting surfaces are hidden. Hopefully the mounds will solve this issue. Topsoil needs to be put on the mounds to finish them off before seeding of turfing.

Eddie Ruddock and his team have installed two winter tees as planned using the astro turf form the range practice tee, the two tees on the 3rd and 7th will solve the yearly problem of eneven and difficult to use winter tees. Hopefully if these are a success we will install more for the other problem tees on the course. Please give feedback once they come into play.

We are trailing cutting the semi rough lower going into winter, this is to try and limit the amount of leaves that get stuck in the grass, over time killing it off and making the course very patchy in spring. We have noticed that due to the length of the semi rough we need to hand blow a lot of areas to remove the debris, with growth being stronger into the back end of the year I feel that this could help. I will monitor the situation through the autumn.