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.