Finally some rain

As we prepare for what was a very busy week at Malton and Norton Golf Club the weather took a turn for the worse. I admit it was nice to receive some rain as the course was just beginning to dry out in places and growth as previously mentioned was slow. However the amount we got did cause a few issues. As the ground was very hard and as soon as rain arrived it stood easily and was slow to drain away. After the first few showers the ground has now softened and more free flowing. That didn't help when the thundery showers came down thick and fast. These caused problems in getting the course ready for the first big competition of the week, the ladies open day on Wednesday. Its a shame when the weather is poor and spoils what is a great opportunity to show how good Malton and Norton Golf Club is, the team did their best and we managed to get the event completed. Cutting was effected and we were left with lots to do and grass growing faster than we can manage to get on top of and the pro am approaching on Friday. Once again the team stepped up efforts with cutting happening as much as possible, myself and a couple of others working until dark to get all tasks complete before another spell of bad weather arrived on Friday.

The pro am was again a wet day, with the course only just playable in the morning after around 10mm of rain coming in the early hours, after a lot of work and some changes to the event ( changing to 17 holes) we managed to start on time, and fortunately the weather improved, get finished on time. Some great feedback from players, given the conditions.

Next week we will have a lot of catching up to do, cutting on the Derwent 9 was reduced due to the competitions held on the Weham 18, so grass is very long in places on these holes. Especially the semi rough.

One task that is now complete is the tree work on the Derwent holes. The copses between 24/25/26 and 20 have been thinned and mulched, taking out all the scrub and weed trees and shrubs that have spread over the years. It has opened the trees up so its accessible with vehicles and should be more easy to maintain. The team at GBL Timber have done a fantastic job. The mulcher they brought in was a great piece of equipment that has saved days, material that would have had to be hand mulched was simply driven over and mulched in a matter of minutes.

We have replaced the front putting green pins as the old ones were looking tatty and a couple of the tops were becoming weak.

The 16th ditch is now fully in play, the crossing has grown in well and there are only a couple of areas where we did the draining work that are still marked as GUR. Overall I think this project has been a great success and has left the 16th green area a lot drier.

The irrigation system is all but complete, the irrigation contractors are still working on the last few bits of the system. The electrical control panel that operates the pumps down near the 24th pond needed some alterations as the location of the control grp housing was altered from the original plans and therefore needed larger cabling requirements due to the increased length of cable. This is now installed and connected, the pumps are in position and just need a couple of connections before all is complete. We are having a circulating pump installed to keep the irrigation water agitated and hopefully more oxygenated. During summer the pond where we extract the irrigation water from is very still and stagnant, circulating the water helps improve the quality of water before its extracted to the tanks.