Yes at last it finally looks like we are making some progress with the weather and the course. The last couple of weeks have been hectic, the rainfall has decreased, not to say we haven't had any but the quantities have been manageable. The course has therefore dried considerably since the snow we had a couple of weeks ago. The team have been out doing all possible to catch up on lost time.
Firstly we were able to get onto the greens with the John Deere triple mower. This was the first time we have been able to go on them with a triple since November last year. The greens have been cut when possible with the hand mower but it was nice to get onto the greens to groom out long growth. The bent grasses in the greens are growing well but they do need grooming every now again, we managed two passes with the groomers to tidy any lateral shoots.
We followed with a light dressing of sand, we would have liked to done some micro tine aeration however its still a little soft to take the tractor onto the greens, hopefully we will be able to get on in the next couple of weeks.
We have also cut and topdressed the surrounds and approaches, groomers have been used on the green surrounds to try and improve these areas this year. The approaches are also getting more fertiliser, aeration and sand this year in an attempt to increase the playability of the course during the wetter months.
The tees have all been cut, we have reshaped some to make maintenance easier and to realign to the playing direction. Worm casts are a real issue, some tees are suffering more than others, to help reduce casts we have put an application of lawn sand on to the tees. This is very acidic due to the sulphate content of the product, this will help deter worm activity over time and reduce moss.
The first practice net was damaged during the last storm, this is being repaired.
The last of the debris has been once again tidied and collected. This has been a non stop task this winter and one that is very time consuming.
The rain and snow melt caused issues on hole 21-24 as this is in the flood area for the River Derwent. The land around the 21st and 24th green was under water for around 3 weeks, now the waters have receded the land has dried considerably, however the two greens are still not playable enough and therefore are on winter cups for the time being.
Work has been completed on the 8th pond, removing the unsafe front structure to reveal the structural wall behind. This is not as neat as the facia wall as it was never intended to be in view, however we feel it is a good temporary measure until we can review what we would like to do to the pond long term
Next week we would like to get the fairways, bunker faces, teesides and some areas of semi rough cut if the weather is dry enough. Some areas are quite long but conditions simply haven't been suitable to cut this week.
All fairways on the 1-18 course have been sprayed with iron and a penetrant wetter. This will add colour and improve the consistency of growth as we head into the growing season. Greens and surrounds have also been sprayed with a penetrant wetter. The greens surrounds, approaches and worn areas have had some low nitrogen/ high iron fertiliser applied to aid recovery.
All gorse and shrubs have been trimmed and tidied, Keeping on top of the shrubs and gorse is time consuming and something that often gets overlooked when we are busy cutting the course. Tree work has also continued on the few frosty mornings we have had the past few weeks.
