Tuesday 21 August 2018

August Course report


Course Report – August 2018



It’s been quite an eventful month, although the dry weather has generally continued with only 38mm of rainfall during July. Thankfully the drought has been broken with heavy bursts of rain. The only problem the humidity increased to levels which initiated very isolated and severe thunderstorms. One of which hit the course on the 27th July with devastating consequences. The storm only last around 30 minutes however its intensity caused widespread damage. Footage of the storm can be found on the clubs Facebook page.  Numerous lightening strikes rolled across the course with at least 3 trees being struck and over 30 trees being damaged, not to mention the debris that littered the course. The heavy rain which fell, due to the firm ground conditions, stood very quickly. These bursts of rainfall have done little good. Beneath the surface the soil conditions are very dry in places, the water that falls only reaches the top few centimeters, which is soon evaporated. The damage of the storm is still evident on the course and we are collecting as and when time is available. The biggest damage came to the 6th, 12th and 21st holes. Three large trees were significantly damaged on the 6th, thank you to 3 members in particular, who spent 2 days helping cut up and clear those trees, I won’t mention their names but without them we would still be faced with the task of removing them. The 12th was a complete disaster zone after a group of poplars were hit, one of them fell onto the course damaging a few of our trees. Thankfully these trees are owned and being cleared by Simon Howards team of gardeners, albeit slowly due to the amount of other damage his property has suffered. Most of the in-play areas have been tidied, with only the damage in the long rough to clear. The 21st had another poplar struck by lightning, blowing off the top of the tree, other poplars near the 24th green were also severely damaged. There are still a number of trees roped off so please be aware of these when playing and do not put yourself in danger until they are made safe.



The irrigation system has been crucial in getting us through this drought period, without it I’m confident we would have lost a few of the greens, at times the irrigation system was running 24 hours a day to keep turf alive. We only need to look at fairways across the course to see how badly effected we have been, these will take time to regrow. When we installed the system, I would have never had thought that the weakest factor would be the water supply, thankfully we got through this drought with pumping from other sources on the course. In the future we could take more proactive measures to aid the storage of water, such as ditch clearance and pond enlargement.



On the course we have made a great start to our greens renovations. Holes 1-9 have been closed for the w/c 30th July. During this period, we have tined the greens using 12mm cross tines penetrating 250mm into the root zone. This was followed by 8mm hollow tines to a depth of 125mm. This process aids aeration around the roots and increases the drainage capability. Around 10 tonne of sand was worked into the holes. Finally, we followed up by rolling and fertilisation to ensure we get the surfaces back in good condition as soon as we can. After the initial tining the greens will take a while to return to normal speed and trueness, however after a week we have seen full recovery.



Tining of 10-18 greens was carried out the following week with 1-9 reopened to reduce disruption to golf. During the second week of maintenance we used a GKB Sandfiller, this machine can inject sand directly into the profile instead of applying it to the surface, as well as removing thatch, this also is a lot faster than hollow tining. This will dramatically reduce disruption to the course, along with reducing the organic matter content in the upper profile. Our aim was to complete 19-27 greens also during the second week. However, work on 19-27 greens had to be postponed due to time and disruption, we will start them and a few poorer areas in a maintenance period commencing on the 22nd August and will be completed with the GKB Sandfiller w/c 10th September. Once all the greens are complete regular micro tining will take place using 8mm tines which will not affect the playability of the greens into the autumn.



Many of you may wonder why we tine the greens right in the middle of the playing season, to be honest the playing season is a 12 month cycle nowadays. So there is no 'good' time to do it from that point of view. We feel this time of the year is the ideal time as recovery is the quickest it can be. The rest of the year maintenance is planned to be of 'minimal' disruption, however it is ongoing throughout the year. We have had a lot of compliments regarding the course and the greens over the last few years and it all boils down to the work that is put in to them to get them that way and make play on them possible for a 12 month season. Other factors such as drainage would increase playability further and is in the strategic plan.



Due to the treat of Anthracnose at this time of the year we have applied a preventative fungicide before tining. Straight after tining and sanding has been completed another application of fungicide will be applied to reduce the risk of any disease outbreaks. Worm casts have also started to become an issue, these are very difficult to deal with as there are still no chemicals to suppress activity that are cost effective. We will continue to apply sand and iron to try and deter them.



Selective herbicide application for weeds had to be put on hold during the Spring as the ground conditions started to get too dry, this will recommence when the weather turns wetter towards the end of August and into September.



All long rough will start to be cut and collected again during the start of September

There have been several wasp and bee nests appear on the course in the last month which have been treated as soon as they appear. Should any member find one please notify myself, one of the team or someone in the pro shop or office so it can be dealt with, thank you.





2017                                                                                      2018

January -       23mm                                                            January -       58mm

February -     52mm                                                            February -     30mm

March -         41mm                                                            March -         75mm

April -             18mm                                                            April -             40mm

May -             41mm                                                            May -             26mm

June -             66mm                                                            June -             6mm

July -              112mm                                                         July -              38mm

August -        82mm                                                            August -       

September - 68mm                                                            September -

October -      55mm                                                            October -     

November-   52mm                                                            November -

December-   45mm                                                            December-  



2017 Rainfall - 655mm                                                     2018 Rainfall – 273mm

Average annual rainfall- 620mm                                              



                        Richard Jacques

                                    Head Greenkeeper


About Me

Im the Head Greenkeeper at Malton and Norton Golf Club. I began my greenkeeping career at Malton and Norton Golf Club straight from school as an Assistant Greenkeeper. Wanting to climb the greenkeeping ladder I gained my NVQ level 2 and 3 at Askham Bryan College. I continued with my education gaining a HNC in golf course management and took the position of Deputy Head Greenkeeper at Malton and Norton Golf Club in 2005.In 2008 I was promoted to the position of Head Greenkeeper, leading a team of 6 hard working and dedicated Greenkeepers. Our aim is to continue to improve the condition of the course year on year maintaining our high reputation within the area.