Course
Report – September 2018
Over the
last month we have had typically seasonal weather. The end of august and into
September brought cooler nights which felt like autumn was beginning. Shorter
days and blustery conditions have started turning some of the trees golden and
the leaves starting to fall in some areas. It did stay relatively dry, in this
area we only received 24mm of rain during August; some parts of the country had
4 to 5 times this amount. The course is the driest I have seen it in the 20
years I have worked here, it is very difficult to see something, all the green
staff work so hard to make the best we can, be at the mercy of mother nature.
The drought conditions have left the turf very patchy and aesthetically poor
compared to what we are used to at this time of the year.
We were
incredibly lucky with our yearly renovations, each week we worked on the greens
we had dry, windy weather which is perfect for ensuring the sand fills the holes
correctly. Any rain during the work would have slowed the pace and not
incorporated the sand into the greens as desired. At this point I would like to
give a mention to all the volunteers that turned up to assist us with the
greens maintenance on the 10th of September. Around 16 members
assisted in clearing and collecting all the thatch that was removed from the
Derwent 9 greens. Without these volunteers we would have not been able to
complete the clean up and get the Derwent greens open for the following
morning. To put how much the assistance helped, the same task done on holes 10-18
took 5 hours longer with just the green staff doing all the clearing and repair
work. Amazing effort from all that helped, and I’m sure some sore backs in the
evening.
Overall the
work was a success, however shortly after the tining had finished on holes 1-9 we
had an outbreak of anthracnose on a few greens (the 2nd and the 5th
worst effected), this is a disease that affects mainly poa (Annual meadow
grass). It infects stressed and bruised grass leaves, turning them straw like
before the plants die back. There are two types of this disease, the first is
foliar blight, this affects the leaves only, and giving the plant a chance of
re-establishing again, the second is basal rot. This is the more severe case of
anthracnose this enters the plant and kills the root system as well, leaving no
chance of recovery. We had mostly foliar blight, but in some areas the plants
did completely die back. I believe the working of the sand in to the wet areas
of the greens has probably bruised the grass plants leaving the susceptible to
disease ingress. On first sight of the disease all the greens were sprayed with
a fungicide to prevent further spread. Unfortunately, any plants already
infected could not be affected. Over the last couple of weeks, they have
recovered well, with most areas filling in. Long term we need to be considering
installing drainage and improving the structure of the soil to allow improved
drainage. We are microtining the worst areas again and brushing sand into the
profile
During the
next month and into winter the greens will be aerated with 8mm needle tines, to
keep the surfaces from sealing and to aid root growth/ plant density going into
the winter, followed by another light topdress. This will not affect play and
is important to ensure the greens are healthier during the end of the season.
Following the renovation work we
applied a liquid fertiliser to boost recovery times, with the good temperatures
we have been having, growth on the greens has been strong. However cooler
nights lead to heavy dews and increased worm cast activity which cause problems
cutting on a morning. Currently we are having to clear casts and debris every
morning prior to cutting. Casts are particularly bad on tees and surrounds,
however with no real cost-effective chemicals we are using sand to dilute the
casts and iron to try and deter them. We are noticing the most cast activity on
wetter and poorer soils and on high wear areas. We have trialled 4
different products on the market which claim to suppress worms, 2 of those had
no real effects to the cast activity, 1 had an immediate effect but its
longevity was limited to a couple of days and the final product which is an
organic soil conditioner showed the best results, however its longevity was
limited. It claimed to have an effective suppression of 3 months, however after
3 weeks casts have started to return. This
product is over 5 times the price per hectare than carbendazim, so reapplying
to large areas simply won’t be affordable.
In a couple of weeks, we will begin to cut
down all the long rough once more. The Amazone machine will be geared up to
start the collection in all areas. At this time of the year we have seen a
noticeable difference in the thickness of growth. Albeit a dry year, the rough
is far more playable than previous years, given a couple more years of cutting
and collection we should see a big difference to our natural areas on the
course.
The pond in
front of the 8th green is very low, so we have taken the opportunity
to clear some of the weed from the water, ideally, we could use an excavator to
remove the rest of the reeds and weed around the edge, this is something we may
do later. The pond on the 24th is now full, with no issues with
water collection the dam has been lowered to reduce the water level.
Most of the
damaged trees have been made safe, the poplars on the 2nd and 24th
are still to be trimmed by a tree surgeon, hopefully these will get done in the
next month.
As we
approach winter we will start to think about course work over the next few
months. The focus will be on tree management, small repair work and renovation
of bunkers. More on these will be discussed in the next monthly report.
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
- 24mm
September - 68mm September
-
October - 55mm October
-
November- 52mm November
-
December- 45mm December-
2017 Rainfall - 655mm 2018
Rainfall – 297mm
Average annual rainfall- 620mm
Richard Jacques
Head
Greenkeeper
