The weather through late May and early June has been on our side for the first time this year. This has allowed us to catch up with areas that were behind due to the poor weather. This work will continue to be the main priority. The course is drying out daily, and the grass is now growing at a pace.
As always, as the weather improves, this means we will begin the ritual of cutting fairways and tees along with the rough daily. A big thanks to both Allan Beaumont & Alan Puddyford for their support in the unpaid hours they do to help.
This, along with Peter Rowbotham & Alan Palmer makes sure that I am able with Lee to concentrate on the Greens, Approaches and Tees.
With this, we have tined and top-dressed all greens, approaches and tees week commencing 7th June, and this will eliminate the areas that were a little bumpy, especially on the greens.
We will be continuing this process every two (2) weeks throughout the rest of the season to get us back to where they should be.
The new ‘tool’ that concentrates areas where we have had damage on the greens is working well. We will need to order some more seeds in the coming weeks, but the seed used strengthens the sward and this makes the green less susceptible to future disease and damage.
In addition to the remedial work done on the greens, we will be doing the same on the Tees. We have purchased a sprinkler, and we are using this with a pipe from the halfway house and watering the first tee daily in the morning. This will help immensely in both presentations of the tee and help keep it looking nice rather than it drying out.
The work done this week on the greens will certainly improve the speed and the roll, and showcase how good they are
We received great feedback from the visiting NERGA teams the first week of June, and we are working to ensure the course is maintained to the same high standard for the visit on Sunday 13th June of the INTER teams.
The drainage work planned on holes 2,6 and 7 has been delayed by one week and this will now start Monday 21st June. It is envisaged that there will be minimal disruption to the playing of the course, however, if we feel it necessary we may have to review the holes and re-route if needed. Whilst the work will take circa 10 days, the recovery should be a similar timeframe and we want to get back up to speed as soon as we possibly can.
I would also like to thank David Gisbourne who has started to give up his free time on a Friday to help repair divots on the golf course.