As we near the end of the season, we are now turning our attention to the plans for the winter.
Due to the major upheaval throughout 2021 with the significant investment by the club on the drainage for holes 2, 6 and 7 which are now showing a great recovery, by the way, I feel that it is right for us to re-set the plans we have, and ensure any maintenance done will be impactful and in the main without disruption to members.
We need to ensure we can complete the tasks on time as we continue to progress with improving the golf course to be even better.
One of the key projects for this winter will be the ongoing tree regeneration and pruning and lifting of the canopies underneath the trees where necessary. This will help in the cutting of the rough as we will be able to get machines into these areas and keep the growth under control throughout the next season.
We will be removing the trees at the bottom of the slope to the right-hand side of the 10th /16th. You may have already noticed that one of these has already fallen as it was already ‘dead’ the rest are also dying so it’s right we take this opportunity to remove them all so they do not cause any damage or injury.
We are looking to plant an additional 100 trees on the left-hand side of the 6th ditch and up the fairway and install an additional bridge halfway down the fairway as we need another crossing point for balls that go towards the old pond area to help pace of play.
Subject to us being able to secure the Digger & Dumper, we are looking to do some further drainage runs on the 3rd Fairway just as you begin to go onto the start of the fairway. The spoil we dig will then be used for a new Tee box if the proposal to accept the new layout is accepted.
From the Railway Sleepers and Telegraph poles we bought earlier this year we are starting to build new permanent winter tees where possible, this will allow us in the future to set a ‘winter’ course and have competitions that are qualifiers.
We are just awaiting final details but from the Captain's Donation, we are looking to ‘hire’ a stump grinder to remove ALL stumps from previous tree reductions we have done.
Again subject to the availability of the Digger & Dumper from our Partners Fairfax, along with how long they will be available to us, we are hoping to put in some further new paths on the 4th & 5th Holes along with the 6th to the new 18th Tee box – again this path will be subject to the layout proposal consultation.
We are further investigating the availability of ‘Ash’ from the Power Station to help re-generate paths as well as the new ones planned.
As always there are a number of the projects above that will be dependent on the weather conditions we incur throughout the coming months.
This will be my final report for this year and I plan to update you all on progress in January ’22
Finally, my thanks go to all the Army of Volunteers who give their time free to the club to make the course improve year on year.
They are without a doubt a great team that I appreciate in all they do to help me.
As you know these are Allan Beaumont & Alan Puddyford, Peter Rowbotham & Alan Palmer, John Allison and David Gisbourne and my brother Lee.
Other big thanks also go to Senior Captain Graham Trotter who services and maintains the machinery.
There is always room for anyone else out there who can spare any time to come and help. If you’re interested just come along to the Greenkeepers shed and we will welcome you with open arms.