From tee to green ‑ December

The Downs Course

Happy New Year! As we come to the end of the year I have looked at what we have achieved and thought I would share with you some of the experiences in my first year of being a Head Greenkeeper.

Starting in December 2017, we came out of the winter having had the wettest period since I have been at Goodwood, which has been 14 years now. After all the rainfall we also had to deal with, the beast from the east and the courses being shut due to snow. However, in this time we managed to hollow core the three worst greens on the course, the 1st, 17th and 18th and apply a root zone amendment. This has had a massive effect on these greens this year, both in plant health and performance. We will be doing this maintenance process again to the same greens, as well as adding the 13th and 3rd green, as these two greens are now the worst performing on the course. 

We had a good spring and the course started really taking shape. A few tweaks were made to put more definition in and this has proven to be a success. The performance of the greens in spring was pleasing and going into June for Club Championships the course looked and played extremely well. The feedback from this was really pleasing and we were looking to continue this throughout the main playing season.

We then went into drought conditions and on many days in July and August, the average temperature was over 30 degrees. With this in mind applying water to the greens was a priority and because we work on an estate where we share the water with other departments and the reservoirs are used for drinking water across the site, our water system was turned off for 24 days within the drought period. Therefore we implemented an emergency agronomy plan to keep the greens as healthy as possible. Although the performance and health of the greens suffered, we thought we may have totally lost a few greens, they survived by us using a water bowser with a garden hose attachment. To put this in perspective the bowser pumped out 1500lts every hour and a half. For a green with five sprinklers around it which is typical on The Downs course, this volume of water can be put on the green in three minutes. Therefore you can appreciate the amount of effort the team put in working into the night and 4am starts to try and keep the greens alive. However some benefits came from this, the velvet bentgrass coverage increased due to the roots being deeper which was pleasing to see. Now looking back at the pictures from the summer you can see how hardy the grass plant can be, most areas have recovered. The worst fairways are slowly recovering and we will spray more wetting agent in the spring to encourage re-growth on these areas.

We moved into the autumn looking at disease control and keeping it suppressed at high disease pressure times. We are relieved when we get into the cold period as this helps us disease pressure, unfortunately, we have not seen this weather in November and December. This aided with heavy dew mornings increases the chances of disease. Nearly all the greens are disease free.

We look more into plant health over the winter months, as you can appreciate it takes a lot longer for the grass plant to recover in the winter and with the amount of golf being played, wear on the course increases. Therefore please play off the tees provided and follow any traffic management signs or on-screen instructions on buggies. The most important thing is to repair your pitch marks (and any un-repaired pitch marks) on the greens. The greens are really suffering lately from un-repaired or poorly repaired pitch marks. Please help us in looking after your course and doing your best to repair any during the day.

All in all, it’s been a tough year, however a really enjoyable year. I can quite honestly say I have learnt more this year than my previous 18 years in greenkeeping.

In December we have had 146mm of rain (120mm in 2017). Hopefully, the weather turns cold and dry to help us through the winter months. We are having a few issues with worm casts at the moment. The chemicals we used to control worms have been banned and there is now nothing on the commercial market to help us control the castings. Therefore some of the tees and fairways will have a few more castings on than normal as our cutting frequency slows down due to the growth of the plant slowing down.

We have started our winter projects which include:

• Flailing
• Strimming natural areas and tee banks
• Turfing bunker faces
• Turfing walk-off areas
• Repairing pathway edges
• Pond maintenance
• Irrigation repairs
• Tree and shrub removal
• Tree and hedge planting
• Hollow coring 1st,3rd,13th, 17th & 18th.

The greens which are being hollow cored will have a root zone amendment added to them to improve drainage and nutrient uptake. We are looking to do a green a week, weather dependent, and rest that green for a week, therefore 16a will be in use. Thank you in advance for your patience as this maintenance work needs to be done to improve the playing surfaces in the main playing season. The cores removed from the greens will be used to repair the pathway edges, as this helps recycle material which is good from a sustainability aspect.

Look forward to seeing you on the course!

Rob Dyer, Head Greenkeeper, The Downs Course

The Park Course

Happy New Year! The weather gave us an extremely challenging year on The Park Course, from the beast from the east to the scorching temperatures in the summer. 

At the start of 2018, we had to contend with the beast from the east, which gave us light snow covering keeping us on our toes. As well as having to deal with frosty conditions, we also had a huge amount of rain. Overall, 891mm fell throughout the year which caused flooding on the course. 

Although we had a tough winter, we still continued with our winter projects which included a woodland clearance programme, raising tree canopies for better playability, which also produces better air flow, and light to the surface. This work aided our wildflower habitat management, which meant that they flourished for us to all enjoy in the spring.

We also started the regular cutting schemes which meant it was time to put some character and definition back in the course.

The summer was a challenge within itself with consistently high temperatures. Hand watering was a priority and around the clock monitoring of the irrigation system. The greens maintenance programme of soil and foliar feeding with regular dressing and aeration work means our greens do have a good root system and a healthy grass sward, which ensured we were able to maintain excellent putting surfaces throughout this time. The non-irrigated areas did suffer but have come back well.

One word to sum up the autumn, leaves! This is a very active time for disease to thrive, all our focus is ensuring we don’t go into the winter months with scars on the greens, which through our green’s aeration and maintenance programmes and using a preventative fungicide has kept the greens disease free.

During this time both courses were awarded the GEO award (Golf Environment Organisation) Certification, for its commitment to sustainability. After independent verification, the GEO concluded that Golf At Goodwood should receive certification because of its “outstanding work to minimise impact on the environment through the introduction of biomass heating, solar panels and enhanced monitoring on water consumption.” It continued, stating that “the club has also undertaken numerous natural environment projects providing enhancements to habitat in line with the surveys and advice commissioned by the facility.” We set out to achieve the GEO Certification knowing that it would not just safeguard the environmental future of the courses, but also be of benefit to members and customers and the local community.

We are looking forward to a very exciting year at The Park Course.

Look forward to seeing you on the course.

Simon Berry, Head Greenkeeper, The Park Course.