From Tee to Green ‑ February

The Downs Course

We have now completed our winter maintenance programme on greens 1, 3, 13, 17 & 18. These are recovering well especially with the increase in soil temperatures for this time of year. After a visit from the agronomist this month, we decided to verti drain greens 1 and 13 as the compaction levels were extremely high compared to others. This process was done with a 12mm tine to a depth of 200mm. Compaction readings after this were 30% lower than prior to doing the task. This was extremely pleasing to see and will allow the greens percolation rate to increase. I know this work can be disruptive this time of year but the improvement of the greens is our priority and seeing pictures of the 1st green from two years ago, there has been a significant improvement from the maintenance which has been carried out (Please see pictures below).

With aeration work key during the winter, we took the opportunity to demo a pedestrian aerator which has a small footprint on the greens compared to a tractor and mounter aerator. This was used to pencil tine all the greens with 8mm tines to a depth of 50mm. This month we will pencil tine the greens again, continue to Sorrell roll weekly and have the Air 2G2 deep aeration machine in early March.

We also took the opportunity to hollow core and apply root zone amendment to the 5th tee which is one of our most problematic areas of the course. We have also removed a few trees from the right side tee bank and will continue to remove a few more before the end of the year to improve light and air flow to this area to improve growing conditions.

We will now be concentrating on turfing bunker faces and re-lining a few bunkers before the main playing season starts. Some of the bases have degraded and will need to be re-constructed with upside down turf. When this is done we will be changing the sand over to the new china clay sand, as it performed so well last year in our trial bunker and will improve playability all year round, as well as help us with sand level issues as we can increase the depth on this sand without the ball plugging.

We will then start a rolling bunker plan to keep these hazards in good condition. As the bunkers are a new design and we have to use cubes of fescue turf to build the edges up instead of normal turf layers. We have now stripped the old 3rd tee site near the Gazebo as this area had a good soil structure for us to create our own fescue cube nursery. We can then harvest this when ready, instead of buying cubes in.

Badgers continue to be a massive issue for us, last month we spent 25 labour hours repairing badger damage. Unfortunately, they have now turned their attention to the fairways on holes 11, 13, 14 & 15. It is an on-going battle as they are a protected species. They are digging for food, which mainly consists of worms, leatherjackets and chafer grubs. In previous years we used to spray chemicals to deter the food source, however now all the insecticides have been banned, there is nothing on the market to help us with this problem. We continue to try to think of new ideas, feeding them with dog food does seem to help, but is not solve the ongoing issue. Therefore some areas of the course will not look as good as they should do, due to the damage.

Once again I bring your attention to the pitch marks on the greens. When we arrive at the green in the morning, we repair about 15 to 20 marks on the green. If people repaired these, we could spend more time detailing the course during the morning. The un-repaired marks make the greens aesthetically look poor and causes the greens to become more bumpy than necessary. Please repair yours and others pitch marks on the greens whilst waiting to putt out.

Look forward to seeing you on the course!

Rob Dyer, Head Greenkeeper, The Downs Course

The Park Course

Thankfully the weather has been kind to us throughout February allowing the team to put some definition into the course. Fairways, Tees, Aprons and surrounds were all cut and most of the semi-rough could be tidied up.

Light bunker maintenance continues with keeping neatness across the course carrying out fly-mowing and edging to improve tidiness. Greens continued to be worked on with hand cutting twice a week and when conditions allowed, we used the turf iron across to improve speed and trueness. We have very little disease damage and to help keep scars away we have applied a preventative fungicide.

Aeration work is a must throughout the year on all our surfaces. Pencil tinning our greens with 10mm tines to the depth of 100mm also Sorrell rolling with a 25mm spike to break up soil compaction provides optimal conditions for healthy root growth and it increases air movement within the soil profile and helps with drainage. The tees had been slit to 6” deep to break up soil compaction, it cuts through lateral root growth promoting more growth creating a thick healthy sward.

See you on the course!

Simon Berry, Head Greenkeeper, The Park Course