From tee to green ‑ July

The Downs Course

Playing Areas

A successful month on the golf course has seen us averaging speeds of 10ft-10ft6” on the greens. A light maintenance was carried out at the start of the month. Verti-cutting and Verti-draining were carried out along with our overseeding and topdressing programme. Verti-cutting, which is the removal of thatch and lateral growth in the top 5mm. This helps to create a channel (seed bed) which is perfect for our Velvet bent grass. A light topdressing was then applied to fill the channels and cover the seed. Verti-draining with deep narrow tines allowed us to break up compaction in the greens profile to depth of 8”. This helps improve the drainage of the green whilst also giving the plant a deeper channel for the roots to grow. There is now a short video on Intelligent Golf to explain some of the maintenance practices we undertake here at Goodwood. Click here to watch. 

Hand watering on greens and collars has continued over the past 2 weeks due to the excessive heat. Temperatures reaching over 30 degrees in the middle of the month. Due to our poor soil structure around many of the greens these areas become stressed very quickly as the root growth is shallow. Humps and bumps on the greens also suffer due to the irrigation water running off them before it can be absorbed by the plant.

Height of cut on the greens was reduced to 3mm to improve speed and trueness. 

Height of cut on the greens was reduced to 3mm to improve speed and trueness.

We have brushed the fairways and aprons this month to improve these areas. This process helps stand the grass upright allowing a cleaner cut. We suffer from stalks on our fairways and aprons so brushing and cutting helps reduce these and starts to thin the courser grasses allowing the more natural finer fescue come through.

The natural areas are looking great but are very punishing at the moment. Due the excessive rainfall in June these areas have produced some wonderful colours but the bottom 3-4” is very thick. A plan is being put in place to treat some areas in the coming weeks but for the time being please bear with us and use the fairways we cut beautifully for you.  

Projects

With the wet weather we experienced in June areas of the course were still growing at a rapid rate at the start of the month. A task that requires a lot of man hours is trimming pop ups. On the Downs course we have over 600 pop ups that need to be trimmed on a regular basis so that water usage is as effective as it can be. All pop ups for the Fairways, Aprons and greens have been trimmed on two separate occasions this month. As a team we are working hard to keep these looking sharp on a weekly basis.

Fairway divoting has been high on the agenda throughout the month. As always the course has been very busy so filling divots with soil and seed helps us to keep the fairways in good condition. Hot spot landing areas such as the top of the 2^nd, 5^th and short of the fairway bunkers on the 11^th have been divoted every week.

Strimming Irrigation boxes has also been carried out over the past couple of weeks. This is for cosmetic purposes as these had started to look untidy.

The new tees on the 14^th and the re-laid tees on the 5^th and 6^th have been topdressed by hand to bring the levels closer together. The heights of cut will stay the same over the next few weeks and once ready these tees will be cut at the same height (8mm) as all the other tees. These tees will not be in play before September.

Current Conditions

The greens have been playing very well over the past few weeks. The grass coverage and ball roll in particular has been very pleasing. 

As we go into August and a carry out our final ‘major’ maintenance operation it’s important to remember why we carry out these tasks. If the weather stays warm and dry then recovery will be very quick. This will be our last chance to overseed before the winter. It’s imperative that we get the greens as strong as possible so we go through the winter with better greens and come out the other side stronger than this year.

The fairways are firm and fast and the aprons much smoother than in previous years. Brushing will continue on these areas and we plan to scarify the aprons in the next 3-4 weeks to remove and thin some of the courser grasses.

See you on the course.

Andy Brown, Head Greenkeeper - Downs Course.

The Park Course 

Greens

The green staff have been busy through the month of July with the rise in temperature, hand watering has been a priority and around the clock monitoring of the irrigation system to help prevent dry patch. We have continued with our folia feeds to help with grass health and to aid heat stress. The cutting height is set at 3mm with the groomers set at 1mm below to discourage lateral growth and stand the plant up. We have also applied a light sand dusting to aid with trueness and speed with also rolling the greens 3 times a week the stimp meter reading has been on average 10ft – 10.6 ft We will be applying a granular feed to strengthen the plant. By using a granular the plant can feed off the nutrients for a longer period of time. I am pleased with how consistent the greens are performing.

Tees

We have Sprayed Sulphate of iron on tee tops and aprons which have darkened the leaf and has given these areas better definition. We have also Verti-Drained, using tines to the depth of 10” This task breaks up compaction to help improve drainage and creates channels for deeper stronger roots.   

Fairways/surrounds

Regular brushing and a good maintenance management programme have seen these areas go from strength to strength the cutting height has been reduced so to improve the course definition. A more frequent cutting programme has produced carpet like playing surfaces.

Rough

We have had some Feedback about our rough being “brutal” We have strategically looked at each hole and tried to create the widest areas between 150 and 200 yards specifically to help the high handicap golfer. We feel we have a good balance at present. These natural areas will be treated in the autumn to discourage thicker grass species and allow finer, wispier grasses to be more dominant. In the spring all the rough will be cut, clippings collected and removed.

Current condition

In preparation for the winter months, we have extended the path from the 8^th tees to the 9^th tees. In recent years this area has been one of the wettest areas on the course, which has effected buggy usage, with the path now in place it enables us to manage the course traffic through this hole.

In recent weeks there has been an increase in pitch mark damage on the greens. Can I please ask that you repair you pitch marks in the correct way?

See you on the course.

Simon Berry, Head Greenkeeper - Park Course.