From tee to green ‑ June

The Downs Course

Playing Areas

Once again the team had their work cut out in June due to torrential downpours, warm sunshine and unprecedented growth. Over 140mm of rain fell on the golf course in June, this is nearly three times the average for the month. On at least three occasions play had to be suspended due to a waterlogged course. On one occasion an inch and half of rain fell in just over an hour. Luckily for us the course drains very well and we were able to get the course back playable in a short space of time. 

With all this rain and warm weather the grass has been growing nearly as quickly as we can cut it. The tees, fairways, aprons and greens have all been cut more often than they would normally be for this time of the year. This has meant the playing areas are greener and softer than we would like but on the whole we have been able to keep our green speeds up around 9ft-9ft6” on average.

Although the growth on the greens and aprons are very good we carried out a light fertiliser coverage at the end of the month to keep the plant healthy. This will help prevent disease and also aid the recovery after maintenance at the start of July. The adverse effect of fertilising is the speed of the greens drops for a few days because of the rate of growth during the day but this is essential if we want to keep the surfaces good for the rest of the year. I think you’d agree that they are now back to their best and we can be proud of our efforts.

The fairways continue to be brushed once a month. This is really starting to improve the surfaces by standing the grass upright and ensuring a cleaner cut whilst also thinning out the courser grasses.   

Projects

A hot topic for discussion amongst members is the current length/thickness of the grass around the new bunkers on the 11^th,14^th and 15^th holes.

I feel it’s important to mention that for the design element we chose one of the world’s leading architects, Tom Mackenzie from Mackenzie & Ebert, to carry out the bunker work.  Tom and his partner Martin Ebert have been chosen by the R & A to advise and work on five of the nine Open championship courses, have carried out the redesign at Trump Turnberry and are widely regarded as one of the world’s leading architects.  In addition, Tom has over 15 years playing experience of The Downs.

We are pleased with how the bunkers that were renovated last year have settled in and feel that they are fair.  Bunkers and their design will always divide opinion and one should always remember that they are hazards and at times this results in some perception of unfairness.  We have made sure that we consulted as many ‘experts’ as we could before carrying out this renovation programme and that the decisions made were based around our vision that the Downs Course should reflect its natural downland setting and thus the finer grasses being prominent around the course. 

We spent 10 hours in the middle of the month raking these areas to try and thin these areas out but with not much success. Once the weather improves and these areas become drier we will do the same again to make them more playable.

The new fence was erected at the top of the escarpment on the 2^nd hole. This has been put in place for safety reasons and now looks great. Please do not attempt to walk down the escarpment, use the footpath to the right of the fairway.

Over 40 man hours has been spent this month removing sand from bunkers. All bunkers now have a maximum of 2.5” of sand

Current Conditions

The greens are performing much better and the bent coverage is improving each month. The greens are also getting stronger with root depth now down to 4-5”. A year ago we only had root depth of 3”. Deeper roots = healthier plant. 

The bunkers are now more consistent with over eight tonnes of sand removed from the newer bunkers and some added into the old style bunkers where needed.

It’s been noticeable again over the past couple of weeks that many pitchmarks are not being repaired. With the volume of rain and greens softness it’s really important to repair your pitchmarks. This helps keep the greens smooth and plant healthy. An unrepaired pitchmark can lead to courser grasses or weeds invading the area.

Let’s hope for better weather in July and we can keep the course looking and playing great. Please keep your feedback coming in, both good and bad.

See you on the course.

Andy Brown, Head Greenkeeper

The Park Course 

Playing Areas

It’s been all go with the cutting this month! Warm weather and monsoon like showers have seen the grass growing quicker than we can cut it. Cutting tees/aprons and fairways three times a week still didn’t seem enough. We have managed to keep green speeds consistent at above 9ft and they have drained very well.

Greens Maintenance

This month we took full advantage of the course being closed for Festival of Speed to carry out some greens maintenance. Tasks undertaken and what they involve: 

Scarifying – Slicing the surface in two directions on the green to the depth of 13mm. This operation removes thatch and creates a seed bed for our colonial bent seed.

Verti-Cutting – Slicing the surface of the green with blades closer together to thin the surface and remove any lateral growth and any annual meadow grass seed heads that may be present. The total amount of unwanted fibre removed was 700kg per green.

Overseeding – We broadcasted 2kg per green of colonial bent into the channels created by the scarifying and verti-cutting.

Sand Dressing – Once the seed has been applied we then dressed a medium setting of sand across the green and drag matted into surface. The amount was enough to fill the channels and smooth out any imperfections.

Verti -Draining – Finally we verti-drained the greens using 10mm tines to the depth of 10”. This task breaks up compaction to help improve drainage and also enables gas exchange through the soil profile plus, creates channels for deeper stronger roots.

Fairways we were able to double brush and cut to ensure a uniform finish and all the tees were seeded and top dressed.

Fingers crossed for more dry weather.

See you on the course

Simon Berry, Park Course Head Greenkeeper.