The Downs Course
I think I may have done too many rain dances last month. Since my last blog, we have had 134mm of rain. Unfortunately, before the rain, the grass plant was extremely stressed due to drought conditions and we have lost a few areas on the course. A few greens had some areas which have died back, as well as quite a few areas on tees and aprons. The grass plant has taken a long time to recover and it is still in the recovery stage. We adapted our foliar feeds on the greens to drip feed them rather than use all the feed at once. Therefore instead of doing a foliar feed once a month, we have divided this into three feeds. The same amount of feed has been put down just at a diluted rate. This helped the plant out greatly as there was always nutrients available.
The areas which have suffered have been overseeded by hand on the greens using a bent seed. Some of these areas have started to recover well but will take time to become established. The tees and aprons had 800kg of seed drilled into them at 35 grams a square metre. We have already seen early signs of germination which is pleasing. These were the worst hit areas from the drought conditions. We have also applied a slow realise fertiliser on these areas to increase growth and germinations rates. Three tees and one carry will be re-turfed as these areas were lost. These areas will be completed in the first week of September and will take about six weeks to get back into play.
We now start to look at disease control in the upcoming months. Due to the lack of water in previous months, we have had a slight attack of Anthracnose, which thrives in stressful conditions. This can attack all species of grass but mainly attacks the annual meadow grass (Poa annua). The areas which have been damaged by this disease will be overseeded in our next maintenance programme, which is scheduled for the middle of September. The upcoming maintenance will include overseeding, top dressing, solid tining and a granular feed. Also, we will be adding a root zone amendment to all the greens and aprons to improve the soil profile. We have had great results from a previous application on Greens 1,17 and 18. Therefore we will now be applying it on all greens and collars so they become more consistent. In our agronomy report, we were tasked to apply 100 tonnes of top dressing onto the greens to improve firmness over the winter months and to aid in greens trueness, currently to date we have applied 80 tonnes. We will hit our target by the end of September adding 15 tonnes on the maintenance days and doing a 5-tonne dusting on a separate day.
Later in the month, we will be adding another sand in our two test bunkers on the 14th hole. Please don’t hesitate to email me at rob.dyer@goodwood.com with any feedback on the two sand types we have been trialling. The new sand we are adding has slightly different characteristics than the one we are currently in them.
This month we harvested some honey from our bees, which are situated to the right-hand side of the 8th tees. Last year we made 30 jars leaving the bees enough honey to get through the winter period. This year we have left the same amount on for winter, but have made 60 jars. The bees are extremely healthy and have had a good year. These jars of honey have been distributed to our members who turned up for the Down’s At Dusk members evening. The bees will be winterised soon and will be left alone throughout the winter months, with possibly opening them up once for an inspection when the weather and temperature permit.
I would personally like to thank all the members who turned up to The Down’s At Dusk Members evening. I feel the evening went extremely well and those who turned up got a good insight to what we do, the challenges our site presents us and what we think about on a day-to-day basis to keep the course as consistent as possible.
Look forward to seeing you on the course!
Rob Dyer, Head Greenkeeper, The Downs Course
The Park Course
The team have had a busy couple of months due to the high temperatures. With this hand watering has been a priority as well as around the clock monitoring of the irrigation system to help prevent dry patch. Although in August, we had 106mm of rain which helped our greens out massively.
Aeration work this time of year is key, especially with the recent wet conditions and disease always threatening. Sorrel rolling the greens weekly helps improve aeration. By putting 1” spikes into the surface to help with airflow in the top layer as well as pencil tinning greens twice a month with the aim to aerate a little deeper 4/5” to help dry out the greens and aid drainage.
We continue with our spraying programme that consists of soil feeds which helps root development and enhances nutrient uptake while our foliar feeds help to increase sward density and aid leaf strength.
As part of our on-going conservation/habitat management plan, all the long natural rough areas around the course have been cut and collected. Although the course does look a little bare at the moment, the benefits of carrying out this task are important. It helps remove unwanted weeds and grasses, as well as giving natural grasses a chance to grow and gives the course definition whilst maintaining its playability.
It is important at this time of year that we go into the winter months with no disease scaring and a healthy thick sward so we will be carrying on with vericutting, verti-draining, overseeding and sand dressing as well as continuing to use our foliar feeds to aid the plant health and density.
Something that we are always concerned about going into the colder months is Fusarium patch disease which is the most common and damaging for lawns and turfs in Europe.
The disease attacks closely mown areas that contain a high percentage of annual meadow grass, which is another reason we are committed to changing the grass species on our greens to the more favourable bent grass.
The disease initially appears on the green in small patches. The leaves turn an orangey/brown colour and during the early morning dew, white fungal threads called mycelium start to appear. As the severity increases the patches can join together causing widespread damage to the green.
How can it be treated? We have both cultural and chemical controls in place trying to reduce the risks, removing dew and keeping the surface dry and having sufficient air movement, applying sulphate iron will help acidify the surface of the green which will help discourage. We are also improving the surface drainage with aeration and improving any sheltered areas by cutting back or pruning any vegetation.
We continue to receive a lot of positive feedback which motivates the team and gives us the drive to continue to achieve our high standards, so please keep it coming!
See you on the course!
Simon Berry, Head Greenkeeper, The Park Course.