From tee to green ‑ August

The Downs Course

Playing Areas

Another positive month on the greens despite the maintenance that took place on August 15^th & 16^th. At the start of the month the surfaces were probably the best they have ever been with many positive comments coming from members and guests. Unfortunately, as we’ve communicated in past blogs and on news items maintenance is an essential part of producing quality surfaces. With the 2 days booked in the diary from the start of the year it was important we carried out the tasks as planned. The greens were micro-cored to a depth of 2” with 7mm tines. This practice helps us to remove thousands of small cores on each greens and enables us to then replace these cores with a 90/10 (90% sand, 10% soil) topdressing mix. The sand will help improve the firmness and drainage of the greens whilst the 10% soil will help retain moisture and nutrients for longer. We took this opportunity to overseed with Velvet bent and we have seen germination within 10 days which is a great result.

We have continued to hand water the greens on a regular basis due to the excessive heat. The Downs greens are sand based on top of chalk so water retention is not great. We hope that by now using a 90/10 topdressing mix and using retaining wetting agent pellets with hand watering will make big improvements to water retention in the future.

The Tees have been solid tined and fertilised this month. The solid tinning was to improve air movement in the soil as many of the tees are situated in the shade, it also helps relieve compaction and improve drainage without disruption to play. We will carry out this task again in the autumn.  The fertilising was to improve the plant health. Some of the tees are heavily worn due the busy nature of the course so by keeping the plant healthy and growing recovery is much quicker and the playing surface is better to play off.

The Fairways and Aprons have again been brushed this month and we’ve seen big improvements on these areas despite the dry weather. They are much more consistent now with smooth surfaces and very little stalks.

Projects

Sand removal from Bunkers has continued through the month. The inconstant depths of sand has been frustrating. We have tried to get an even 2” in all bunkers but some just had so much to begin with that removing it all in one go was physically impossible on a busy day. We are now much closer to where we want to be but still have a couple more fairway bunkers on our radar for the coming days.

Edging pop ups and divoting fairways. With help from our casual staff we’ve been able to stay on top of fairway pop ups and divoting main landing areas on a weekly basis.

Current Conditions

Quick recover after maintenance has meant we are in a very positive place heading into September. With recent weather patterns I would hope the next 2 months are kind to us so we can continue to provide you with great playing conditions. We have some busy days and events coming up this month and I’m confident we can deliver what is expected.

Below is a picture taken from the 15^th green 3 weeks ago. As you can see the root depth is about 5”. This has doubled in the past 2 years and is a result of our ongoing management plan for the greens. Aeration, aeration, aeration. The deeper the roots grow the healthier and stronger the plant will be. This will allow lower heights of cut, less susceptible to disease and will require less water.

One final note to say thank you to all those who attended the members evening at the beginning of August out on the golf course. It was great to see so many of you and I hope you found the evening informative and fun.

See you on the course.

Andy Brown,  Head Greenkeeper Downs Course.

The Park Course 

Greens

Through August the greens have remained consistent in speeds and performance on the Park Course. It’s clear to see the benefits from our regular maintenance. Using folia feeds that help aid heat stress and grass health, soil feeds that help enhances root growth and improves oxygen availability for the plant also cultural tasks such as light sand dressing to aid with trueness and speed, all these practices have been vital in keeping the greens at a very high level.

As many of you are aware there are many areas of the Goodwood estate that are organic, it is our long term goal for the golf courses to follow these practices and be less reliant on chemicals and high nitrogen fertilisers. With this in mind we recently trialled a new organic granular fertiliser in preparation for our greens maintenance at the 5^th/6^th September, with the fertiliser established in the profile the plant recovery will be a lot quicker.

The tasks that we will undertake on these dates are: Scarifying, verti-cutting, overseeding, sand dressing and verti-draining.

Fairways/Surrounds

Despite the dry conditions the fairways are in excellent health, regular brushing and a spot treatment for clover has kept our fairways consistent with a uniform finish. 

See you on the course.

Simon Berry, Head Greenkeeper Park Course.