Tee to Green

The Downs Course

The greens recovery has slowed down due to the cold weather we had in early February. Even though we didn’t get much snow, the ground was frozen solid and the little snow we had stayed on the greens for just under a week. We will look to do a heavy overseed in the spring to aid the recovery of the greens, hopefully filling in any scars or weak areas. We continue with our aeration and feed programmes to promote this recovery.

Due to the restrictions in place, we have taken the opportunity to continue our bunker project work. Our plan was to continue the bunker renovations in the autumn, however with the current lockdown, we have decided to keep going. In February we will aim to complete the 4th and 18th holes and will continue with the 3rd, 2nd and 1st if the course remains closed. We have lost about 15 days of bunker project work due to the extreme weather we have been having, seven days of frozen ground and eight days of surface flooding. The Down’s rarely shuts, however if golf was allowed, I would predict we would have been shut for at least 8-10 days so far this year, that is how extreme the weather has been.

This year we look to renew our GEO Certificate in sustainability. This is a prestigious award in the golf industry and with the estate’s ecology and sustainable vision, it will go a long way to increase the biodiversity across the site. I would like to ask all the members to help out and get involved with the nature side of the award. A big part is about species you find on the golf course, and as you know, the course is vast in area and we would like your help in identifying all wildlife on the golf course. So if you have spotted a bird, mammal, insect, butterfly and so on whilst playing your round, please could you email me on rob.dyer@goodwood.com with the common name of what you have seen. This will then be added to our species list, which will be submitted for the award. Thank you in advance for your help.

During the frozen period our attention changed to woodland work. We have raised the canopy of the right side woodland on the 3rd, increasing the transition from golf course to woodland, increasing the biodiversity of the woods and also increasing playability, as it will now be a lot easier to look for stray golf balls. We have also raised the canopy on the left side woodland on the 5th and removed around 10 small trees, making the green more visible from the tee and again increasing playability on the hole.

We really look forward to welcoming you back onto the course very soon.

Rob Dyer, Head Greenkeeper, The Downs Course

The Park Course

It has been the coldest, wettest, most miserable couple of months I can remember. So if you have been thinking during this lockdown period ‘I could be on the course’, sadly think again. I estimate the course would only have been open one week so far this year. We have had 160mm of rain so far which is over 6” in old money, that combined with the ground freeze which was about 3” deep has left the course extremely wet.

Aeration work has continued on the Greens and Tees which has been key and we have also been slitting high traffic walk off areas. Our tree planting programme has been on-going and we have added 45 more species which consist of beach, oak, hazel and maple bringing the total to 90 so far, with the plan to create a more natural tree lined parkland course.

We look forward to seeing you back on the course soon.

Simon Berry, Head Greenkeeper, The Park Course