As summer draws to a close, August has delivered more of the same dry weather we’ve seen for much of the season. Remarkably, we recorded rainfall on only 5 of the 31 days, continuing a trend that’s made maintaining consistent playing conditions particularly challenging this season.
That said, playing conditions have been remarkably consistent throughout and it’s a testament to our committed Greenstaff.
Greens
With limited rain, hand-watering has become a regular requirement, to ensure turf health and surface consistency. The team has spent considerable time each day manually irrigating to supplement our systems nightly cycle and address localised dry spots.
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Work upgrading the system has really paid off and further upgrades are planned this winter.
The priority will be replacing the water tank. The current tank has not only insufficient capacity, but is now leaking more severely, with the liner beginning to perish. This winter we will need to find a way to upgrade to a new, larger tank as well as relocating it along with the pump station. This will be no easy task, so we are already making plans.
Rough Management
The fringing rough areas have received a second cut and collect of the season. This helps to reduce density and prevents it from thickening up too much, which can negatively impact play-ability. The additional cut also makes ball recovery easier and keeps on top of our workload.
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Year on year the rough has improved as the soils nutrient reserves have depleted and with investment in more machinery at the start of this year, we now have far better control over its condition.
Problem areas
Unfortunately, the prolonged drought conditions are now visibly impacting the course, with signs of turf loss appearing in several places. While we’re doing all we can to preserve the surfaces, it’s a reminder of the difficulties we manage during extended dry periods.
Repair Work is now inevitable in the off season, but we still hope to keep these to a minimum.
Winter Course
In preparation for the colder months, we’ve also begun work on relocating several winter teeing areas. The goal is to better align the winter layout with our summer course setup, providing a more consistent playing experience all year round. We’ll provide more details on these changes as the work progresses, but so far Catersty and Cook’s Endeavour have been completed.
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Catersty Bridge
A quick update on Catersty Bridge.
We have a solution in place to address the unsafe bridge, but due to the nature of what is required, repairs won’t be possible until October when we have the time to complete the work.
Unfortunately this means the main tee will remain out of use, so please do not attempt to cross the bridge. This is essential to ensure the safety of members and guests until we can carry out the necessary changes.
September
Whilst the dry weather has been challenging, it has also shown the benefits of our work over the years.
It’s been a number of years since we were able to effectively alter the grass species on our greens, from high maintenance Annual meadow grass, to low maintenance bent & fescue species.
These grasses are far more resilient to drought stress, but more importantly the fine texture of the grasses provide a better surface for putting.
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Because of this, when the turf is under stress, we are able to raise the height of cut and reduce cutting frequency to protect the turf, without compromising playing performance.
Additionally, the slow growing nature of the grasses means the need for aggressive maintenance renovations are greatly reduced, although not eliminated entirely.
While many clubs may carry out renovations such as hollow coring, scarifying and heavy sanding on a routine basis, our greens only need targeted maintenance as and when required.
We haven’t needed to carry out any such work for the last 4 years, but this September we will be micro hollow coring all of the greens. This will alleviate a tension that has begun to build in the surface of the greens which is impeding water filtration through to the soil.
Small cores will be removed using specialist equipment which will have the desired effect without much surface disruption.
Thanks for your continued support and understanding during this challenging summer season. As always, we appreciate your feedback and look forward to seeing you out on the course.
Greg Fitzmaurice