Sunday 23 November 2014

Course Update

We have applied our spring application of slow release fertiliser to all our greens recently and in conjunction with that have started our program of spraying plant growth regulators (PGR) on a regular basis. PGR's are used every 3-4 weeks during the growing season to reduce the vertical leaf growth of the Browntop bentgrass and develop a tighter, denser turf surface with more growth in the root system. The end result is we can keep the mowers at a slightly higher cutting height and still maintain a good green speed. With this program in place, the regular light dusting of sand on the greens and better control of our soil moisture levels I expect our greens to be firm, smooth and slightly more challenging than has been the case during previous years.

The tees have recently been fertilised and we will be applying PGR's to these areas on a regular basis also.

With the approval of the management committee areas of unmown rough around the course has been trialled to try to create a bit more character and interest into the style of the course. These areas are now starting to become apparent and will probably need at least a full season to develop. With our short, tight layout and narrow fairways, areas of longer, drier wispy rough should provide a nice contrast to the irrigated fairways and also provide a more challenging shot when hitting to a green.  Our sandy, undulating fairways are more reminiscent of links type golf as compared to the flat, tree lined, parkland's style of golf course. With the the management of soil moisture on fairways and greens and the areas of unmown rough, the aim is to get the course playing more in the traditional way where shot selection is varied with low, running shots used when the situation arises. In most situations a well struck mid to short iron landing on the green should hold hitting from fairways, but in most cases they should run through the green when hit from the rough. As I mentioned, this is a trial to make the course more interesting for all levels of golfers and I can already see benefits for the higher handicap players, and the challenges for the lower handicap players. The extra run on the fairways means the higher handicappers are able to reach the par 4's easier, while that makes it more difficult for the lower handicappers to (a) stay on the fairway and (b) hold the greens from a shorter distance.
I would be keen to hear from anyone who has an opinion(positive or negative) on this trial and hope that everyone understands that it will take at least a full season to evaluate how it is working out. Personally my aim is to make the golf course more fun and interesting to play(we are that type of golf club).

Sunday 9 November 2014

Course Update

This week we received our first good  rainfall for some time (15mm). To put that into context our monthly totals for the last 3 months have been August -15mm, September- 16mm & October- 12mm.
The wetting agent that we have applied around the course has certainly been of benefit with the minimal rainfall. Areas that would normally dry out on mounds and high spots have retained moisture and reduced runoff when irrigation is applied.
Turf cover and colour maintained on the mounds.

With the drier weather watering with the irrigation system has become more regular and the readings that we are getting from our soil moisture meter have been helpful in monitoring when irrigation is needed. Even this early in the season I can see that we are using less water than would normally be the case. The greens in particular aren't getting watered as often as previous years, yet are still maintaining a good turf cover with minimal dry areas. At the moment greens are getting watered about once a week with 12-15mm of irrigation each time whereas other years it may have been about every second night with roughly 4-6 mm irrigation. At the moment hand watering hasn't been needed.
Turf cover on a historically dry area on a green.
We have completed all of our weed spraying on tees, fairways and all areas of the roughs. As is typical the slight discolouring and slowing down of growth has occurred but this should return to normal in the next couple of weeks.
From the photo above you can see the greens have maintained a good colour despite only receiving 10kg of Sulphate of Ammonia (the only nitrogen source) since February 2014. Our fertility program for the greens supplies the bulk of the nitrogen in spring and early autumn in the form of a slow release product that delivers about 70-80kg of actual N(Nitrogen) to the greens per year.  We try to keep the actual N total under 100kg annually. We are due to apply this fertiliser in the next couple of weeks and it will give us a full 3 months of even, sustained growth with no flush at the beginning. Combined with the fertilising of the greens we will be sand dusting lightly on a weekly basis to help with any thatch accumulation and also to keep the surfaces firm. Unfortunately we don't have a spinner style topdressing machine so we make do with a Vicon fertiliser spreader. It does an OK job but it is one item of machinery that I would dearly like to upgrade. I will post some photos of the old thing in a future post.

One of the more unusual occurrences this week was this mark on the surrounds at the back of 13 green.
Burn marks back of the 13th green

It turns out some neighbours nearby decided to let off their fireworks for Guy Fawkes night near our green. I definitely wouldn't have been amused if it was on the green!