December the 24th proved to be an interesting arrival at South Essex as the entrance area and road were flooded so deeply that staff were unable drive down to the club, in the end many of the staff were sent home  and the course was closed. It was a few hours before the first vehicles were able to drive down after the rain eased and the flooding lowered sufficiently.

 

January is proving to be another very wet but mild month with many areas in the country experiencing swollen rivers and flooded homes. On the course the rain continues to cause problems with playing areas, it is important that we help the excess water away from the course and the ditches play a big part in this, so where required we remove any blockages to aid the water flow.

 

 cleared ditch 8th heron

 

Many of the bunkers and greens are so saturated with water that they pond up quickly and we have been keeping our pump busy  but at the moment we are not winning the battle as the rains continue

 flooding 9th heron

 pumping out 9th heron

 

The very first areas of gorse that we planted about 7 years ago  near the 5th and 6th tees heron have been pruned back to stop them getting tall and leggy and encourage fresh new growth .

 

During the wet weather we have been cleaning and painting in the maintenance building to help keep the area organised clean and tidy

 sweeping up

 painting the demarcation lines

 floor painting

 painting tool storage wall

 painting toilet area

 

Golf balls are hard and can do serious damage when they hit an object as seen in the photo taken on the driving range, would you want to be hit by a ball at 100 yards or any other distance. Please remember that  greenstaff are people and can be damaged by your ball when working on the course.

 

Finally a view of the 7th vixen