Its that time of year when we have to be cruel to be kind to the greens.The green staff have work hard over a few days carrying out what is a physical job ,shovelling up tonnes of cores and dodging some very heavy rain showers to get all the greens cored ,cleared up and in play.Even though they were playing well and in good condition it is important that we continue our  maintenance to keep the greens heathy for now and into the future.Doing nothing may seem a good decision to the golfer  but it will come back to hurt later and the treatment then would  be  more costly and require more intensive work  and disruption. Carrying out this treatment in August  allows a much quicker recovery time as the warmer conditons encourage the grass to quickly grow and heal over the treatment.This work will be followed by an application of topdressing with sand to restore surfaces levels.

When the weather changes and work outside is impractical then we are able to turn our attention to machinery maintenance,changing oils and filters and greasing the machines

In recent months it has been  noticeable that there is more damage to course furniture , litter  around the course and damage on the greens by both golfers and foot golf players which takes up time and money which could be better utilised  for the benefit of all on the course.

                                                         Seat 1st tee Hawk damaged

Golf Club damage on 5th green Vixen

When we don't require the irrigation on the greens we will be carrying out some repairs to certain damage pipework which we have had issues with.We will be altering some of the shaping around the greens popups as these are being knocked and damaged by our mowers.These areas will be marked out with paint so that our staff can re-mow out the new collar shapes.This will take a few weeks to get the right definition as they grow in.

As Green staff we are called on to do many and various tasks often not associated with producing fine turf, one example recently was filling in potholes along the road way into the club

The flower area behind the 1st green Heron has done reasonably well flowering late due to the lack of rain in the early summer

and recently as Nick was moving our compost material in the yard he came across a fully mature grass snake