Friday, 27 May 2016

April May issues?

The past two months have been difficult for the green keeping team.The loss of two members of staff at short notice meant we were only able to give our full attention to the main key areas of play like greens,tees and fairways.Other areas only received sporadic attention while we went through the process of recruiting,interviewing and appointing new personnel to build up our team.
We are now able announce that Steve Rowley has joined us from Bishops Stortford Golf Club as my Deputy,He has over 10 years experience as well has holding NVQ ,spraying and chainsaw qualifications


                   Steve Rowley

We have also appointed Francis Lesser to our team  who has completed a diploma in Horticulture at Writtle college ,although he has no golf course experience he is keen to learn and has already started working on the course.The old water bowser has a good wild flower mix following on from the spring bulbs out side the Maintenance building  were Francis is standing.                                  

We have been working on tidying up areas that had not been targeted for a few weeks ,so all the bunkers have now been trimmed and edged and a total weed control applied 
All the range has now been mowed after certain wet areas had been left to dry out.The greens have been sprayed with a selection of products consisting of soluble fertilisers and seaweed.We hope to top dress the greens in the coming weeks.The course is now coming back into shape.
Matt and myself attended a Bigga educational event recently at Channels Golf Club to see the changes being made to the course as large areas of land have been sold for housing development.New holes are in the process of being laid out and greens and tees being built with much of the work done by the staff on site, as they have the experience, machinery and equipment on site to do the work.

Recently all the Crowngolf General and Course Managers attended a meeting  at Cams Hall Golf Club part of which was the annual awards,though South Essex was not on the receiving end.  
               Cams Hall Golf Club house

Five months in the making or more like 5 months in the waiting a short video (in HD) taken in Stonyhill wood showing the short life cycle of the bluebells on the course this year.











Wednesday, 4 May 2016

Last task for Nick

One of the last tasks for my Deputy before he left was to erect the new trellis fencing  underneath the verander.It was one of those days when you experience all the seasons in the space of a few hours.
Sunshine one minute 
Sleet and hail the next
But the job was finally finished.

All the Greens have been sprayed with Soluble feed with some seaweed and growth control added .We are now spraying the fairways with some feed and iron to boost there recovery after scarifying them.

At the beginning of April we introduce Craig Brindley to the green keeping team but unfortunately we had to allow him to leave so we are now busy recruiting a new Deputy and Assistant to bring back the team to  full strength.
The next few days promise some sunshine and warmth so will see some Spring growth 
And good views around the golf course.