Summer arrived

 In recent weeks regular players on the course will have seen various areas of what we call the Environmental rough being cut .It has been decided  to mow these areas to help speed up play and give a better customer experience which we hope will encourage players to return and therefore increase revenue.

The areas so far cut are on the 1st, 3rd,5th and 6th 8th Heron,1,2,7 and 9 Hawk and 1,2 5 6 8 and 9 Vixen

             below the 1st Vixen  on the left before mowing
       
                                                 1st Vixen after its 1st cut

                 2nd Hawk

           
               1st and 9th  Hawk

Summer has arrived and its evidence can be seen on the course with the firm dry fairways and tees

It is essential that our irrigation system  is in operation during these summer days and of course it only fails when you are using it,so repairs have to be carried out to rectify the issues.recently we had to work on a repair on the 4th green Hawk which was done in house.

 Like many clubs in the area we have used the ideal weather to carry out our summer renovation on the greens with hollow coring,applying nearly 40 tonnes of sand in two applications to  topdressing them and then bushed in and rolled.A liquid feed was sprayed after the operation to help restore the surfaces of the greens.Before we commenced the work we tested the equipment on the putting green to setup the machinery so that we do not damaged the surfaces on the course with wrongly setup equipment,mistakes  are rectified there first.

 

Steve Rowley repairing some early damage on the putting green

 Hollow coring and blowing the cores

Green after topdressing and brushing,we then rolled the greens to help smooth up the surface.

What we want to achieve is deep root growth and the photo below was taken on the first green Heron after our work and proves that previous aeration is doing its job.

After applying the second topdressing we had a few tonnes left so these were added to the bunkers on the 4th green Heron

Wasps  take up residence in a green side bunker 6th Hawk

Following on from our BIGGA Ecology workshop we were mentioned in the BIGGA magazine as well.

Now that Matt Dunne has left us we have given Paul Challis the full time position , he has been working as a summer casual with previous experience at Orsett Golf Club .This keeps our full time team at 4 staff, here he is rolling the greens on the Turf iron.

When someone drives a buggy many times in and out of a steep edge bunker they not only leave tyre markers and turf damage but put the buggy out of action requiring a call out to Yamaha to repair  with a bill the club has to pay