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 

We recently hosted the Essex section of BIGGA's educational seminar on Golf Course Ecology with various course managers  from local clubs in attendance.The talk was given by James Hutchinson who was very knowledgable and  passionate about his subject.South Essex being chosen due to our involvement in and success in the environmental awards in past years.

 

    Planting around the clubhouse beneficial to pollinating insects

 

      The value of dead standing trees as habitat for many species

The way forward in mowing ?

The recent heavy downpours and temperature changes  caused some rather large fungi to suddenly appear  on areas were we have fairy rings

     The mats that we put in place in selected areas of the course are now established and grown into there surroundings and will prove valuable in terms of traffic management through the winter months

While in London recently I came across this exhibit of which there are many  with Roald Dahl BFG and the new film soon to be in cinemas with various celebrates giving examples of there dreams. In this one Justin Rose dreams of winning the Open but didn't say when ,we all have many dreams,some dream of a hole in one,a score below 100,or getting to single figure handicap,my personal dream has been to make South Essex the best club in Essex but probably I'll never get my hands on that or the claret jug but no harm in dreaming.

 We have hosted the VIP Golf tour with a ProAm with our resident pro shop staff and members involved

On the course we have commenced spraying  the fairways and roughs to control the weeds  and also  out with the total weed control on paths and ditches etc .

Matt Dunne one of my Assistants will be leaving South Essex soon to take up a position  out side of Green Keeping.He has been with us a year and has learnt many tasks and been a valuable member of the team especially as he was a not a golfer and it was his first time in green keeping.We wish him success in his new role

 

Below are 11species of wild flowers that can be seen in the wildflower area by the 8th hawk left of the green .This doesn't include the spring flowers and grasses that also make up the species lists to over 20 species.

June storms

Although we still have a week of June to go our rainfall chart show that for this year so far, June has been our wettest month.The recent storms across the south east caused many issues locally  including South Essex with the entrance to the club flooding and much of the course deluged for most of the day.

Most of the bunkers flooded after 58mm of rain,much of it falling in a very short time span,some paths were washed out and debris was washed across some greens.What is referred to as the Bomb hole on the 2nd Heron which had no water in it Wednesday was full by Thursday.There was some marking up from golf carts on path ends on Friday but the sun shone and we  cut all the greens, tees,aprons and some fairways  and the course was being enjoyed by members and societies.

Course Furniture

We have recently updated some of the course furniture on the course , and on the putting green new pins are in place hopefully golfers will take more care of them as some of the previous ones were snapped.

On the greens new cups ,pins and flags have been put in place to give a good standard of presentation  to the green

The greens were recently sarel rolled and top dressed  to aid smoothness and then sprayed with a soluble feed

New bunker rakes have been put out to replace those broken or damaged


To help clean and tidy up the course we have been around with the strimmers along ditches and posts

One of our regular tasks is divotting the tees to help in there recovery from wear by adding and dressing in soil and seed.

 Some of the recent thunderstorms passed over the course, these sudden downpours quickly fill up some of the bunkers requiring us to pump them out so that they can dry out and then we can get them back into play

The flower bed by the clubhouse provides a nice contrast of colour and is attracting many bees to feed on the flowers

In July we are hosting an educational seminar and course walk for Essex Bigga  green keepers on golf course ecology

You will notice on the Heron and Hawk greens we are testing what are called  hole stabilisers these are plastic inserts which help define the hole and make it more visible from distance,it will depend on how long they stay intact and in good condition as to whether  this is something that we will consider for regular use as the cost will come into it

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.

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.