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

Happy New Year to our blog readers, I hope you enjoy a great year playing golf at South Essex and the weather is good for golfers and green keeping. Those who have visited the course in December will have noticed the damaged done to the lawns and turf areas around the clubhouse with damage done by moles. Sean Eady was successful in removing two moles in these areas and we will be trying to control those out on the course,although they are fascinating animals there mole runs and hills are not conducive to good turf management.

We would like to thank  Rodger Horne the Seniors Captain and Seniors section for inviting the Green Staff to there Turkey Trot, we enjoyed the golf and meal and appreciated the wine given to us for our work on the course, Thank You

During the autumn and winter months especially on frosty and windy days other tasks have to be carried out, like removing leaves and debris that has fallen onto the green surfaces, trimming trees that are in the line of shots off the tees, and trimming back the shrub around the clubhouse and starters hut

The Path from the 9th green Hawk has been renovated by first installing a catchment drain on the slope to the right of the path as surface water was running down and across the path, this will be piped and stone  and exit into the pond, road plannings were placed onto the path and then wacker plated in

During this continued wet weather it is very important that we  all adher to keeping to the direction of using the traffic control of post and ropes around the course as this is to protect the main walk off areas for the coming playing season and this will allow these worn areas to then recover, unfortunately there are those who chose to ignore these controls and will  pull there trolleys over the ropes, up the tee banks and walk close to greens evident by the amount of trolley wheel marks that we see. We do have signs on the main paths as you start your round as a reminder, your help will give us a better golf course thanks for your help

We have applied a slow release fertiliser to the greens which will provide the main nutrients slowly as a trickle feed through the winter months into the early spring without releasing  too much nutrient all at once..This is achieved by modern technology applying a polymer coating to the fertiliser which only allows the nutrient to be absorbed into the soil over a period of time .This time frame can be altered by varying the polymer coatings,and the fertiliser can be a 3,4,or 6 month product.

The grenstaff have spent some time out on the range on there hands and knees literally,collecting "lost" golf balls.The right hand side mound of the range has grown over with weeds and brambles which we first had to cut down so we had access to the many balls that had not been hit straight.

 

These balls were then hand picked up as the range was to wet to use our ball collector and tractor

 

The worst areas of hydraulic damage on the 5th and 6th greens was not going to quickly recover in the wet cold weather so we decided to returf them using material from the putting green and patching in those areas.

removing turf from the putting green

 

removing damaged turf 6th green hawk

replacing turf into damaged area

 

On Wednesday the 20th November 2013 cold rain kept many golfers and seniors from playing in the morning,The cold front that had passed across the country brought snow to the north of England and rain further south but by the afternoon as it moved away  it was followed by sun and blue sky. As we work outside most of the time weather plays a BIG part in what we do so weather information is vital in our decision process

The cold weather front seen moving south across the course followed by blue skies approximately 14-00hrs

 

Finally it was good to meet and talk with one of our golfers who reads this blog thanks for your comments,I hope all who read it gain an understanding of the varied work that we do on the course for your benefit as golfers.

The wet weather through October and into November has meant that we have started implementing our winter controls to protect the course from wear and tear. This has meant we have been putting out post and rope control to direct golf traffic  away from damaged areas, limiting the use of golf carts for safety reasons, and put out the winter tee mats on the par 3 holes again to protect these turf surfaces. Our aim is to nurse the course through the winter to limit any damage to the playing surfaces and come into the early spring months with the course in good condition for the new golf season.
6th heron tee path cart damage

7th hawk fairway cart skid marks

We hope to start our worm control programme on the green , tees and other selected areas when we are able to use the sprayer in more suitable ground conditions.
When the weather is so wet the greens are hand mowed as we can use our gators and trailors to move them around the course,

Sean Eady mows the 1st green Hawk

 

We have surffered some hydraulic oil damage on the greens 4,5,and 6th Hawk when a pipe on the mower developed a leak,most of the damage will grow out but there may be some turf repairs required.

6th green Hawk

 

Terry Sapsford has moved on to Orsett Golf Club after being on the greenkeeping team for nearly 6 years so our team is some what depleted at the moment after also losing Luke Heron recently to Hobbs Cross G.C.

 

Pond 7th heron

 

The recent wet weather has highlighted a problem with the drainage system on the 9th fairway Hawk.The turf swelled up and water poured out running down across the fairway.On investigation by digging numerous inspection holes we found the pipe broken in one section,blocked by mud and sand across much of the fairway and the exit into the ditch collapsed and blocked.we cleared the exit into the ditch, flushed out the blocked pipe using our irrigation system ,and repaired the damaged pipe.

Water flowing across the fairway

Digging out ditch exit

We have recently completed deep tining on all the green,this will encourage deeper rooting  and help with drainage. If the weather allows we will complete this again before Christmas . 

 

We have completed the repair on the irrigation pipe at the front of the 1st tee heron and  just need to restore the ground back to normal

 

October is the time to plant bulbs for the spring and we have planted a few hundred daffodils and narcissi on the bank of the 1st tee vixen and bank near the car park. This follows on from those we planted last year and this will increase the amount and provide a better show next spring .

Craig planting  bulbs

 

We also planted alliums in the bed near the pond behind the clubhouse

One of the issues we have is those golfers who show no respect to the golf course and playing surface we work hard to provide.This is especially so on the greens when people miss-use there clubs taking divots off the green,damaging the surface for those who follow them.Please think of others and take more care it will be appreciated

It doesn't always rain in October ,I did see this sunlit sky across the putting green

The recent warm weather has encouraged plenty of growth to keep our mowers very busy.The tees have recovered very well  in no small part to the slow release fertilise which was applied in March.The cold spring and hot summer periods delayed the release of the feed  but this has now changed with the recent weather  and the tees have a good grass coverage going into the autumn.The Fairways have recovered quickly from the recent scarifing and the soluble feed has helped give them a boost and aided the recovery after the summer's hot weather.We are now into the routine of slitting all the fairways to aid root growth and relieve the compaction from all the golfer and machinery traffic.

Sam Cooke spraying the feed onto the 5th Vixen fairway

Two of our staff recently qualified as spray operators and are now gaining experience in using and applying various products,but inexperience can lead to mistakes which we hope are not to damaging as seen at the front of the 8th green Hawk where to much product applied in one area has scorched the turf.This will grow out.

 

Its easy to see Fairy Rings on the course,with there distinct green ring caused by the release of nitogen from the fungi which greens up the grass.The fruiting bodies of the fungus are also seen on the ring but as yet no Fairies have been spotted.

!st Vixen Fairy Rings

 

 After spraying the environmental rough with selective weed control its always good to see that the treatment has been effective.

Dying weeds 3rd vixen

At this time of year we bring in a contractor to cut and trim selected hedges around the course,this is to control there growth and also to allow golf to be played with out unfair restriction eg 3rd hole Hawk and 9th hole heron

Cutting hedge 7th Hawk

 

One of our staff members  Luke Herron has now moved on to join Hobbs Cross Golf Club ,we wish him well in his new Club

We have planted crocus bulbs into the front lawn of the clubhouse,as well as Alliums in some of the f;ower beds behind the clubhouse.These should give added interest in the spring.This was one of Lukes last jobs before leaving us

On the 7th ditch across the Vixen we have planted some cowslips which we grew from seed in keeping with  our natural native planting plan.Roger Horne our Senior Captain has given us some Lilys and Dahlia plants which again is within our remit of plants which attract pollinating insects.Our Operation Pollinator area has now shown signs of life with the seed from the spring sowing germinating after the recent wet warm weather .These will continue to grow and develop.Next summer  we should see some results.