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.
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.
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
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.
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.
Friday, 22 April 2016
There are times when all green keeping experiences and knowledge have no relevance to some of the tasks we have to be involved in and it can be a case of the phrase "Jack of all trades"
below we are repairing potholes after wear and rain through the winter weakens the road
Here we are inspecting the Maintenance Building Roof Guttering
and below we are finishing off the drainage work behind the range to create a channel for water to enter the new waste pipe we installed
On the course we have solid tined the greens and applied a wetting agent which was nicely washed in by the rain.This was followed when the greens were dry with a sand top dressing to help fill in the scarify lines.
On the Fairways we scarified and brushed them in the opposite direction to our normal mowing pattern so that the grasses would stand erect and remove the dead vegetation and moss.
My favourite spring time flower is seeing the bluebells come out in all there glory and can be seen around the course on all 3 courses as you walk pass the woodlands
My Deputy Nick Roberts will shortly be leaving Crown Golf and South Essex to move to Farley Golf Club in Surry as a Deputy and we wish him well in his new position as well as congratulations, as he will be travelling to Eire to get married to Victoria who works at the Hertfordshire as Sales Manager
We welcome Craig Brindley to our Green keeping team who joins us after working at Royal Norwich Golf Club.We trust he will enjoy his new role at South Essex.
We have over seeded the greens with a fescue bent mix and then sand dressed them before finally brushing it all in to the sward.
We hope to lightly scarifying the fairways and then apply a soluble fertiliser with iron to give some nutrients and colour this week.
One of the flower beds in front of the clubhouse has been renovated by digging up the perennial plants and splitting them up,weeding the bed and then replanting it and add Woodchip,the spare plants were moved to another bed
An area close to the fence near the road by the 4th hole vixen has been cleared and tidied up,
allowing a clearer view up to the 4th tee from the road so that car drivers can see if golfers are about to tee off.
The way forward in mowing ?
