The dry spring continues but the flowers around the course gave there colour and beauty for all to see while playing golf.

 The early spring flowers have now passed as we approach early summer but the bees enjoyed the nectar and pollen from the crocuses (see Video)

Greens have been fed with a liquid feed and treated with wetting agent and seaweed.

We have also applied over 90 tonnes of sand to the greens through the spring to restore the surfaces after the scarring from the disease  we had in the late autumn.This week we are also overseeding the greens,rolling them and following this with a light dressing.

I recently attended Crown Golf's Course Managers conference in St Mellion,where we were able to meet up with the new Course Managers in the Group and have some bonding time, including an afternoon on the Nicklaus Course playing golf.The course being in excellent condition .We also had our own meeting as well as visiting trade speakers.You may also see us now driving new Nissan Navara trucks as well.

The path project on the Heron course is now complete (see Video)

As we were still short on the green staff and the playing season ever closer ,we recruited 2 summer casuals,both play golf. George Hockley and Nick Bird to help us in our course maintenance.

Below you can watch a video of the spring renovation work carried out on the greens recently as we work to improve the surfaces after the winter and disease scarring.We have also been working
on the tees as well scarifying,fertilising and seeding to aid recovery after the winter play.













Work continue on the path project as we aim to complete a cart path around the Heron course.
In March Francis Lesser one of our Assistant Green Keepers left to take up a position on a course in Germany,so we are in the process of recruiting  replacements.
Following on from our topdressing we had some sand left which we added to the bunkers on the 8th Hawk.



Steve,Paul and myself attended  a BIGGA short seminar programme at Writtle College as part of our ongoing training and Continuous Professional Development  targets

Spring is in the air with longer daylight, and temperatures starting to increase ,blossom and spring flowers  are good indicators that a new season is underway.

February

In the last couple of weeks we have been out with our Weidenmann aerator using 20mm solid tines to aerate those compacted traffic areas of the course around tees ,greens and paths.



We are working through our early spring maintenance on the greens a video to follow later as well as the new path work on the Heron coure

Some of the Maintenance staff attended a recent Bigga Seminar day at Oaklands College to listen to a variety of speakers covering topics from soil science to irrigation. There were two Course managers  who covered what its like to manage a big golfing event at The Grove and whats its like when a club committee decide to invest in there staff  machinery and course at Stoneham golf club. Interesting to hear what goes on at other clubs.

 

One of the tasks not seen by our members and golfers is the excellent work done by our Mechanic Justin who works on all the repairs to our equipment to keep them woking so we can carry out out our regular tasks on the course.Here he is working on the Kubota tractor wiring loom,The Ford Tractor in the background is split in half to find the gearing problem.

 

Spring is in the air with the daffodils coming into flower and crocuses on the clubhouse lawn with a honey bee looking for early nectar and pollen.

 

 

Carrying out essential work on the Greens

 

We have used the weather window after the snow and frost to carry out essential work on the greens see video below

 

 

 

Now that the greens are a little softer and more receptive to turf repair we have returfed the damage on the 9th Hawk green that was done  by a hydraulic oil leak a few months ago see video below

 

 

 

We would like to pass on  a Happy New Year to our members and visitors and trust you continue to play and enjoy your golf at South Essex.
 I have just passed a personal milestone by celebrating 20 years service at South Essex as Course Manager. My desire has not changed to see South Essex as one of, if not the best course in Essex. Of course certain aspects are out of my hands in being able to achieve that aim. All the work that we do though is to improve the course for our members and visitors as best as we are able to.

 At the start of the new year we continued with our maintenance programme until stopped by the weather, Greens were slit,brushed and cut, walk off areas sanded,and ditch clearing work continued.

3rd Hawk left of Green

Ditch behind 4th Hawk Tee before and after work

 

 

Winter arrived giving a couple of centimetres of snow followed by days of frost

 

 7th Green Vixen

 

Trolley lines in the frost over the collars and green 1st Heron What happened to using the paths around the greens?

 

 

Work is being undertaken to repair the Weir in the ditch 9th Hawk to comply with the Environment Agency as its the point where we abstract from to supply our Irrigation Reservoir

January comes with the annual visit to Harrogate for BTME to visit the turf Exhibition as well as attending workshops and Seminars. A number of Crown Golf Course Managers attended as well as Steven Towers CEO of the Company.

Time to Dream of new Machines for the course

 

Early morning sunlight on a clear frosty morning brightens up the clubhouse

 

We have completed putting in a new post and rail fence around the back of the 9th Tees on the Heron to give definition between the new path and the Tee area

Our paint brushes have been well used repainting and treating the Benches on the course as well as various seats ,posts and signs to protect the wood and appearance

We have replaced missing Out of Bound posts and repainted them

Work has started on edging up bunkers, this gives definition to the shape and improves the appearance, improving the standard on the course.

December

Assistant Green Keeper Francis Lesser who has never played golf before had his first golfing experience when we were invited to play in the Seniors Turkey Trot. He scored 2points for his team .

No doubt modelling himself on the golfer Ricky Fowler,you possible can see the connection 

Work continues on ditch clearing , below working on the 3rd cross ditch Hawk

Golfers are often seen using buggies on the course, but the picture below shows that the name golfers in this case is inappropriate, other names quickly come to mind I'm sure

9th apron Vixen 

2nd green Heron

Flag pin broken,green damaged 9th Vixen 

Still some variety of  fungi and lichens to be seen around the course

Fungal issues on Greens Tees and Fairways have been a real problem for golf course managers in the south east. Even though preventative  spraying was applied additional applications were required to try to keep on top of the disease .We have used 4 applications this autumn period on the greens and some courses have applied 6 in trying to control it. The photo below taken in late December was on the 9th tee Hawk. We only spray greens as its to costly to apply to other areas. We continue to use cultural control as well ,in keeping the greens as clean as practically possible.

The shrubbery around the starters hut has been trimmed and cleaned and then we applied our free woodchip around the plants.

 

The green keeping team had an event at a nearby scout camp where we did archery, with Geoff and Steve having the best team score.

When  the weather conditions and light  are right there are some good photo opportunities.

Oak tree on the 1st and 6th Heron

Below 7th hawk and 3rd Heron in the mist

I would like to wish all our members and visitors to South Essex an enjoyable Christmas and New Year and hope to see you all on the course in 2017

NEW PATH Extensions

Our autumn /winter work programme continues with the greens having been sprayed with a fungicide,and a wormicide. Aeration work with regular slit tining and rolling continues as well.The tees have been solid tined and sprayed with the wormicide. The dry autumn had restricted the amount of slit tining accomplished on the Fairways but recently we have been able to carry this out as well.

We have completed 2 new path extensions on the Heron course on holes 6 and 9 from the tees to the greens A video of the work done is on youtube to watch.




During the frosty weather we have been clearing some overgrown areas, below is a photo of ditch clearing behind the 8th green Vixen

 Here we have opened the view into the Pond behind the 4th green Vixen

As last winter was so wet we identified certain areas that would benefit from using the free Astroturf that we had and a number of areas around the course were completed. That left 3 walkout areas to do  and this also has been  completed  on 2nd green Heron,4th Green Vixen and 6th Green Hawk 

Working on Ditch clearing 9th Vixen left of the green

 Some of the green staff have attended a one day first aid course as well as attending for the first time the  BIGGA South East Regional Seminar which covered topics such as Soil Biology,Use of seaweed product on turf,Golf course ecology as well as other topics held at Surrey Downs Golf Club.

Below is the Bigga Learning Programme booklet for Harrogate 2017 with a photo of the South Essex Course Manager (fortunately) looking interested at a workshop in 2016

 I took this photo just as I was leaving work  late afternoon by the 4th Vixen