Lots of work taking place in the bunkers at the moment.  Sand top up to some of the worst one's with 3 receiving changes to improve the drainage.  This will be ongoing through the week.

6th Abbotts

We are having a play with shapes on the 9th approach, never believing we have the correct look for the hole.  A complete change in bunker shape is needed with a reduction in the overall size and a lowering of the face but for now this shorter grass surrounding the bunker frames both the bunker and the green.

 Hollow-tining is set for the Priors next week.  Large 3/8 tines will be used with at least 1 ton of sand applied to each green.  The plan will be start on Monday afternoon and continue through Tuesday and Wednesday.

The Abbotts will be Hollow-tined after the Club Championship week beginning September the 8th.

  Some interesting weather in the last few days and indeed over the weekend.  A massive 32mm on Sunday added on to 12, 6 and 12mm  gave us an impressive score for the weekend.  Bunkers were trashed and still look pretty ropey.  Sand re-distribution will continue over the next few days and bunkers should be back to normal by Saturday, ready for the next thunder storm; possibly.

  The picture below is from a quad bike riding on the course on Thursday last week.  The ...... ... was also driving around the course during a ladies match earlier last week at speeds and in a manner which could have injured someone.  On all occasion the police were involved.  The Priors too has received it's fair share of vandalism in the last few weeks and I can only assume that a number of my neighbors must have finish there schooling for the summer earlier than most children.

Chase thought this position was staying for beat the pro.  I think Saturday and Sunday golf may have had something to say.

  The tree below is located on the right of the 4th fairway on the Abbotts.  Together with a about 5 friends it is beginning to cause problems to the hole.  The Cockspur Thorn as the name suggests has a vicious spike. This makes cutting and playing round the tree very difficult.

Cockspur Thorn

  In Autumn we are planning to review areas of planting just off the fairway in the cut rough on all parts of the course.  As plantations get bigger so the trees begin to encroach on the line of play.  Were once the tree sat within the longer rough it is now hanging over in-play areas and beginning to move towards the fairway.

  There is a good deal of poor tree planting within the rough, so our first job will be to clear poor, weak and diseased trees before carefully selecting trees to thin out.  Our overall aim is to maintain the current vista, whilst keeping trees away from play and filling in some of the weaker areas of planting.

  A tree, unlike rough, or even a bunker is a three dimensional hazard. Any ball located behind a tree has limited chance to move forward.  Where a bunker may incur a 1/2 shot penalty a tree will cost you at least 1 and sometimes more than 1 shot.  On a small compact site like ours we need to ensure we use the trees to frame the hole but not allow them to interfere to much with play.

  A perfect example can be seen below taken of the 6th hole today.  The trees create a beautiful back drop to the hole whilst being mainly out of play.  We already have 3 bunkers, rough and a pond and anything more would create a messy hole.

6th Abbotts

The poster below shows how to replace a pitchmark properly.  The key is to pull the sides into the hole but most importantly to be aggressive.  The greens take considerable pounding on a daily basis and will recover very quickly however much force you put into repairing the pitchmark.

Work on the Priors today with a heavy dressing followed by solid tine with 3/8th tines.  Continuing tommorrow.

1st green Priors

Settling down into a more predictable pattern the course is almost in full summer mode.  Our regular pattern of routine maintenance on the Abbotts looks something like this:

Greens:               Cut ever day 3hrs  As temperature rises we will miss the odd day and sometimes miss the                              perimeter cut.
Tees/Aprons:       Cut twice per week 6hrs.
Fairways:             Twice per week 8hrs.
Semi:                   Once/Twice per week 10hrs.
Rough:                 Once per week, which takes 2.5 days
Bunkers:              Two or three times per week 3hrs
Holes:                  Twice per week 3hrs.

This is just the bare minimum and we haven't yet included strimming, edging bunkers, ditch edges, spraying which accounts for a day a week, machine setting up, breakages etc etc.  The list is huge and varied and it is always a struggle to try and shoehorn the important work like aeration, dressing and cultural practices into the mix.

Oh, and I forgot the Priors!


The 16th Tee is being rested for 2 weeks, we pushed to hard and bought it into play to soon.  Solid-tined twice, heavily seeded and lightly dressed together with feed at the end of last week will see an improvement very soon.

16th T