A lot of the focus in early spring is trying to drive surfaces forward quickly in order to see results now.

The course has leapt forward in the space of 1 week and at last resembles something we've been looking for 4 months.  Turf coming on Tuesday ready for tee, should be open in about 6 weeks.

Ready for turf

 The chart below is a good visual indicator of why even when the sun is out, surfaces don't improve as fast as we would expect and in our constant drive for consistency it is a useful indicator.







 This model below is of the weather in the last week.
The red line is Max daily temperature and the blue line Min.  When we divide them in 2 we get a 

temperature figure in C.  For any meaningful growth soil temperature needs to be at 6C as indicated by the green boxes at the bottom of the chart.  What the data shows us is a gorgeous warm day offset by cooler nights so any temperature gain is quickly lost and growth is slow.

This type of model is very useful when applying fertilizer so we target good growing conditions for application and get the biggest benefit for our budget.

As we begin moving into the season, bunkers will start receiving sand top ups.  Here's a little link on the subject.  You'll have to excuse the accent.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_ZzffW2fbk

Ongoing work.

Sun at last, we should finally see the back of the wet weather.  An attempt this week to get back on track agronomicaly with much needed work on the greens.  

The Abbotts greens were top-dressed with around half a ton of straight sand, followed by solid-tining down to 10 inches.  A wet start to the week meant a delay in beginning the work and even then greens were still to soft but we need to make good use of this early spring warmth.

Solid tining

 Tining after dressing is applied helps push sand down through the profile which will firm up greens.  The Priors is being aerated early next week.  Later in spring the plan will be a mini hollow-tine or maybe even solid-tine with a very heavy dressing followed through the summer with light dusting to help smooth out the surface. 

16th tee progress

Full Tee size can now be more clearly seen.  Just levelling existing tee has doubled the usable space.

Should be ready for turfing in about 10 days.

Sleepers going in on 16th Tee

Beginning to grade and level tee

 A wild weekend in terms of weather.  10mm on Friday night with gale force winds.  These knocked out two trees by the clubhouse 1 into the neighbors property and the willow by the pond which is still upright but is now leaning and unfortunately will have to be removed.

The wind has enabled the course to dry to the point of allowing trolleys back on.  With rainfall for the week looking minimal.  This will be coupled with increased roping and sanding of soft areas.

The 16th Tee moves on at a steady pace.  Tee has now had the back removed and an incredible 60-80 ton came from this and sits in the middle car park.  We have dug a trench for the irrigation which is now located to the side of the tee.  This increases efficiency allowing the water to hit the tee and not the bushes, as before.

Rough level

Digging in irrigation

I was lucky enough to be chosen to attend the Golf Industry Show in Orlando at the start of February.

40 buggies ready to go

The trip included an 18 hole shotgun golf day, a demonstration day, factory tour and a presentation evening.

Jacobsen factory

Machinery Demonstration

A links style golf course

Together with all this hard work came evenings out drinking, partying and general fun.  Their was a number of things learnt and a good deal of networking amongst colleagues and I would like to thank Jacobsen and Crown for the opportunity.

The weather is still causing problems on the golf course with wave after wave of wet and windy weather.  New T-plinths are all in place but now ballwashers need to be re-sited.
Work is now backing-up but we are continuing on ditches and this is reaping rewards with the discovery of old land drains and the cleaning of old almost defunct ditches.

Ditch behind middle practice ground

The 16th Tee on the Abbotts is finally being re-levelled.  The first job is to remove turf.  Followed be laying in new sleepers.  The ground will be roughly levelled before pegging and the beginning of stage 2.

Ground being broke on 16th Tee

Bridge from Par 3

The bridge above comes from the par 3 course.  It will eventually link the 16th path right through to the clubhouse path.  It will allow staff to use a back path to the Priors at anytime of the year without driving on the golf course.  We will complete this work in stages with the two ends being finished 1st.