Had a little time of from the blog but hope the next few will come thick and fast.

Unseasonably warm weather means the courses are growing constantly.  The greens have been feed on the Priors which has seen an outbreak of disease, which has been treated, something of a plant health merry-go round.  Abbotts greens have had an extra disease treatment in early December which has meant very good coverage and a dense tight sward being maintained.  Hydraulic oil scaring is now filling in with only a couple of areas that might have turf loss into the spring.

horses of course

 

The Priors has suffered horse damage in the last few days on 2 greens so once had repaired and divotted the green we attempted to close the area the horses came in from.

 

 

 

new path

The path in the picture above has been laid all the way through the par 3.  This will enable all staff to access the Priors without driving through the Abbotts and damaging turf at sensitive times of the year.

The mild weather does have some benefits,  tees are growing strongly mitigating wear, allowing tees to be used further into the winter.  This came be seen everywhere around the course, with wet areas no dryer than normal but visibly less damage to weak parts of the course.

Once Christmas is out of the way, mats, sanding, more rope and a stricter attitude to damage on the course will hopefully keep conditions playable but ensure better quality in early spring.

 The weather has been brilliant all through October, although it will no-doubt get us back.   Solid-tining of Abbotts fairways starts this week, the 18th fairway below took 3hrs to solid-tine 4" deep at 2" centres, 3 fairways tined today.  Once again we have 20 ton of coarse sand being spread on the poor and wet areas.  Greens are still looking good on both courses with the Abbotts receiving a second fungicide application this week to keep disease levels down until winter weather sets in.

A slow job!

Summer,what we had of it is now long gone.  As we move through a dry stable weather pattern winter preparation is now top priority.  This week we have solid-tined tees, path ends, aprons, normal problem areas on the course and some larger areas on fairways.  The 20 ton of course grit sand that arrived on Wednesday afternoon is nearly all gone(heavy sanding of weak, wet areas), key fairways have been divoted.  Next week will see tees feed, more solid tining with larger tines being used to smash through compacted areas, along with a tonic on the greens, followed by deep-tining of the greens the next week.

The below picture is the 12th apron,  7 through to 12 have been sprayed with a product to kill rye grass.  All the grass in the centre of the picture has been discoloured due to the stress brought about by the chemical application.  Only areas that are brown i.e the thin left strim in this photo will die. All these areas have been overseeded and should fill in fairly quickly leaving a better surface to play on.

12th Apron

The 7th fairway being solid-tined below.  Tines going in some 7 inches which can only help when the rains come.

7th Fairway

And finally on an unfunny note:  Accidents do happen, even with a well trained team, robust risk assessments, time taken out to educate staff, together with online safety courses and daily machine checks.  Luckily, localized bruising and a lesson learnt were the only casualty on the day. 

Oh dear

From this week hazard markers on the 2^nd pond and the 18^th pond are being changed from yellow to red. 

After listening to suggestions from the general membership and the committee this change will help better clarify the ruling on hazard stakes.    Making it fairer and easier to understand, allowing play to run more smoothly in these areas.

Please speak to the Pro-shop if you require information on this rule.

 

  

 

 

The 1st green getting patched.  Their are other smaller areas on the greens but most are now filling in. Greens have been lowered down to 3mm ready for the weekend, and we are now hoping for dry weather to help improve ball roll.  August was particularly wet with 88mm of rain and 70 of that in the last week, so this will help filling in the fairways but will also increase the workload as the site begins to grow again.

1st Green

Scarifying on the Abbotts this week was in the main successful.  We had to raise the height on the machine to 18mm into the green and even then made large mistakes on 1 and 16, and a few other smaller scars.  We painstakingly put these back together like a jigsaw, and will monitor recovery over the weekend,  the rain and cooler weather will help these patches fill in.  If growth looks poor these areas will be turfed next week.  Scarifying otherwise was a major success.  Greens have returned to putting ok after 2 days and will quickly return to their normal summer setting.  Already they are feeling firmer and we will begin to push them after next week ready for the club championship.

1st green Abbotts

The worlds hardest jigsaw

excellent recovery

All the extra fertiliser, stress, machinery on the green and some amazing humidity has caused Fusarium, our normal autumn disease to push through the greens.  This is not unsurprising but will disappear without causing damage in the next few days. 

Fertilizer and humidity=disease

Scarifying on the Priors this week. 

 Below we have a before, during and 2 afters.  The second picture is the 1st green on the Priors with vertical lines 2mm wide and 25mm deep cut into the surface.  This is then blown, brushed, blown, cut and watered.  The last process is topdress with 1 ton of sand as seen in picture 3 followed finally by brushing and watering.  Each green takes around 1 hour from start to finish to produce the final surface.

1st Priors

Construction yard

Beach

Almost back to normal

Both courses have been fed in preparation for the aggressive nature of the work.  The Abbotts is having the same procedure next week with the course being CLOSED from 12o'clock next Monday.

Recovery will be quicker than hollow-tining, with half decent surfaces back within a week  Autumn aeration is early this year in the hope that strong growth in August will allow faster recovery meaning better greens for longer into early winter.