A busy productive week, even with the cold weather.  We have topped up a further 3 bunkers, 3rd green side, right of 6th and the left of 15th.  Next will be the 4th green, left of the 6th and then probably 9th green.

This is a before and after of area behind the 11th green.  Bramble was choking the trees and suppressing growth of some young oaks.  Once the copse has grown in spring we will see more grass at the base of the trees, a canopy that will fill out and a much better aesthetic coming up the hole. Together with helping the smaller oaks to take over once the silver birch has died off in the coming years.

Before

After

Trolleys are back on the Abbotts now but we will monitor the weather and make decisions accordingly.  

During

New bunker drainage on the 15th bunker of the Abbotts.  The actually pipe and stone are in good condition so we have just stripped of old sand and recovered the whole bunker with fresh sand.  We are planning to redo drainage in at least 4 other bunkers this winter.

After

Course is moving into winter now after the cooler week ahead.  Some excellent weather has set the golf course up well for the next few months.  Greens still have some patches and scars on them but these are slowly improving and surfaces are in really good shape for November.

The weather is continuing to cause problems with lots of growth, more time cutting and less time on autumn remedial work.  We are starting to deep tine greens on the Priors this week.  As you can see from the clip this are thin (10mm)tines that can go 10" deep.  Although it doesn't look clear the tines are penetrating 9" into the green.  After this work we will switch to a thicker tine to begin work on tees, path ends, walk off areas around greens and maybe even aprons.  Fairways are also being slit if the weather holds in the next few weeks. 

The main focus for the early part of the Autumn/Winter will be bunker edges.  We will be improving drainage in some bunkers along with the further topping up of others with 20 ton of sand.  Bunkers will then be edged and any damaged chunks in the face will be re-turfed.

Course condition all this week and through into next week is a disappointment.

The weather has defeated us and it will take a good 7-10 days to get back on top of our workload.
Heavy rain on Sunday and Monday, almost 40mm has washed out most of the bunkers and made cutting of even fine turf areas difficult.  This coupled with very strong growth and temperatures rising will mean soft, sappy and ultimately weak, messy areas for a while.

Greens are easier to control in these conditions and the warmer weather is helping to fill in any imperfections in the surface.  Tees and Aprons are now being cut once a week and whilst this shouldn't be a problem, strong soft growth make good clean surfaces difficult to maintain.  Fairways and rough will slow in the next few weeks and will soon resemble a golf course but bunkers will stay in their present condition until the weather breaks.

Hollow-tining all completed on the Abbotts.  Greens were well watered in and have been fed with a general purpose granular autumn feed.  A little of everything to push on recovery and a lot of Iron to harden the plant a give a good green colour.  This will also create lots of black footprints but these will grow out in the next few days.
Greens were rolled today, they will be left tomorrow and receive a cut on Thursday.  Next week they will require a further topdressing to level out any imperfections.  Their is a good number of torn areas on the greens but again these will fill in quickly in the next week.

A very successful day today.  15 greens Hollowtined, dressed and brushed in.

A great 2 days aerating on the Priors.

All greens Hollow-tined, dressed with 1.25 ton of sand each and then brushed in.