As with all my blogs I try to look to the positive in all we do.  Sometimes even I struggle.

18th Abbotts on Monday morning

Spring is slowly creeping round the corner, at last a break in the weather to enable coursework to be finished.  Abbotts greens this week have been solid-tined with 12mm tines down to 75mm on very close spacing.  This was after each green had been top dressed with 2 ton of sand.  At the moment the greens resemble beaches but a few days of warm sun will see this sand ameliorated into the profile. All Abbotts greens were feed last week with a spring starter just to push them along.

This photos taken looking at the motorway on the Priors last week.

11th Trees

Taken yesterday!

11th Trees

The course now is looking a little different.  All of these trees have been removed and this area is having the topsoil pulled to one side awaiting infill materiel.  The first lorry is scheduled for early March.  By this time we will have a wheel wash in place to clean lorry tyres,  A road sweeper to clear the main road and various other machines to ensure the golf course and the work site can exist next to each other without to much interference.  Three of the Four mats are in place with the mat on 11th being relocated further down the fairway next week.  By the end of the month we will move onto at least Three of  these mats and the golfers new route around the course will be fixed.

The area behind the 10th green priors will contain offices and various other buildings for the duration of the project and has been graded off.

10th green

Work on the Priors ready for the motorway bund is moving quickly now.   We have built a new bridge to the 12th ladies Tee, which will be the new Tee site for the project.

12th Tee

As the week progresses we will have 3 new tees to build on the Priors.  These will be full size, high quality AstroTurf surfaces.  The first will be sited on the 12th ladies tee, the second on the 13th fairway and the final one as a replacement 7th T at the bottom of the hill.  The 7th Tee is being moved forward in order to protect golfers walking off the right of the 12th green, where they will walk up the hill and in-front of the 6th Tee to get to the 13th Tee which is now sited on the 13th fairway.

Over the next few days contractors will arrive and begin putting up fencing to segregate the work-site from the golf course.  In the next few weeks the final mat will be positioned on the 11th hole once we have finalised routing of the new hole.

At all parts of the project we plan to have 18 holes open for play with only 4 Tee mats and 4 changes to the current layout.  

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.