Greens Chairman August Update.
Course update
Friday 23rd August 2019
Needless to say but the course has not been where we want it the last couple of weeks. A number of factors have contributed to the perfect storm including staff absence, adverse weather, the disease in the greens and of course the summer maintenance. I will address each issue as best I can.
Holidays and staff sickness have left the Greens team understaffed recently. Anyone who works, or can still remember what it is like to work, will appreciate the difficulties when one member of a small team is down. The work has to be picked up by others. In the last couple of weeks the team has been down two members of staff leaving only three to cover the whole workload. That said we are now back to four and already this week the course is starting to return to best. The bunkers have been tidied and the cutting programme is back on track.
The disease in the greens is ongoing. Anthracnose thrives in the hot and humid weather and attacks the meadow grasses in the greens. Our greens are a mixture of meadow and finer grasses which is why we have sporadic patches of dead areas on them. The Greens team have reacted quickly to try and combat the anthracnose which started in the last 2 weeks of July. The greens have been over-seeded however we are waiting for germination and growth to occur. Next year we are looking to trial a preventative fungicide which will be applied at the start of the summer period. The effectiveness of it will be evaluated.
As with anyone who wishes to grow plants successfully we are totally reliant on the weather. We have been very fortunate at the beginning of the year to get a mix of warmth and rain in a good measure. In recent weeks we have had too much rain and the weather has been unseasonably cold. Some people have even started dipping into their winter heating allowance. This weather has slowed the recovery of the greens from the maintenance and has also prevented the regular cutting of fairways and rough. This has resulted in some days the course looking autumnal and less summerly. Much warmer and better weather is expected over the coming two weeks and The Greens team assure me that we will see a dramatic improvement to the course.
We have come to expect our greens to be good and treating them to keep them that way is always a difficult decision to make. The maintenance is essential and the recommended time of year for such maintenance is in the peak of the growing season. The maintenance now will ensure firm greens in future months and years. That said we also appreciate how unpopular the summer maintenance is. We get the course in great condition then tear it up. It takes about a month to recover so the greens in August are often not how we want them. I for one have complained about this in the past but appreciate that breaking up the greens and aerating them is essential. In light of the feedback from members we have discussed other options and have decided that maintenance next year will take place at the end of March 2020. There will be no summer maintenance period. Vice-Captain Ian has agreed to work the calendar differently next year and there will be competitions running throughout the summer. This will of course leave a period through April where the greens are recovering from the treatment.
Long term planning has been discussed recently in our meetings. To facilitate all members it is the intention of the Greens committee not to change the course by cutting down rough but to change tees and create different courses of various lengths and difficulty. We will be looking to build tees or reconstruct others to eventually create a selection of different length courses. Our Captain often quotes the American way which directs you to the relevant tee according to your swing speed. If you want to know what your swing speed is you know who to see.
The Greens team have a new fairway cutter on trial this week. Tell them if you think the fairways are cutting better. The current machine we own is around 13 years old and a bit like most of us, is past it’s sell by date by about 6 years.
If you want to know more ask the Greens Team on the course. They like to keep the members informed about what is going on and why it is necessary to do it.
The Greens Team