Greens Chairman Update
Greens update
Tuesday 30th July 2019
Why do the greens have holes in them?
I don’t know about you but I thought only Teachers, Council Strategists and Golf Club Treasurers got stressed but apparently not. Amazingly grass can get stressed. Our esteemed member Lee Robson pointed out to me on Sunday that it doesn’t do anything except lie about in the sun, take on a bit of water and grow. He said, “What has it got to get stressed about?”
Wayne said a couple of weeks ago that he thought there was an issue because of the extreme changes in weather conditions and he and the Greens Team have reacted quickly to treat the greens. He has raised the greens cutter height to 4mm and has made the decision to aerate the greens by verti-draining them. This is not the start of the summer maintenance but a reactive measure to the anthracnose that is infecting the greens. I was at Wearside on Monday morning and had the opportunity to speak to the Head Greenkeeper there. They had the same problem caused by recent weather conditions and were following the exact same course of treatment. They both bemoaned the ineffectual fungicides that were prohibitively expensive and could only be used in a preventative measure. If you want to know more about anthracnose read the following links;
https://www.rolawn.co.uk/anthracnose
https://www.greencast.co.uk/anthracnose
Dip the assistant Head Greenkeeper showed me on Tuesday the verti-drain machine working and said the greens would be rolled and cut afterwards. It is not anticipated that there will be a significant effect on the playing surfaces as the holes are small in diameter. The sand filler treatment will start next week which will hopefully start to firm our greens up to the standard of those at Wearside and help remove the thatch and spongy upper surface.
Here are a few pictures for your
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