Productive Monday

Today was a good day, We finally got a full days work done without the rain interrupting us. June hasn't been great weather wise so far to say the least! Hopefully it will take a turn and everyone can get started playing some summer golf. We got everything mowed on the golf course today accept some of the rough, we also pencil-tined greens with a solid tine to relieve compaction, this process is very beneficial and should be unnoticeable by the end of the week.

Busy Tuesday

We achieved a lot on the golf course today, particularly on the greens. Poa Annua, the species of grass that is on our greens produces a seed head at this time of year. Chemicals are sprayed earlier in the year to suppress the seed head but some always still appear. Today was all about reducing the amount of seed heads on our greens. We started the morning by brushing to present the seed head. We followed that by verticutting 1mm below the surface. We then blew off the seed heads and organic matter that was left on the surface and followed that by mowing the greens. We then finished off by top dressing and dragging the greens. 

Fertilising Fairways and Approaches

Today we fertilised all our fairways and approaches with a granular 28 - 3 - 10 Andersons product, we used our Vicon tractor mounted spreader for the fairways and a Scotts walk behind spreader for the approaches. The product is slow releasing and should provide fertility for about 5 months.

April Showers Bring Forth May Flowers

Unfortunately we've been getting a lot more than a few showers, the total rainfall recorded at Citywest for April was 111mm, the national average rainfall for April in past years is 51mm. We received almost that amount last Wednesday and Thursday, the pictures below are from Thursday morning. Needless to say the course is very wet and a little muddy as a result. We are doing our best to make sure the course dries out as soon as possible by ensuring our drains are all clean and working correctly, slit-tining fairways to relieve compaction and applying extra sand to wear areas etc. Hopefully Mother Nature is kinder in May!

Top dressing greens

Top dressing greens is a necessary evil, as it may irritate our members to putt on the sandy surfaces on the day of the application, but we can assure you this process is absolutely necessary and it greatly benefits our greens. Regular top dressing helps produce a smooth firm putting surface. The sand protects the crown of the plant which allows for reduced mowing heights. It also reduces the thatch layer.

We lightly top dressed all of our greens today, it was a lovely dry day and the sand brushed into the surface nicely, it should be virtually unnoticeable tomorrow.

Fixing drainage and expanding no. 5 tee

Today we replaced all the sod and installed a drain between the championship tee and members tee on no. 5. The area was wet all winter and the soil had become very soggy, we removed all the old sod and dug out the sodden soil. We then installed a drain leading to the adjacent ditch. Next we levelled out the area with sand, put down an organic fertiliser and laid the new sod. We will gradually decrease the height we mow the new sod until its at the same height as the rest of the tee. This will give us around 5 yards extra teeing ground.

Spring clean!

As we approach the start of the golfing season we are making a big effort to get through essential maintenance on the golf course including the painting of all marker boards and tee markers, cleaning yardage markers, restoring the streams on 16 and 18 and cleaning lakes etc. so when summer comes around we can focus on mowing grass. We have also started trimming back hedges bordering pathways and cleaning out the wooded areas.