Solid Tining Tees

This week we solid tined all of our tee boxes. This will help relieve compaction and allow air down to the roots of the plant. We plan to top dress them at the start of next week. While on the subject of the tee boxes, it would be greatly appreciated if all members and guests would refrain from dragging trolleys onto tee boxes. As we are now in winter, golf we will be played on frosty mornings. When trolleys are pulled across tees when there is frost, it burns the leaf of the plant and leaves ugly marks and weakens the plant. So please help us protect our course, thank you.

More Drainage Work

We are constantly working on improving our drainage out on the course. This year has been particularly tough, with an average of 4 inches of rain falling per month for this year so far, its safe to say our 20 year old drainage system has been under some pressure! Over the course of the winter, we plan to create some new drains and raise up low spots where water sits, hopefully then we will see the benefits next year. Below is a new drain being put in on 12 fairway in a spot that was severly damaged from sitting water.

Greens Aerification

Over the last 2 days, we aerified all of our greens. The next step is to top-dress them heavily with sand. This process causes a little disruption to golfers but it is essential and highly beneficial to the greens. The main benefit is it relieves soil compaction, over the course of the year the greens get so much traffic from golfers walking on them and us mowing them that the soil gets compacted. Roots need oxygen so this is not good for them. In good soil, roots get oxygen from tiny pockets of air trapped between soil and sand particles. This process helps us achieve that in our greens. We chose to use a small side eject tine which creates only a small hole in comparison to typical 3/4 inch hollow tines.

Verti Draining Fairways

This week we have started Verti draining our fairways. This will greatly benefit the course. The main benefit of using this machine is improved drainage. The tines on this machine are set to penetrate the surface to a depth of 9 inches, so you can imagine how this will help with compaction. It will also help get air down to the roots of the turf. The small holes left in the fairway as a result shouldn't last longer than a week.

New Tee Box

This week, we added a new championship tee box on no.5. The tee will add around 15 yards to the hole. It is pushed back into the border fence, further left than the existing tee, which calls for the shot to be shaped off the tee, making the hole substantially tougher when playing from the blues. When the turf becomes established, we will gradually lower the height of cut on the new sod, down to tee height.

 

 

 

 

 

Tree Work on No. 5

Today we cut back all the overhanging branches to the left of No. 5 tee and fairway. From years of growth, the trees on the border were overhanging and impeding tee shots. This opens up the hole off the tee considerably. With the trees cut back, we plan to reopen the old championship tee in the near future too. Below are some before and after pictures.

Drainage Work

Today we began drainage work on the golf course. Due to the excessive rain we've seen this year, some areas on the golf course have become saturated. We started in the spinney on the right hand side of no. 2. We are installing a drain that will run from the trees down to the lake to the right of the 3rd green. Also on no. 2 we are making an open drain that will start in the rough on the left hand side and run across the fairway down to the lake on the right. This will help drain the rough on the left quicker, an area which is always soggy after rain. It will also be a water hazard which will help toughen up the hole considerably. We have more drainage work planned in the coming weeks for other areas on the course.