New bunkers

You will be glad to know, we have just finished constructing 2 new bunkers! One on the 2nd hole just off the left side of the fairway and the other at the back of the 13th green. At the 2nd, the bunker is located around 250 yards from the white tees in a spot where a lot of wayward tee shots end up, this bunker will now call for greater accuracy from the longer hitters off the tee. On the 13th, the new bunker will catch over hit approach shots, leaving a tricky bunker shot back to a green sloping away from you. We also installed a new drain at the edge of the green on 13 which should help dry up that area.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Spring Aerification

Today we began hollow tining our greens. This is the process where we take a small core from the greens and replace it with new sand. It is extremely beneficial to the turf and much called for after a long wet Winter. Tomorrow we plan to top dress the greens. Also as part of our Spring aerification programme, we plan to solid tine tees and approaches and Verti-drain fairways, which will set us up nicely for the coming season.



Severe Weather In 2012

As 2013 begins, we are hoping for a much dryer year than last. 2012 was one of the wettest years on record in Ireland, with June being the wettest ever on record. 849.5mm of rain was recorded at Dublin Airport, we also record rainfall every day at Citywest where 1099.5mm fell. As a result of this the course has been very soggy all winter. We have plans to combat this problem and to improve the conditions for next winter. These include drainage work, installing new drains in the worst affected areas, we will start this in the spring/summer when the ground is dryer. Extensive sanding of wet areas, this will improve percolation in the soil and allow water to drain faster. Verti-draining, which will help with compacted turf. We have also started to install some new paths around the course so as to keep traffic off the playing surfaces. On top of all this we are hoping for mother nature to help us out with a much dryer year ahead! 

 

 

 

Winter Work

As we are now in the middle of Winter, there is not much for us to do as regards mowing grass so it gives us a nice opportunity to get around to other projects we don't get time to do in the growing season. We have begun to clear out the wooded areas, which entails cutting the branches of the trees up to around head height, clearing out the leaves and removing weed trees, hopefully leaving it easier to play out of when your ball goes in there! Another project we just finished was removing all the gorse hedging from the shrub bed around the lake on the 8th hole, it had become overgrown and was crowding out the other shrubs.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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.