Scruffy is getting nervous...

 

Well, over the last week there has not been too much to report other than rain, rain and even more rain! For the first 10 days of July we have recorded 122mm of rain. This now brings our total for the year to date to comfortably over 1100mm and closing in rapidly on our historic average for the entire year. Mike 'Scruffy' Hyams is getting a little concerned at the prospect of swimming...

The white line on his chest indicates how much rain we have recieved since the begining of the year. To give a little more context, over the entire golf course this equates to 74 830 000 liters or about the same volume as 30 Olympic swimming pools!!!

As you can imagine, there is not a whole lot we can do on the course without getting machinery stuck everywhere and making a mess. We have edged all the sprinklers and drains, verti-drained all the greens surrounds and approaches and have been constantly trying to pump water out of and fix bunkers. The pumping out and fixing of bunkers has been a thankless task for the team but the bright side of it is that those bunkers with Bunker Matrix installed have performed excellently.

At the moment we are trying to mow all we can without causing damage to the course or getting hurt by sliding with a machine into a dangerous position. The team is 'Fly mowing' parts of the rough by hand that we have not been cut with ride on machines. It has been a very tricky and sometimes dangerous job getting around the course just to cut the greens. I have personally had a few scary slides on a greens mower of late and have got stuck in the mud on a couple of occasions. I am pleased to say though that the greens are enjoying the rest from the reduced amounts of play and are looking quite good.

We have also taken this opportunity to try a different product to control Poa on the greens. We are currently testing Endothal on the 11th and 15th greens with promising results so far. Should you see these two greens are a little different in colour to the others it is for this reason.

In closing, we hope that the weather will be kind to us and give you all the chance to play some golf soon. Please rest assured that the team is working very hard to make sure your golfing experience is as good as it possibly can be.

Regards