This last week has been another above average rainfall week with our total for the month so far at 150mm and for the year to date we have recorded 1130mm. We have obviously discussed the rainfall at length over the last few months now, hopefully it improves soon. The team are trying bravely not to let it affect what we do too much and are seeing it as a good challenge that needs to be overcome.
An uncontrolled slide on a mower off the slope behind 18th green.
This past week we have been putting much of our focus on hand mowing areas of the golf course that cannot be mown now with machines. We have also continued with almost weekly aeration of the greens in various forms and are planning to ‘dust’ the greens with a light layer of sand this week in order to keep them firm and putting as nicely as possible. This is a cultural practice that we perform monthly but we have been struggling to get heavy sand top dressers around the course lately so this will be much needed. We have also put a liquid fertilizer on the greens a few days ago which has helped muchly. Again, spraying the greens when it is so wet is really tricky to do without causing damage and getting stuck, not to mention how dangerous it is driving a machine which is loaded with water and weighs well over a ton.
On another note, we have some good news! The trial work we are doing on 11th and 15th greens with Endothal to control Poa seems to be working quite nicely. We will give these two greens one more application of this product and should that go well we will probably start spraying all the greens with Endothal over the coming months before spring. We are hoping to reduce the amount of Poa on the greens significantly before spring with the aim of giving the bent grass the best possible head start in spring when growth starts to increase again.
As you may know by now we have had an unfortunate council sewerage leak between hole 2 and 4. The leak has been resolved but the area has been contaminated and due to its location, cleaning up the spill is almost impossible to do properly. We have roped off this area and put up warning signs not to go in that area. Please abide by this warning and do not enter the roped off area until we deem it safe to do so.
In closing, we would once again like to appeal to all our member to please fix their pitch marks, divots and rake foot prints in the bunkers. Quite often we are finding the course not cared for properly by our valued golfers and it makes it even more difficult to maintain the course to a high standard without this help. Pitch marks are a real problem this winter and because of the slow growth when it is cold, unrepaired pitch marks will recover VERY slowly and make the putting surfaces very bumpy.
A pitch mark on the first green first thing in the morning!