GREENS REPORT OCTOBER 2008

WEATHER

Much like the rest of the year the weather through August and September has been intermittent with equal amounts of wet and sunny days. The last few weeks of September and esspecially over the maintenance week were much dryer allowing us to carry out all of the programmed tasks to good effect. The showers over the last few months have again meant we have not had to use the automatic irrigation system.

GREENS

A lot of work was carried out on the greens over the maintenance week which included;

• Verti-draining (with larger 12" tines)
• Deep aeration using the air probes (1m spacing)
• Verti-cutting in 3 directions
• Topdressing (a heavy topdressing (20 tonnes) was applied using the new pro pass topdresser)
• Fertilised using 5:2:10 (which is a granualr fertiliser, meant to speed up the recovery of the grass plant after the maintenace work)

The greens are looking very good at the moment and have responed well to the fertiliser and the topdressing has helped level out the greens producing a much smoother roll. We sprayed the greens at the end of August with a liquid fungicide to help fight of a few signs of disease which had good effect. With the aid of the new topdresser we can now look towards topdressing the greens on a much more frequent basis to help maintain a smooth even playing surface.  

TEES

The tees were verti-drained over the maintenance week to help aid compaction and drainage problems, this was followed by a heacy topdressing. Some of the tees are still very wet in places and we arre unable to cut some of them with the ride on machines. With this in mind we may soon have to resort to cutting the wetter tees with the pedestrain mowers.

FAIRWAYS

Like the tees the fairways have been verti-drained at 2" centers with the 12mm tines. This is a longwided job but will be well worthwhile in the end (we are averageing about a fairway and a half per day). Following the verti-draining we are Earthquaking the fairways. The combination of the two should greatly reduce compaction and aid the drainage of the fairways. We will soon cut back to mowing the fairways twice a week as the grass groth slows and weather permits.

ROUGHS

The roughs have continued to grow well through August and September. The worn areas have been verti-drained and earthquaked to help relieve some of the compaction. As a trial some of the pinch points in the rough such as the end of pathways and other high traffic areas are to be dressed using a rubber crumb material to see if we can help reduce the compaction/wear (loss of grass) over these areas.

BUNKERS

We are continuing to cut-out sections of membrains when they are visible.

TREES

A number of dead trees have been removed around the course (2 trees on the 4th). The leaves are starting to fall and our attention must turn towards clearing the course as much as possible.

CLUBHOUSE

Attention has been paid to the beds/trees and shrubs around the clubhouse and the first tee over the last week. I feel this is a vital area which gives an important first impression to both members and guests.  

GREENS REPORT AUGUST 2008

WEATHER

The intermittent weather that has caused us problems throughout the year has continued through July and the start of August. On the 9th JUly a deluge of rain came resulting in the East Berkshire Stag being cancelled. The warm humid muggy days are providing a perfect breeding ground for disease with a number of outbreaks occuring on the greens.

GREENS

The intermittent rainfall has benefited the green surface and greatly reduced the need for automatic irrigation. The greens have been spiked using a sarrel roller to a depth of 2cm simply to help the water throught the top few cm's of turf. We also verti-drained the greens to a depth of 17cm to help relieve compaction and agin help drainage, in addition to this we also used the soil probes at 2m centres to a depth of 50cm to help break through the subsurface deeper than is possible with the verti-drian tines. The greens have been verti-cut in 3 directions to help remove thatch build up and to help produce a much tighter more consistant grass sward resulting in much smoother ball roll. We have had a number of disease outbreaks on the greens resulting in us applying two applications of both a systemic and contact fungicide. We have also sprayed the greens with small ammounts of fertiliser bi-weekly to sustain growth and help fight?of the disease.

TEES

WE fertilised the tees with 14:6:8 which has produced a rapid grass growth and helped aid the recovery of the divots. The tees are still very wet in places after heavy rainfall and with this in mind we plan to verti-drain the tees in the next few weeks.

FAIRWAYS

The fairways were divoted the week of the stag, with a much better turn out (16) than the previos turn out we were able to divot all the fairways and tees. We are continuing to cut the fairways in two directions 2-3 times per week at 15cm. The fairways were sprayed for clover using a selective weedkiller which is showing signs of taking effect.

ROUGHS

The roughs have continued to grow well, aided by the heavy rainfalls over the past few weeks. The definition between the fairays/semi/rough still look svery good.

BUNKERS

We are continuing to cut-out sections of membranes when they are visible. The bunkers were edged and weeded prior to the stag and will be done again prior to the new stag date.

TREES

A number of dead trees have been removed from around the course.

HEATHER

The heather was sprayed with a selective herbicide to help reduce weed infestation and is showing signs of being successful.

WILDLIFE

The sparrow hawk young have been seen leaving there nests which is a great sight.

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GREENS REPORT MAY 2008

WEATHER

It has been a very wet start to the playing season. The wet spring has also seen very late frosts with a heavy frost just yesterday morning. The cold nights meant that soil temperatures struggled to rise above 10 degrees centigrade (the point at which grass produces sustained growth) and growth has been very slow to kick in this year the trees were also very late to break bud. Annual meadow grass (Poa annua) is currently seeding on all areas of the golf course and combined with trees flowering the pollen count has been very high.

GREENS

Course maintenance week was a near complete wash out with torrential rain fall from the Monday lunchtime to the Friday. However we managed to hollow core all the greens by working into the evenings. The top dressing was another matter with only 13 greens having been topdressed when the rain came we had to pick our moments to get the dressing on the remaining greens. A total of 80 tonnes of sand and dressing was applied to the greens and tees and when the rain finally stopped the dressing worked in a treat. Following the coring Calcium carbonate and rooting stimulants were applied. April's soil analysis is very good, with Phosphate and Sulphur levels being dramatically reduced, this is mainly due to the increase in aeration practices. The greens will receive a lot of attention over the next few weeks. These practices are;

• Feeding - to encourage rooting, top growth and colour
• Scarifying - to remove thatch build up
• Verti-cutting - to reduce the annual meadow grass seed head and improve green speed
• Top dressing - to improve surface levels and green speed
• Applying soil amendments - to improve tillering and rooting
• Applying systemic fungicide - to help protect against disease

TEES

It was not possible to hollow core the tees during the maintenance week due to the weather, however all tees were overseeded and fertilised. Due to the speed of growth at the moment we have ceased hand cutting and moved back to triplex mowing. A heavy sand dressing was applied to the tees in maintenance week.

FAIRWAYS

Fairways have been overseeded and a very rapid germination took place due to the perfect conditions that followed. Spot treatment for weeds has been carried out and will continue throughout the season. To keep on top of the high growth pattern we are having to mow the fairways three times per week. Most of the drainage runs have filled in nicely, however the runs on the 6th and 11th fairways are proving more difficult due to wash outs following heavy rains.

ROUGHS

No shortage of definition this year with all rough growing very strongly. Some areas are still very wet and both the 14th and 17th pits have had water in them for prolonged periods these areas may remain sparse of grass due to being under water for so long. The area shot of the 5th ditch has been cut down to semi rough height as requested.

HEATHER

Heather areas were sprayed with Kerb Flo in February to help remove competing grasses and last week the areas were treated with Lontrel 200 to remove competing weeds. This operation was carried out last year for the first time and was very successful. This gives rise to hopefully getting back heather in the future.

BUNKERS

Bunker faces were sprayed with herbicide to kill of any unwanted growth and then edged, stoned and weeded. The fairway bunker on 8th is now draining properly, having had drainage installed over the winter months.

HEALTH & SAFETY

Timber edges have been installed to the bridges as requested from the course risk assessment. The disabled parking bay, stop caution signs, the requested no parking hatching to the devils highway and the O.O.B. line by the car park have all been painted as requested.

WILDLIFE

The selective culling of grey squirrels and magpies prior to the nesting season has made a huge difference to the number of song birds nesting on the course this spring, with blackcaps and chiffchaffs making a comeback, I can't remember so much bird song on the course. A sparrow hawk is once again nesting to the right of the 12th, we have a nesting pair of mandarin ducks and a pair of gold finches are nesting right outside the gents' locker room door. To help the situation we have installed 22 new bird and insect boxes around the course.

OTHER

• New yellow 150yds markers have been installed in the centre of the fairways.
• The 15th winter tee box has been removed and the area has been returfed.
• All ropes and stakes have been removed from the course.
• Clubhouse hedges nave been cut back to allow for decoration as requested.

Marc Piggott

Course Manager
East Berkshire Golf Club