Course Info 30/1/11

2 temp greens in play still a bone in greens 2 & 15.
G Bruen

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Course Info 29/1/11

All greens on temps due to the frost this morning.

There will be another inspection at mid day.

G Bruen

Course Info 28/1/11

Good Morning

Ground frost this morning all greens on temps we will inspect greens again at 11 & 1 o'clock.

Gerry Bruen

Course Info 26/1/11

Good Morning

Bone still not out 5 greens this morning.

Temps on at 2,3,5,12 & 15

Remaining greens in play.

Course Info 25-1-11

Good morning
7 full greens on remaining greens still temps due to the bone in ground.
The swans arrived back this morning, as the pond is no longer frozen over.
Gerry Bruen

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Course Info 24/1/11

Good Morning

Due to the hard frost end last week & weekend frost ( bone ) still in all greens

All 18 temps in play

Next inspection tomorrow morning

Gerry Bruen

Course info 18-1-11

Good Morning

All greens on temps due to a surface frost.

Greens will be inspected at 10am.

Gerry Bruen

Course info 14-1-11

Good Morning
Course open and all holes in play.
The frost ( bone ) is still in the ground but is moving down at the moment it is around 2".
This may cause us some problems with flooding with some heavy showers forecast and water not being able to drain freely.
On a positive note air temperatures to remain well above freezing until Tuesday next week.
All main greens off 18 temps in play.
G Bruen

Course info

Good morning
Our prevailing wind is now blowing bringing some milder temperatures
Course still holding water with the ground still frozen and some ice about.
Restricted course open
Holes 4 to 7 and back up 18 open.
G Bruen

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Course info 12-1-11

Good morning
Course inspected first light course condition very poor.
Overnight rain and freezing temperatures have made areas of course impassable.
Course closed next inspection 13-1-11
G Bruen

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Course info11/1/11

Good morning

The rain has been clearing the snow away well but this has left us with some flooding as the ground is still frozen.

Course inspected first light temp greens still unplayable due to the flooding and areas of ice on paths.

Course Closed Next inspection 12/1/11

G Bruen

Happy new year Course info 5-1-11

Today the full course back in play all be it all temps.

I imagine after the last six weeks weather there will be a few people wanting to get out the house and get some golf played.

The prolonged snow has left some disease scaring on the greens which has been disappointing and will be slow to recover until soil temperatures start to rise going into the spring weeks.

The disease is called snow mould and ranges from a few isolated scares to at least 5% - 10% of the surface being affected on some greens.

I have been walking the course as the snow has been melting over the last week to plan a course of action this started by once the affected greens were clear of snow they were spot treated with a contact fungicide to check any fungal activity that was still active.

The damage is caused when the ground temp rises and the snow then acts like a incubator keeping the heat on the surface and the fungal pathogen starts to spread, but when its under frozen snow we are unable to apply the fungicide to stop it in it tracks.

The larger scars will either be plugged out to the side of the greens or seeded out with bent grass seed in the spring.

At the start of 2010 we trialled new products on the market with good results to give us some early recovery and growth which we will be looking at again this year.

These out breaks used to be very common in the Scandinavian countries were snow can be on the ground for 4-5 months at a time but unlike us they are not allowed to spray any chemicals as they are band.

So they have had to adopt a more traditional greenkeeping principle which I follow at Williamwood of managing the fine grasses and trying to get the biology right to maintain a healthy plant which will ultimately be less susceptible to these disease outbreaks.

And the proof of this is in the greens that were hit the worse they are all sand based greens which are great draining greens but the root zone they are built on is made up practically of a sterile material which has no biology in it to protect the plant from these disease outbreaks.

We have been addressing this issue by over seeding with bents grass seed using organic materials in our fertiliser and brewing our own compost teas to supplement the beneficial bacteria in the ground.

Ultimately what we need now is a early spring to promote some recovery and to remember that the greens always recover from what ever is thrown at them.

Gerry Bruen