Happy new year

From all the green staff
Gerry, Kevin, Willy, Alan, Stewart, Alistair

Happy new year & a great season for 2013 

Dec Update

Good morning
We are coming out of the end of a most welcome cold spell which allowed us to carry out some drainage issues in areas that were letting us down during the playing season.
To date 130m of drainage was installed and the conditions could not have been better.
Below is some pictures showing the work carried out during the cold snap.


                                                 Left side 18th green

14th right rough

                                                   
                                            18th right rough 

10th Fairway

                                            2nd back right green

                                       

Car park prepared area for new clean down bay

Sump dug for flooded irrigation box 16th

                               Stone feature pond 15th 

              Burns from 13 medal tee to back 8th green cleaned out

                   Started new path that will take golfer to 17th tees

      Cleaned any branches growing through boundary fence Clarkston rd

We will be going to a skeleton staff during the holidays and I would like to wish everyone at the club from the greens staff  a Merry Christmas  & Happy New Year. 

Roll on spring 2013 

November update

Good evening
As am sure you are aware the weather conditions have been awful of late and I am sure we are all   looking forward to some cold dry weather.
Some recorded stats
Total rain fall Nov 110 mm, Highest rain day 19th Nov 32.7 mm, Total rain days 22.

With the poor weather conditions continuing we have changed our focus to the winter overhauls of the machinery.

                           

 All machines are deep cleaned, cutting units stripped

All units stripped from each machine

Bottom blades removed, inspected, sharpened.

All cylinders painted and frames touched up.

           In total we have around 30 units including hand mowers to get through.

The new TB200 brush arrived today and all the staff got their training of use and servicing from the dealer John Condron.

Course Conditions

COURSE CLOSED
30mm rain recorded in less than 12 hrs
Next inspection tomorrow morning
G Bruen

Course update

Well what a difference from last week
Last week heavy rain restricted our work on the course as ground conditions were saturated.
This allowed us to get on with some tree work. We cleared the area right of the 1st green, any new growth from the base of trees and any broken dead branches hanging down.
We have prepped all we need to start trafficking the golfer round the course for the winter.
The restrictions will start with the Blue stakes being put out on fairways to mark were you must move your ball to the side from the start of  November.
There has been a ongoing issue with the pond at the 15th that hasn't caused that much of a problem as the weather has been so poor but during dry weather water has been escaping. We took the decision to completely drain the pond and will be trying to locate and solve the issue.

During the prolonged periods of rain there has been a few low lying areas with standing water around the 14th hole to alleviate this in the mean time we have hand dug channels to divert  the water away.

This week was much better arriving on Monday even after just a weekends drying was reassuring as ground conditions had extremely improved.
This allowed us to carry on with our scheduled fairway - semi rough verti draining and  by the end of the week we have only the par 3 areas to do. This procedure will be carried out again at the start of the season.

Temporary greens were also prepared for the colder weather that was forecast and all main playing areas were cut.
Leaf removal will be the main issue of the forthcoming weeks to keep the course as tidy as possible.

Aeration week

The better weather at the start of the week seen good ground conditions which allowed us to carry out all our planned aeration work to our greens. The focus after this was to improve the surface so extra rolling has been done and the ball is rolling good considering the work that has been carried out. There will be some more solid tinning done to the greens during the winter months to keep the surface open but that will not be as aggressive as work carried out this week.

Our latest soil analysis came back and we have had to bulked up on some nutrients as there has been some leaching due to the wet summer. This was applied after aeration was done to allow products into the green profile.

Over the next month or so main jobs will be to carry on aeration work to all areas of the course and leaf              removal.                                          

Autumn 2012

Good morning
Well its that time of year again grass starts to slow down and leaves are falling from the trees and aeration week is only 1 week away yes depressing I know.
I would love to be saying we had a long season but like 2011 the weather was very much against us.
If anything the weather only highlights the importance of a aggressive aeration program on all areas of the course to make them playable as soon as prolonged periods of adverse weather has passed.

We have much to get through this winter and on Monday morning I submitted my finalised course improvements for this coming winter.
The wet season has left us with a number of drainage issues that will be getting investigated, we will be carrying on with our bunker renovations and when ground conditions are favorable we will be carrying out aeration to all areas of the course to get water moving through the profile as quick as possible.
I have demonstrated a lateral draining machine that would compliment our existing equipment which was very impressive.
I have already done a number of areas on the course here is a link showing this type of the machine in operation
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AzJKwEZmq8s&feature=youtu.be

I will be posting all project pictures on my flickr account http://www.flickr.com/photos/16068144@N08/collections/
updating course conditions if necessary and weekly sumeria of project work.
Roll on spring 2013
G Bruen