09/10/2026
On the course 18th Sept - 9th Oct
Well, Autumn has certainly arrived weather-wise. During this 3 week period we have had 64mm(2.5") but with evapotranspiration rates drastically falling away its enough to start sending the ground a bit on the wet side. September as a month gave us 122mm(4.8") and 42mm(1.7") this month already. The forecast is suggesting it to stay on the unsettled side but nothing too cold yet
On the course:-
A very busy 3 week period involving greens maintenance and 3 weeks of digger work. The advantage of doing it now is that damage is kept to a minimum but what damage does occur will still have time to recover.
▪︎ Greens deep scarified, Air2G2 to relieve compaction, verti-cut, 100kg of Bent seed applied and a 10 tonne of sand top dress
▪︎ Granular feed to aid recovery.
▪︎ Fungicide applied and other products to deter disease during this very mild and wet period... ideal for fusarium.
▪︎ Fairways verti-drained
Digger work.
▪︎ Area cleared around irrigation tank and removal of the hedge the red/yellow 4th tee to improve the line of sight
▪︎ Thatchy turf removed at the path ends of the 5th, 10th/11th and 15th with rootzone and seed inserted with germination already visible.
▪︎ Ditch made deeper to the right of the 15th with blocked drains rectified in front of the 15th tee.
▪︎ Clear line of sight to right of 13th tee
▪︎ Clear the area at back of 17th green and develop a new tee to right of the existing 18th tee
▪︎ Worn areas dug out from 13th green to the 14th tee, right of 15th tee and adjacent to the 10th green
▪︎ Overflow car park scraped off
▪︎ Ditch to the right of the 1st cleared along with 1st/7th ditch
▪︎ Area cleared between the 6th and 8th of self seeding trees
▪︎ GUR areas scraped off across 13th fairway, left of 8th green and right of 9th green
▪︎ Scrape off thatchy turf along drains at the 12th tee so they can work again.
▪︎ 11th ditch cleared out at the bottom end
▪︎ Contaminated sand scraped out and drains exposed at the greenside bunkers at 1,6 and 9th ready to be turf lined and our new China Clay sand added.
Other jobs
▪︎ Gave the uncut rough a flail mowing and collect. Removing the grass as to take away the food source so over time the grass should thin out and become more wispy.
▪︎ Still plenty of cutting being done in yet another mild Autumn.
The greens are performing OK but are tending to flood quite quickly. This is down to a very dry sumner so the ground underneath is struggling to allow percalation of the water, plus with the stress the plant has been under we've been unable to scarify and verti-cut as much as we'd like so the immediate surface has become thick with dead matter.
Immediate future plans:-
▪︎ Monitor for disease constantly and be proactive with the spray applications. I appreciate the tyre marks can be unsightly and affect putting but spray windows are rare this time of year so we can't be too selective as to when we spray.... the products need to go on. The consequences of not spraying will last a lot longer than the tyre marks.
▪︎ We'll be starting our next major project at some point next week. We are lifting the the front third of the 1st green to give us more pin positions across the middle section. This will require the 1st to be on a temporary green most of the winter. Thank you for your understanding and cooperation.
