January in the bag.

Well at least we can take some solace from this lockdown, it hasn’t exactly been perfect conditions for golf, with another turbulent week of weather. Steve and I have been busy in the workshop, with all the general servicing very nearly complete (plate 1). We also managed to fit our new attachments to the 360 digger, this includes a root ripper (plate 2) for more effective removal of scrub and a land rake (plate 3) to prepare large areas for seed. We will soon put these to work on 9 and 7, when the ground drys out a bit.

Plate 1

Plate 2

Plate 3

We did however have some breaks in the weather and besides the usual course security checks, mowing, wormcast removal, pest control and disease prevention we managed to aerate the greens. This time we used a deep solid-tine, 12mm diameter to a depth of 200mm, with a tight square spacing and 5% heave for maximum compaction relief. Plate 4, 5 & 6 include a great visual insight highlighting the benefits of deep tine aeration.

 

 

Plate 4

Plate 5

Plate 6

The deep tine aeration machine is mounted on our John Deere tractor, which was a new addition to the fleet in 2020. This tractor is super efficient and comfortable tackling long, normally bumpy operations such as this, smoothly. See plate 7 for a cabs eye view.

Plate 7

January’s normally not a great month without the added challenges of COVID-19, but it’s done and we head into February optimistic for golfs return next month. Thank you for your support during these strange times, I better wrap some presents, it’s a very excited 6 year olds birthday tomorrow, how time flies. Until next week, stay safe everyone.

All the weather ☀️🌧💨❄️🌨

Well last week certainly was a mixed bag of weather. The start of the week began extremely mild with soil temperatures pushing up to 12 degrees. This brought on some welcome growth and forced us to cut greens twice, removing two boxes of clippings on each occasion. We also managed to cut tees and approach’s.

The middle of the week saw storm Christoph arrive, providing us with 45mm of rain and some extremely strong winds, our compound fence feeling the brunt of it. This allowed us to crack on with some more machinery servicing and some vital modifications in the workshop.

We finished the week with freezing temperatures and wall to wall sunshine on the Friday. The moles are once again continuing to enjoy the lack of foot traffic and popping up everywhere, no match for Steve and myself however. 

 

 

Sunday morning began with a decent covering of snow which my family and I enjoyed. It was great to lift the kids spirits with what has been a pretty depressing lockdown period for them so far. If it’s any consolation the course would have been closed today, stay safe everyone.

Air is life 🌱

Last week Steve and I completed our first week managing the golf course with just the two of us. As I’m sure you can appreciate this poses certain challenges and restrictions on what we can achieve during the lockdown. Each year we have a jam packed winter schedule with lots of projects involved, that for now has taken a back seat while we concentrate on essential maintenance and ensuring the golf course is as good as the day you left it. That being said we have been super busy completing tasks such as aeration, dew removal, essential cutting, pest control and machinery maintenance. 

Below are two images of the greens following our aeration work. We used 8mm diameter tine’s, to a maximum depth of 75mm, which creates next to no surface disturbance but allows the soil to breathe and drain more freely during the winter months. This process was also carried out on all of the tees.

We also managed to begin the winter servicing and maintenance on the fleet. We carry out all of our machinery servicing in house as we possess the skills required to do so. This is a time consuming process which would normally rely on days with increment weather, although a national lockdown also provides us with that time! Stay safe everyone.

Lockdown #3

 

Happy New Year, it’s a white out ❄️