This blog post was written by newly qualified Assistant Greenkeeper Caleb Overhill. Thank you for your
patience with the hole closures for our fairway maintenance. This year we
top dressed the fairways with 350 tonnes of sand, Assistant Greenkeeper Pete was
in charge of this job as he used to work for MJ Abbotts who are a large sports
turf contracting company (just down the road). We then brushed the sand using a
tractor mounted brush to incorporate it with the grass and into the surface.
We
top dress to keep the playing surface smooth to allow for good ball roll and to
control thatch levels by diluting it making for a firm surface, also by using
sand it reduces worm casts on the surface, as worms do not like sand-it
irritates their skin, this helps us when mowing as the casts can blunt the
mower blades.
Additionally, Assistant Tim and First Assistant James aerated
the tees and approaches with a hollow core tine and Assistant Caleb and Deputy
Luke collected the cores with core collectors which are essentially mini
road sweepers. A thank you to volunteer Cliff Dowling for being our wagon
driver. The hollow tine means that it removes a plug of turf. We chose to use
this tine to keep on top of the thatch levels by physically removing plugs of
it. We top dressed and brushed these surfaces to fill in all the holes with
sand, this allows for improved drainage on these surfaces as water flows
through sand easier, sand dilutes the thatch making for a healthy firm surface,
by creating holes in the surface it promotes new grass growth.
The week went well with only a few breakdowns and the weather held quite nicely. These maintenance weeks are essential for the playing surfaces to be the they can and we try to get as much done as possible in every day so that we can go that bit extra and get everything back up and running ASAP, so thank you again for your patience and enjoy your golf.
