Courses Newsletter     18^th Dec 2009-12-18

 

Will it ever stop raining? It seems to be the question all greenkeepers the length and breadth of Britain are asking themselves. The groundwater table has been well up for the past two months and has rendered many of our bunkers and low lying areas unplayable. We’ve had the pumps going on several occasions but the water just keeps coming back!    We’re not doing too badly up here in Moray – only 883mm so far this year although most of it has fallen from July onwards! Some courses in England have recorded upwards of 1800mm of rain, which doesn’t bear thinking about.

 

The effects of all this rain really do hamper what we can achieve out on the courses as there is only so much you can do on a waterlogged soil. We are gradually getting round to getting most of the fairways spiked apart from the really wet ones. The planned fairway spoon tining and dragging of cores which was to help aerate, reduce thatch and recycle humus has been abandoned due to not enough dry weather. The continual wet soils are a heaven for moss development and as a result the grasses wear tolerance decreases. Early next year the greens will receive a granular application of Magnesium Sulphate Heptahydrate during some dry weather which will help dry up and desiccate the moss spores. The fairways and tees are also suffering here and there from moss. Also the crows have started to pluck it out on quite a few of the New course fairways in their search for Leatherjacket grubs. All these areas will be sprayed with an insecticide with some iron and a little light feed hopefully in February.

 

GREENS – the courses greens have stood up and performed well this winter and it is pleasing to see that Fusarium disease development has also been much reduced this year. There are still bits and pieces of the disease around and a preventative fungicide has been applied recently to help protect the greens through the remaining winter months.

Recently I was luckily invited to a seminar at Laverstock Park Farm near Southampton where the leading figure in Soil Food Web research and development spoke on Compost teas – the research, soil biology, composts for teas, fungi and bacteria, foods, nematodes, tea making and brewing processes and applications. All of it was very interesting and it just highlighted to me how important it is to get the soil working for a natural and healthy turf. ie. A healthy soil and turf grass plant will fight of pathogens and disease threats naturally and provide the right growing conditions for the finer perennial grasses. We’ve had our tea maker up and running this year and four applications have been made although it would have been better to have made around a dozen! Time constraints mainly. Hopefully next year we will apply more teas and start to realise the real benefits of sustainable management on our greens. We are to erect a 4000lt tank at our sheds to harvest rainwater from our shed roof as this is the best water for using in the making of our compost teas.

 

BUNKERS – the usual re facing of several bunkers has taken place and the back right of 15^th on the Old has been returned to a grassy hollow. As soon as the water table drops sufficiently we will be installing a new drainage material into the bases of some of the bunkers that give us trouble in the summer months. The quality of our bunker sand has been raised recently for whatever reason and I can only say that it is wet just now and has been all summer! We buy in a local washed soft builders sand at a reasonably cheap price compared to some other sands. The term builders sand may shock some of you but it is widely used in golf courses bunkers because of its angular shaped particles that will bind together and offer a firmer base and keep its distribution better than a rounded sand would. One greenkeeper in England trialed five different types of sand for his bunkers and not disclosing to the members what type or cost the sand was, can you guess what sand was preferred? Yes, the builders sand, sometimes the cheapest is the best!

 

OTHER WORK – we’ve made a small start at the 14^th ditch and hopefully the water level will drop a bit so we can get stuck in and get it finished in January. The 5^th tee New course has had a lower tier added to the front with the top tier being levelled and realigned more to the middle of the fairway. This will be turfed first chance in the new year. Whin clearing has taken place at the left of the 18^th on the New and down the right towards the 2^nd Old course tees to help reduce the hazard of unseen golfers getting struck by golf balls. There’s not been much frosty weather this winter so far and no doubt it will come next year and some more bush cutting will be the priority.

 

XMAS TREES – if any member wishes to get rid of their used tree after the festive period then just drop it off down at the green sheds and we can re use by digging them into the sand dune blow out by the 17^th hole.

 

Have a good Christmas and best of luck for next year!