As we enter the New Year and are in the dark, dismal and wet days of January and February it is easy to lose sight of the work that has been done over the past few years to improve the drainage on the course. At present the conditions are extremely wet and we are experiencing closures in order to protect the course. The course is inspected on a daily basis and a decision then made about its playability. Trolleys have been allowed and it has been noticeable that the use of hedgehog wheels has kept the damage to the course to a minimum and it is encouraging to see that the vast majority of players are observing restrictions and keeping outside the sensibly fenced off areas around the greens.
Over the past few years much work has been done to clear drains and ditches in order to improve the drainage on the course. Even during this very wet period we see the benefit of this in many areas. The 10th fairway in particular is now dry and the drains are flowing freely due to the drain clearing that was carried out last year. The area approaching the green on the first is dry and the surround to the 14th green is now drier due to the ditches being cleared and the level of the water in the lake lowered. Many of the fairways are now dry and this is mainly due to the work that has been carried out, particularly the verti draining that was done late last year which encourages water to penetrate through the surface. We now have a healthy covering of grass on the fairways and we are not seeing the bare muddy areas that were apparent in past years.
However there are many areas of the course that are still unacceptably wet. Of particular note are some of the green surrounds and this is particularly noticeable on the 6th, 7th, 9th, 11th, 16th and 17th. Most of the other surrounds suffer the same problem and the reason for this is that when the course was constructed these areas were not drained adequately. There is only a single drain to take the water away and also the water level in many of the ponds and ditches is too high resulting in a high water table around the greens. These issues will need to be addressed by putting in lateral drains across the affected areas. We still have the issues on the banks of the 1st, 9th and 18th fairways which is caused by an impervious clay layer preventing the water from draining through the ground. One solution to this is sand banding where trenches are dug and filled with gravel and topped off with sand which allows the surface water to flow to the existing drains. This work would be carried out by specialist contractors and is under consideration.
You will have seen the work that is being carried out on the 17th and is starting on the 4th and 5th. The primary purpose of the changes made on the 17th are to improve the drainage and remove the unwelcome shade from the overhanging trees. Due to the trees at the back of the green the rear portion of the green was dying. These have been removed and the trees surrounding the green have been taken out which also creates a more open and aesthetically pleasing aspect to the hole. There will be a passage cut through to the 18th fairway which will allow better air circulation to the green and the overgrown drains around the rear of the green will be cleared to allow better drainage which should remove the boggy areas around the green.
The work that has started to remove the trees along the left hand side of the 4th fairway and around to the left of the 5th will expose the wetland area and lake and more importantly the overgrown drains will be cleared and brought back into use. This will improve the drainage and alleviate the problem we are seeing on the 4th fairway which has become extremely wet. The environmental report stressed that the presence of trees in wetland areas is not desirable which is why we continue to address that issue.
Trees have been removed from the area in front of the 9th tees and those between the 9th and 1st have been thinned out. It is interesting to note that the majority of trees that are being removed in all areas were not there when the course opened and a view is that we are simply returning the course to its original design by removing these weed trees.
As you can see there is a great deal of work underway but Rome was not built in a day and it will take a few years to get rid of all our drainage issues, so be patient. Although it is difficult to see this at present I do believe that the course is in an excellent position to give us a great springboard for the forthcoming season.
You will no doubt have seen the cavernous divots being taken in this wet weather. The use of divot mixture to fill these in is not a waste of time in the Winter so please try to take the time to fill in not only your divots but others as well.