Greens Report
April 2021
It has been a while since I last published a Greens Report and in that time a great deal has happened. Thankfully we are back playing at Wychwood after the enforced layoff due to Covid. The isolation period has seen changes on the course that have been carried out by the green staff while working part time during this period. Extensive work has been done on the ditches, which has improved the course drainage as well as their appearance. We are grateful for the help we have received from ¬¬Brad Eardley as well as the loan of one of his diggers which has allowed our staff to continue the work. There have been improvements made to many of the bunkers, particularly on the 8th which should make them fairer and more playable. They are now back to the shape of the original design and work will continue on the rest of the bunkers. There has also been a large number of trees removed between the 8th and the 18th which improves the visibility and appearance of the holes.
Significantly the Spring treatment has been done while the course was closed. This was hollow tining followed by a sand dressing, which had settled in prior to golf resuming, removing any inconvenience normally caused by this procedure. For the technical amongst you this has involved making 10.8 million holes in the greens and applying 45 tonnes of 45 grade sand.
Although we have been experiencing a prolonged period of dry weather, which has allowed the course to dry out, the downside is that it has been accompanied by cold conditions which have not allowed the ground to warm up and have therefore retarded any early growth. We have 3 types of grass on our greens which are poa annua, fescues and bents. In the cold conditions we have at present it is only the bents that grow and this leads to a slightly uneven surface as growth occurs. Once the ground temperature rises we should see more even growth and better surfaces. Ideally we need to increase the amount of bent grasses on our greens and this will gradually happen as we over seed each year with predominantly bent grasses.
You will probably have observed the change in the shape of many of the green surrounds and approaches which will improve both the appearance and also the playability of the holes. This has required areas of semi rough or fairway to be cut to surround height and although these areas have been fertilised they will take time to establish themselves and become as good as the rest of the surrounds.
The fairways have now all been verti drained by outside contractors and the plan is to treat them with growth retardant, selective herbicide and nitrogen in early May. The growth retardant is not to reduce the amount of cutting necessary but to encourage a thicker sward and more luxurious fairways. This treatment is very unusual over such a large area but should further build on the improvements we have already seen over the past few years. The treatment, without the selective herbicide, will be repeated twice more during the season. We have over 60 acres of fairways at Wychwood, which is more than the entire acreage of some courses, and they are cut 2 times a week during the growing season. The rough has also been cut back and the intention is to have semi rough and normal rough as well as areas of heavy rough which should not normally interfere with play. This should make the course more user friendly and speed up play as it should be easier to find and hit your ball.
The annual soil analysis has now been carried out and shows that the levels of nutrients in our soil are in sufficient quantities to support healthy growth. An important measurement is the CEC level (Cation Exchange Capacity) which is the ability of the soil to capture and hold nutrients. Sand based greens on their own cannot hold nutrients and without treatment the nutrients would simply wash through the soil and be ineffective. These mainly metallic nutrients are essential in maintaining healthy grass growth. In order to provide capacity it is necessary to provide the soil with organic matter which has a high CEC capacity. In our case this is provided by treatment with seaweed and molasses which provide a high level of retention of nutrients and all the measurements suggest that this policy is working. Along with the analysis a programme of treatment is proposed which is not only for the greens and surrounds but also for the fairways. Depending on the climatic conditions these recommendations will be taken into account when planning the treatment programme.
The irrigation system has been started up and issues that always arise on commissioning are being identified. So far they have established that the integrity of the system is fine and manual operation of the system is working normally. The next step is to assess the automatic operating system and the results of that will be available shortly, but it is expected that there will be further maintenance work necessary before we can bring everything back into full operation. As the system is now operational we should not have a problem watering as necessary in dry conditions.
We are in the process of purchasing divot bags so that we can repair divots on the course. Initially we will allocate them to members and their use should start to produce an improvement in the quality of the fairways. It is likely that we will have to wait until the Covid restrictions are eased before we can fully implement this essential part of maintenance and hopefully the diligent work of our membership will in time show effective results.
External assessments indicate that the course is in good condition to provide an excellent platform for great condition during the playing season. Hopefully we can all reap the benefit of this work.
Significantly the Spring treatment has been done while the course was closed. This was hollow tining followed by a sand dressing, which had settled in prior to golf resuming, removing any inconvenience normally caused by this procedure. For the technical amongst you this has involved making 10.8 million holes in the greens and applying 45 tonnes of 45 grade sand.
Although we have been experiencing a prolonged period of dry weather, which has allowed the course to dry out, the downside is that it has been accompanied by cold conditions which have not allowed the ground to warm up and have therefore retarded any early growth. We have 3 types of grass on our greens which are poa annua, fescues and bents. In the cold conditions we have at present it is only the bents that grow and this leads to a slightly uneven surface as growth occurs. Once the ground temperature rises we should see more even growth and better surfaces. Ideally we need to increase the amount of bent grasses on our greens and this will gradually happen as we over seed each year with predominantly bent grasses.
You will probably have observed the change in the shape of many of the green surrounds and approaches which will improve both the appearance and also the playability of the holes. This has required areas of semi rough or fairway to be cut to surround height and although these areas have been fertilised they will take time to establish themselves and become as good as the rest of the surrounds.
The fairways have now all been verti drained by outside contractors and the plan is to treat them with growth retardant, selective herbicide and nitrogen in early May. The growth retardant is not to reduce the amount of cutting necessary but to encourage a thicker sward and more luxurious fairways. This treatment is very unusual over such a large area but should further build on the improvements we have already seen over the past few years. The treatment, without the selective herbicide, will be repeated twice more during the season. We have over 60 acres of fairways at Wychwood, which is more than the entire acreage of some courses, and they are cut 2 times a week during the growing season. The rough has also been cut back and the intention is to have semi rough and normal rough as well as areas of heavy rough which should not normally interfere with play. This should make the course more user friendly and speed up play as it should be easier to find and hit your ball.
The annual soil analysis has now been carried out and shows that the levels of nutrients in our soil are in sufficient quantities to support healthy growth. An important measurement is the CEC level (Cation Exchange Capacity) which is the ability of the soil to capture and hold nutrients. Sand based greens on their own cannot hold nutrients and without treatment the nutrients would simply wash through the soil and be ineffective. These mainly metallic nutrients are essential in maintaining healthy grass growth. In order to provide capacity it is necessary to provide the soil with organic matter which has a high CEC capacity. In our case this is provided by treatment with seaweed and molasses which provide a high level of retention of nutrients and all the measurements suggest that this policy is working. Along with the analysis a programme of treatment is proposed which is not only for the greens and surrounds but also for the fairways. Depending on the climatic conditions these recommendations will be taken into account when planning the treatment programme.
The irrigation system has been started up and issues that always arise on commissioning are being identified. So far they have established that the integrity of the system is fine and manual operation of the system is working normally. The next step is to assess the automatic operating system and the results of that will be available shortly, but it is expected that there will be further maintenance work necessary before we can bring everything back into full operation. As the system is now operational we should not have a problem watering as necessary in dry conditions.
We are in the process of purchasing divot bags so that we can repair divots on the course. Initially we will allocate them to members and their use should start to produce an improvement in the quality of the fairways. It is likely that we will have to wait until the Covid restrictions are eased before we can fully implement this essential part of maintenance and hopefully the diligent work of our membership will in time show effective results.
External assessments indicate that the course is in good condition to provide an excellent platform for great condition during the playing season. Hopefully we can all reap the benefit of this work.