Greens Report
July 2021
I am pleased to say that the course is now in excellent condition, with superb well paced greens, excellent surrounds and the beginnings of a real definition between the fairways and the different grades of rough.
We have come through a period where the green speed was slower than we would want and this was due to several factors. April was the coldest April on record and it was considered good course management not to cut the greens too short as this would have created problems during the summer. This was coupled with a heavy flowering of the poa annua grasses which also had an effect on the green speed. Poa annua flowers mainly in the Spring but can be unpredictable, particularly when it is under stress, as was the case during the early season. Although there is a variation in the percentage of this grass across our greens it is now less prominent and this has helped with the improvement of the green speed. The greens have now recovered and it is great to see the excellent grass coverage and good speed, running at between 9 and 10 on the stimp meter. I have never seen the greens in better condition and we are now reaping the benefit of the careful treatment in the early season. It would be a shame not to look after our greens so this is a plea to repair pitch marks, even though it is sometimes difficult to find your own there always others that can be repaired.
The green surrounds have been reshaped over the last year and where parts of the fairways have been changed to surrounds the areas have taken a while to adapt to their new purpose . All these areas have now been fertilised and we are starting to see the quality of these areas improving.
A principal part of the recent work has been on the fairways. They have had two treatments with growth retardant and wetting agents with a further one to follow. This will encourage a denser growth and we will see a gradual improvement in fairway quality. This is a new treatment and will hopefully pave the way to a better method of fairway maintenance, which is a vital element in the presentation of the course. A side effect of the treatment is that there has been some scorching of areas of Yorkshire Fog course grass. You will also have noticed extensive brown patches on all the fairways. This is caused by Red Thread which is a fungal disease and is common at this time of the year. If you look closely you can see the strands of red at the heart of the patches but the good news is that this is not detrimental to the fairways and will disappear as the fairways grow.
There has been a programme of cutting back areas of rough and after the initial unsightliness of the cuttings they are starting to disappear to leave well defined grades of rough. Eventually we will have to tackle the very heavy rough by flailing and collecting the cuttings on a regular basis. This will reduce the density of the grass and make it easier to find your ball but has to be done carefully to protect the environmental sensitivity of these areas.
Work continues on the irrigation system with a long term objective to return the system to full automatic operation. The good news is that the system is fully operational on a manual basis and that money has been made available for further work.
Bunkers continue to be a major issue and the renovation work will take several years to complete but will be an important part of the winter programme. The newly renovated bunkers are now in use and the new sand will settle in over the next few months. Rakes will be back in use soon so we will no longer be able to improve our lies, a harsh reality for many of us who have enjoyed good lies for the past year.
With the removal of most Covid restrictions we will be able to start the use of divot bags to reseed divots. We intend to start with bags distributed amongst 50 of our more diligent members and hopefully we will soon see the benefit of this leading the way to expand the programme.
We have come through a period where the green speed was slower than we would want and this was due to several factors. April was the coldest April on record and it was considered good course management not to cut the greens too short as this would have created problems during the summer. This was coupled with a heavy flowering of the poa annua grasses which also had an effect on the green speed. Poa annua flowers mainly in the Spring but can be unpredictable, particularly when it is under stress, as was the case during the early season. Although there is a variation in the percentage of this grass across our greens it is now less prominent and this has helped with the improvement of the green speed. The greens have now recovered and it is great to see the excellent grass coverage and good speed, running at between 9 and 10 on the stimp meter. I have never seen the greens in better condition and we are now reaping the benefit of the careful treatment in the early season. It would be a shame not to look after our greens so this is a plea to repair pitch marks, even though it is sometimes difficult to find your own there always others that can be repaired.
The green surrounds have been reshaped over the last year and where parts of the fairways have been changed to surrounds the areas have taken a while to adapt to their new purpose . All these areas have now been fertilised and we are starting to see the quality of these areas improving.
A principal part of the recent work has been on the fairways. They have had two treatments with growth retardant and wetting agents with a further one to follow. This will encourage a denser growth and we will see a gradual improvement in fairway quality. This is a new treatment and will hopefully pave the way to a better method of fairway maintenance, which is a vital element in the presentation of the course. A side effect of the treatment is that there has been some scorching of areas of Yorkshire Fog course grass. You will also have noticed extensive brown patches on all the fairways. This is caused by Red Thread which is a fungal disease and is common at this time of the year. If you look closely you can see the strands of red at the heart of the patches but the good news is that this is not detrimental to the fairways and will disappear as the fairways grow.
There has been a programme of cutting back areas of rough and after the initial unsightliness of the cuttings they are starting to disappear to leave well defined grades of rough. Eventually we will have to tackle the very heavy rough by flailing and collecting the cuttings on a regular basis. This will reduce the density of the grass and make it easier to find your ball but has to be done carefully to protect the environmental sensitivity of these areas.
Work continues on the irrigation system with a long term objective to return the system to full automatic operation. The good news is that the system is fully operational on a manual basis and that money has been made available for further work.
Bunkers continue to be a major issue and the renovation work will take several years to complete but will be an important part of the winter programme. The newly renovated bunkers are now in use and the new sand will settle in over the next few months. Rakes will be back in use soon so we will no longer be able to improve our lies, a harsh reality for many of us who have enjoyed good lies for the past year.
With the removal of most Covid restrictions we will be able to start the use of divot bags to reseed divots. We intend to start with bags distributed amongst 50 of our more diligent members and hopefully we will soon see the benefit of this leading the way to expand the programme.