As I write the first blog post of 2016 on the 11th January, 90mm of recorded rainfall has fallen onto the golf course this year. I wont lie to you, the course is struggling to cope. Fairway drains, ditches and outlets are overflowing just with the shear volume of water that is moving across the course. This level of rain has meant some days of course closures. To have to close the golf course is one of the worst feelings for a Greenkeeper, and especially for me as course manager. It is a feeling of defeat, that there must have been something else we could have done to help drain the course quicker, in this instance we have to admit mother nature has beaten us down but not defeated us. The course closures have been implemented to help minimise course damage, it's a tough call but I don't wont to cause even more damage to the playing surfaces when we have still to enter a period of cold weather with no recovery available to the surfaces. So as I have said we have suffered, not as bad as some, but progress is being made. The greens that were drained in the autumn are performing really well and the aeration & topdressing that has been carried out is helping the water move through the soil profile's quicker so we can hopefully be open, with less damage caused, that little bit quicker. The air flow round the course has been improved with the woodland management practices that we have been carrying out so that too is progress. The recent wet period has again highlighted areas that we need to tackle with more drainage. And that is what we must continue to do, install more drainage and provide playing surfaces that are able to drain quicker. So the greenstaff will be out repairing pathways, bunkers and general damage caused by the weather, but hopefully you will be able to see all this work going on because the golf course will be open.....
