Tuesday 22 March 2016

Course maintenance review

I'd just like to give everyone an update of the works we carried out on the golf course last week. One of the biggest fears for greenstaff at the start of any major renovation works is how the weather will hold up, obviously panning these work's the one thing we can't plan for is the weather, but thankfully mother nature was well and truly on our side this week.
The plan for the week was to aerate the greens with two different types of tines giving us varying degrees of depth and then work sand into the profile. Using two types of tines and depths allows us to break through any compacted layers that have formed during the winter. This will give newly formed roots greater access to nutrients and water within the soil profile. This will enable the grass plant to be better able to deal with the stresses that the surfaces will have to deal with during the playing season. The addition of top dressing to the surfaces will help with ball roll and smoothness and help dilute any organic matter.




Over the winter the club purchased a new Sweep & Fill Brush to help us work top dressing into the profile when we carry out top dressing operations. The success of this piece of machinery last week was staggering. So much so that we had to order an extra load of dressing in..!!! So our target of 40+ tonnes to work into the greens was achieved. The important point aswell is the majority of the sand was worked into the profile.






The greens were then rolled, and as the dry weather continues, we'll have to start putting on some water. Not something I thought we'd be doing 2 weeks ago when we were closed because the course was so wet..!!!!!

The rest of the maintenance week was spent verti draining & hollow coring green surrounds and aprons. These areas will now be fed and top dressed to help improve playability.





So I'd like to thank everyone for the understanding whilst we carry out the works during maintenance week and look forward to seeing everyone at the Divoeers Cleek on Good Friday.

Monday 14 March 2016

Course Maintenance

It's the time of year again greenkeepers both love and hate. As we hopefully emerge from the ravishes of winter and spring is nearly upon us, meaning better growing conditions & recovery from damage to the course from winter play. It's also the time when we start preparing the course for the forthcoming season. At  Muswell Hill that means we have the opportunity to work on the course during course maintenance week with the knowledge that any golfer disruption has been pre planned..!!!
This course maintenance our greens program will involve sand, sand & more sand, to quote a famous Scottish greenkeeper, and lots of holes. The greens will be top dressed, verti drained, top dressed again and then solid tined.
All these works are aimed at providing the best possible playing surfaces at Muswell Hill for the forthcoming golfing season.

Below is a brief explanation of the tasks we will be carrying out this week -


Solid Tine - These tines range from 8mm in diameter and are generally 6 inches in length. 
Verti Drain - This form of aeration uses a long 12inch tine, 18mm in diameter that penetrates through the entire depth of the rootzone profile. There is a small amount of disruption to the surface whilst we carry out this operation however once the green has been lightly rolled the quality of the surface is back to where it was before the operation took place.
Top Dressing - This term covers the application of sand to the surface of the turf for the purposes of smoothing the surface and enhancing thatch decomposition in turn leading to firm and smooth putting surfaces. 

Granular feeds will also be applied to the surfaces to aid recovery and generally make the grass plant healthier.

The rest of the playing surfaces will also be worked on this week with the focus after the greens on the aprons and green surrounds.














And the reason why Greenkeepers 'hate' this time of year.......



A certain golf tournament that is played this time of year, that although we all aspire too, sometimes we just have to appreciate that some things just have more mowers than we do.....




Sunday 6 March 2016

Woodland update

For the next post and like to offer an insight into the recent woodland management work we have been carrying out.
Let me try and explain the reasoning behind the removal of the bush on the 11th hole. To begin with the bush was actually a willow tree that had split and then regrown from the branches that had split. Overtime this has obviously been left and had grown to quite a size. Added to this there was a lot of invasive bramble that was growing in the area.
A couple of years ago we attempted to cut back & trim the area but this has since grown back more vigorously and also allowed more bramble to take hold. The decision to completely remove the split tree was taken with a couple of reasons in mind. Firstly to stop it encroaching any more onto the golf course, if left this would seriously have altered the way the hole both played and looked. The area is in need of draining and clearing the area now allows us, moving forward to drain the area more efficiently. It will also spread the wear area accessing the bridge crossing the stream.
Removing the damaged tree has also allowed to expose the cherry tree that was in the area, that can now become more of a feature for the hole.
The area will now be turfed and once the grass establishes be maintained at rough height.











In regards to the tree removal the majority of the work has been carried out to thin out copses and remove tree's with stunted stems or poor form. All our woodland management program is aimed at preserving the tree's we have at Muswell Hill that are so integral to the way the golf course looks and feels. We are aiming to sustain continuous cover of woodlands around the golf course so this means removing some tree's to allow younger, better species to grow and flourish. 







The copse to the left of the 11th tee has been worked on and cleared. We can now work on establishing grass cover in these areas whilst maintaining the tree's that are in this area.