Spring course maintenance

After a busy week on the course I'd like to give a quick recap on some of the work we carried out during the recent course maintenance week.
Firstly a thank you to the membership for the patience during the week whilst we carried out the works.
The opportunity to carry out some intensive works on the playing surfaces helps us repair damage caused by winter play and prepare for the forthcoming season.
To begin with works carried out on the greens focussed on reducing excessive organic matter content that had built up during the winter, increased organic matter is caused by the deposition of plant parts such as leaves, stems, and roots.
Excessive organic matter can restrict the infiltration of water and gas exchange between the atmosphere and the soil air space in pores, this can lead to softer playing surfaces that don't perform well during the season.
The way we tackled the organic matter build up was to double scarify the greens, a process that involves cutting a groove below the surface and removing material. Sand top dressing was then applied followed by solid tining to a depth of 7 inches. The addition of sand top dressing will aid the dilution of organic matter & aid surface drainage.

Once the dressings had been applied the sand was brushed into the surface. Further dressings were applied to improve surface smoothness. During the year we are aiming to put 100 tonnes of top dressings into the putting surfaces, to date we've managed to work just over 30 tonnes, so we're on our way but still have quite a way to go....

Granular fertilisers were added alongside overseeding to improve the grass sward density.

After the work on the greens had been completed the tees were hollow cored, this is were a core is removed and top dressing is added. This improves the soil profile & structure which helps improve drainage and sward health. The cores will be used around the course to fill in area that have worn over the winter. The tees were also over seeded.

Additional works will be carried out including top dressing & the application of granular fertilisers to help recovery &  stimulate growth.
These works will hopefully be less disruptive but are an important part of the maintenance program.