Summer 2016
This summer started with very wet and mild conditions leading to growth rates far higher than usual. Some of this was controlled with applications of [growth regulator] primo maxx to fairways, tees and greens. Obviously it isn’t viable to apply a growth regulator on rough areas. Consequently, cutting frequency increased in and around the coarser areas.
July started with very hot weather, temperatures actually reaching up to 30 degrees at times and night temperatures staying above the 20-degree mark. A good deal of time was spent applying wetting agents and hand watering collars and greens to prolong photosynthesis (which makes the grass green!).
These conditions have enabled us to apply dressing at a good rate this year, applying over 100 tonnes between January and the end of July, this is very effective when it comes to diluting our thatch layer and will help greens to be a little truer & firmer in the winter.
To minimise erratic growth we have continued to apply liquid feeds with Primo Maxx (The active ingredient in Primo Maxx, is trinexapac-ethyl, this agent causes a temporary halt to the production of gibberellic acid, a plant growth hormone which is responsible for the top growth of the plant. Trinexapac-ethyl is taken up by the foliage of the grass plant and is translocated systemically to the growing point of the plant. After application the turf grass grows more slowly than in untreated areas, with shorter leaf blades, this product is used on our tees, greens and fairways).
Although we have been using a growth regulator the grass sward can still thicken up to give the surface a woolly look and can slow the ball roll and affect the trueness of the greens. To combat this scruffy look we use vertical cutting (or as we call it a “verti-cut”), it looks like this:
Vertical mowing prunes the grasses and will thin out the surface also improving tillering and stolon formation. In time this increases turf density and is very important for the maintenance of fine turf areas.
We were fortunate to be in a position to purchase a new unit for this process directly from the home of golf, St Andrews.
Greens maintenance: Renovations started in mid-August. We used a deep [solid] tine on greens to a depth of 210mm with a 10mm tine then the greens were hollow cored with an 8mm [micro]hollow tine. followed by a double pass with the scarify units set to 6mm below the surface. Ordinarily we don’t undertake work this invasive nor disruptive to the playing surface, however, it was critical that we hit them hard as there was an obvious and large build up of thatch mainly down to mild growing conditions throughout the last two winters.
The Greens Staff applied a 90 – 10 sand and fen soil top dressing this was brushed into the holes using a mechanical brush and blowers. The surface was slightly uneven throughout the process, however it is well on its way to recovery (as at 23rd August). With the weather conditions as they are our team will be on the lookout for anthracnose (this is a foliar disease or a basal rot of the lower stem). Anthracnose is normally stress driven, in this case it likely caused by the high heat levels we had back in July, low cutting heights, and heavy wear. We will be applying a liquid feed little and often throughout the next month or so in order to keep the grass plant as healthy as possible. With luck this should be enough to prevent an outbreak.
Forward Maintenance: The plan is to deep tine around November with continued light aeration in the form of solid star tining and sarel rolling in between, this is not particularly invasive and should not cause much of a problem to the ball roll. (Sarel rolling is a form of light aeration, essentially it is a steel roller with hundreds of minuscule 25mm long 6mm wide spikes), the idea is to make lots of small holes in the surface to get air into the thatch layer and to make the surface drain better after all the traffic from golfers and cutting machines have been over them. It also creates channels for topdressing to go in to this helping us dilute the thatch layer.
Also in the plan is to carry out some thatch removal in mid-winter followed by applications of sand. This could be in the form of scarification or micro-coring, it is weather dependant and the decision will be made closer to the time. We will try and carry out all aeration in a manner where we will have minimal disturbance to the playing surface with maximum long term benefits.
Tees: Renovations will take place in early September. We will be deep tinning and scarifying these areas. The tees will have the blocks moved daily and the divots repaired. The height of cut will remain at 10mm for September and October but raise up to 13mm for the winter. Liquid feeds will be applied along with a growth regulator until the end of September again depending on the weather.
Fairways: Fairways will be brushed and cut to remove all the lateral growth, however, this can only be done in dry conditions.
Rough: We will start to cut our deep rough in September, this will be cut and bailed then some areas sprayed with rescue. Rescue is a highly selective grass herbicide, for the removal of Ryegrass whilst leaving the fine turf grasses to fill in. The areas we will spray will turn yellow to start with then recover over time. This work is again weather dependant but needs to be complete by the end of October.
Projects
2nd Fairway
The big walnut tree on the right hand side of the 2nd fairway fell down in the strong winds last winter. We left it there for the summer to keep a bit of character in the hole, ultimately we will remove the tree but until then it remains GUR. After discussions with Donald Steel we have decided to bring in a tree spade to move some trees to the RHS of the fairway to replace the dead walnut, we will choose a selection of established tree, all from the estate, this means they will have a very good chance of survival given that the already thrive in our chalky soil.
3rd & 9th
We will continue to clear under the trees in run off areas, principally to assist with ball location and of course speed up play.
11th Fairway
As on 2, the dead tree will be removed this winter but until removal it remains GUR.
12th renovation
We will be renovating our signature hole the 12th this year. We would like to restore the 12th hole’s former glory and to have it play as Donald Steel originally intended. We will work on the bunkers, rock face and some of the vegetation surrounding the green and tee. We will be filling in the middle front bunker and reshaping the two remaining bunkers on the left and right. The rock face will be scraped with the weed removed and spoil taken away returning it to a “White Cliff’s” look.
14th Drainage
There will be a series of drains installed to the left hand side of the 13th green on the walk off from the 14th tee. This area is one of the only areas on the golf course that get really wet and stays wet for most of the winter. This work will be carried out in late September before the area gets too wet to work on.
16th Ladies tee
We will be completing the construction of a new tee on the 16th for the ladies, this will be in the deep rough to the right hand side of the hole along the tree line. Work on this area started last year but the weather took hold and we could not carry on. We will start this project in October.
Range
The decision has been made to dig up the raised synthetic driving tee behind the mats that we installed last year and move it onto the range to create a target to aim at. We will also be laying at least one more synthetic tee for winter use. Additionally we will be doing more than routine renovation to the grass teeing areas so that next season they will be properly fit for purpose.
Longer Term
Having had extensive conversations with Donald Steel we have developed a number of ideas which will warrant further consideration over the next two to three years. These include:
6th Bunker. Our plan is to fill in the front most of the bunkers as Mr Steel feels that it is overly penal to play from one and potentially find yourself in the next.
Tree planting. As part of our effort to wage a war on slow play we’ve decided to move some mature trees to strategic points on the course to provide reference points for estimating where their ball may have come to rest. This will assist members, guests and visitors alike in locating stray shots.
We are looking also at improving the paths around the course. Our immediate focus will be to the left hand side of the 3rd hole which does get churned up a little during the winter months. Any new or improved paths will mirror the work conducted last year between 15 & 16.
The bunkers on 13 and 14 are less than perfect. We will look to improve the look and playability of these bunkers over the next two to three years. It is unlikely that this will involve re-vetting…
As previously mentioned we will attempt to reduce the amount of invasive rye grass in the long rough. Rye grass is the short, thick grass which hides your ball and makes location problematic. We will continue to apply the selective herbicide “Rescue” in the areas immediately adjacent to the fairways so that less wild shots are less harshly punished than others… This is a 4 – 5 year programme but should help us to manage our rough in a fashion similar to Bearwood Lakes or The Grove.
Staff
There has been quite a big change in our green keeping team this summer with two very experienced members of staff leaving in April. Not the best time to be two experienced guys down, however we managed to shuffle some things around a bit and the guys really dug deep to not let the standards drop and even slightly raise standards this year. I’m really happy with the team around me, Joe Drummond has stepped up to Deputy Course Manager, and we have managed to get an old colleague of mine that has been gaining great experience at Wentworth for the last two years he is our First Assistant Greenkeeper. Mike Davey is another new member of our staff and he brings valuable experience from two local golf clubs. James Downey has moved internally from the bar and is ¾ the way through his NVQ 2 in sports turf maintenance and is doing great. We also have Jon Owin. He has been contracting for us and is also a great team member. Last but not least we have our summer greenkeeper that will be leaving us 1st of September to go back to Cardiff University studying rat protein!!!! All round we have a great team that will put in that extra shift to make a difference on the golf course.
Course Updates/Information
As a reminder for members we update the twitter feed @harleyfordgreens daily this is then fed into the homepage of the website – please keep an eye out for information re: planned and unplanned maintenance.
For those without twitter/internet access we will of course continue to post relevant information on the board immediately adjacent to the range ball dispenser.
Also in the plan is to carry out some thatch removal in mid-winter followed by applications of sand. This could be in the form of scarification or micro-coring, it is weather dependant and the decision will be made closer to the time. We will try and carry out all aeration in a manner where we will have minimal disturbance to the playing surface with maximum long term benefits.
Tees: Renovations will take place in early September. We will be deep tinning and scarifying these areas. The tees will have the blocks moved daily and the divots repaired. The height of cut will remain at 10mm for September and October but raise up to 13mm for the winter. Liquid feeds will be applied along with a growth regulator until the end of September again depending on the weather.
Fairways: Fairways will be brushed and cut to remove all the lateral growth, however, this can only be done in dry conditions.
Rough: We will start to cut our deep rough in September, this will be cut and bailed then some areas sprayed with rescue. Rescue is a highly selective grass herbicide, for the removal of Ryegrass whilst leaving the fine turf grasses to fill in. The areas we will spray will turn yellow to start with then recover over time. This work is again weather dependant but needs to be complete by the end of October.
Projects
2nd Fairway
The big walnut tree on the right hand side of the 2nd fairway fell down in the strong winds last winter. We left it there for the summer to keep a bit of character in the hole, ultimately we will remove the tree but until then it remains GUR. After discussions with Donald Steel we have decided to bring in a tree spade to move some trees to the RHS of the fairway to replace the dead walnut, we will choose a selection of established tree, all from the estate, this means they will have a very good chance of survival given that the already thrive in our chalky soil.
3rd & 9th
We will continue to clear under the trees in run off areas, principally to assist with ball location and of course speed up play.
11th Fairway
As on 2, the dead tree will be removed this winter but until removal it remains GUR.
12th renovation
We will be renovating our signature hole the 12th this year. We would like to restore the 12th hole’s former glory and to have it play as Donald Steel originally intended. We will work on the bunkers, rock face and some of the vegetation surrounding the green and tee. We will be filling in the middle front bunker and reshaping the two remaining bunkers on the left and right. The rock face will be scraped with the weed removed and spoil taken away returning it to a “White Cliff’s” look.
14th Drainage
There will be a series of drains installed to the left hand side of the 13th green on the walk off from the 14th tee. This area is one of the only areas on the golf course that get really wet and stays wet for most of the winter. This work will be carried out in late September before the area gets too wet to work on.
16th Ladies tee
We will be completing the construction of a new tee on the 16th for the ladies, this will be in the deep rough to the right hand side of the hole along the tree line. Work on this area started last year but the weather took hold and we could not carry on. We will start this project in October.
Range
The decision has been made to dig up the raised synthetic driving tee behind the mats that we installed last year and move it onto the range to create a target to aim at. We will also be laying at least one more synthetic tee for winter use. Additionally we will be doing more than routine renovation to the grass teeing areas so that next season they will be properly fit for purpose.
Longer Term
Having had extensive conversations with Donald Steel we have developed a number of ideas which will warrant further consideration over the next two to three years. These include:
6th Bunker. Our plan is to fill in the front most of the bunkers as Mr Steel feels that it is overly penal to play from one and potentially find yourself in the next.
Tree planting. As part of our effort to wage a war on slow play we’ve decided to move some mature trees to strategic points on the course to provide reference points for estimating where their ball may have come to rest. This will assist members, guests and visitors alike in locating stray shots.
We are looking also at improving the paths around the course. Our immediate focus will be to the left hand side of the 3rd hole which does get churned up a little during the winter months. Any new or improved paths will mirror the work conducted last year between 15 & 16.
The bunkers on 13 and 14 are less than perfect. We will look to improve the look and playability of these bunkers over the next two to three years. It is unlikely that this will involve re-vetting…
As previously mentioned we will attempt to reduce the amount of invasive rye grass in the long rough. Rye grass is the short, thick grass which hides your ball and makes location problematic. We will continue to apply the selective herbicide “Rescue” in the areas immediately adjacent to the fairways so that less wild shots are less harshly punished than others… This is a 4 – 5 year programme but should help us to manage our rough in a fashion similar to Bearwood Lakes or The Grove.
Staff
There has been quite a big change in our green keeping team this summer with two very experienced members of staff leaving in April. Not the best time to be two experienced guys down, however we managed to shuffle some things around a bit and the guys really dug deep to not let the standards drop and even slightly raise standards this year. I’m really happy with the team around me, Joe Drummond has stepped up to Deputy Course Manager, and we have managed to get an old colleague of mine that has been gaining great experience at Wentworth for the last two years he is our First Assistant Greenkeeper. Mike Davey is another new member of our staff and he brings valuable experience from two local golf clubs. James Downey has moved internally from the bar and is ¾ the way through his NVQ 2 in sports turf maintenance and is doing great. We also have Jon Owin. He has been contracting for us and is also a great team member. Last but not least we have our summer greenkeeper that will be leaving us 1st of September to go back to Cardiff University studying rat protein!!!! All round we have a great team that will put in that extra shift to make a difference on the golf course.
Course Updates/Information
As a reminder for members we update the twitter feed @harleyfordgreens daily this is then fed into the homepage of the website – please keep an eye out for information re: planned and unplanned maintenance.
For those without twitter/internet access we will of course continue to post relevant information on the board immediately adjacent to the range ball dispenser.
