Greens Update - May 2023
Hi everyone,
The golf course has finally woken up from its winter slumber and we are experiencing steady growth on all areas of the course now. This presents its own challenges to the staff and the machinery, but we will endeavour to create the best presented golf course as possible.
Ever since we had the greens mower units sharpened on the Friday before The Rosebowl, the greens surfaces have come on well. It makes such a difference to be cutting the course with sharp mowers and when our own grinders arrive on site the future for the surfaces will be a much healthier one. The tees, semi rough and fairway mower units will be sharpened towards the end of the month, and so we will then see increased presentation levels for the main summer period.
The greens have also received a feed of Nitrogen along with two different growth suppressants. This may sound counter intuitive but the whole idea is that we can control the amount of growth we are having and prevent the poa seed heads from growing out of control. One of the suppressants specifically targets the growth of these seed heads, which in turn makes for an increase in the smoothness of the greens.
The greens have also received an application of seaweed, biostimulants, and humic and fulvic acids. This concoction is a perfect food for the biology in the soil and this in turn will help feed the soil and the turf from below. It will also help to condition the soil and help not to build any excess thatch in the profile.
Next week on Monday we will be carrying out some necessary maintenance on the greens. This will consist of some regular solid tine aeration, verticutting, topdressing and brushing. We will keep this work to minimum disturbance so we can work efficiently and stay out of the way of any golf as much as possible.
Verticutting is a light scarification which will help to remove any lateral growth, as well as helping to remove unwanted thatchy material in the top surface.
This is then replaced with a composted topdressing, which will again encourage more life in the organic matter, helping to break it down.
The moisture levels in the greens at the minute are very high, however it is to be expected with us having 29mm of rain in the last week. I have taken readings on all the greens with the POGO moisture meter and it is clear to see from the visual insights that it produces. Using this vital tool, we can monitor levels of moisture, salinity, and soil temperature to help us make decisions on fertiliser inputs, heights of cut, irrigation cycles and maintenance procedures. Below are a few image examples of what data we receive when taking readings.
Figure 1: 14th green, with no shade, in an open area shows a higher level of temperature than others.
Figure 2: The 17th green, nearly always in shade, shows a lower temperature.
The pictures above show the difficulty we have in trying to achieve consistency around the golf course. We would like to have all greens the same, but that is nigh on impossible with the location of some greens.
Temperature of greens is one thing, but moisture is the key factor when trying to produce quality putting surfaces. Too much moisture favours weed grasses and leads to balls plugging and far too many pitchmarks. In an ideal situation we would be looking for 25-27% moisture in the greens. That is every day, green to green. Now obviously that is very difficult to achieve with changing weather conditions and greens locality.
But we will try and keep on top of these readings and make sure the greens are as consistent as possible. We use wetting agents to help with this. The wetters help to move moisture more uniformly across the green, making the high and low spots as uniform as possible.
Figure 3: Clear differences in moisture levels can be seen on areas of greens, from green to green.
The 9th green clearly shows a large difference in moisture levels over the whole green. It is key that as moisture levels drop to our optimum of around 25%, we keep an eye on those small areas of greens likely to drop below this level first.
Figure 4: The 16th green clearly showing that the tree to the left of the green draws out moisture from the green surface.
The tees have all been fed with a granular product which carries some longevity to it. This should give us some consistent growth over the next couple of months or so, to aid recovery from play. We will also be giving the tees a growth suppressant tonic, so that the growth is not vertical but sideways and into the root system. This will help to thicken up the sward and present them better. Newly sharp blades will also increase presentation, and this will be done soon.
Figure 5: Tees coming on after their recent feed.
The approaches will be receiving the same type of process as the tees and the collars have already had their granular feed, so we should see some improvements over the coming weeks.
The fairway spiking has commenced with the Wiedenmann GXi8 spiker, and it makes an instant difference. All the fairways, tees and approaches will be spiked down to about six inches, allowing surface water to escape more quickly, and roots to develop deeper. This work will be ongoing when time and weather conditions allow. Some of the weaker areas on the fairways and other areas will be also fed with a soluble feed soon to encourage better coverage in the long run.
Figure 6: 14th fairway looking well after a spike and a cut.
We also had a demonstration of a cut and collect machine this week. The Grillo 2200 was tried out in a couple of areas to see how it performed. The results were very positive. We scarified a section of the 2nd fairway and the Grillo was used to pick up all the debris. We then took the machine down to the rough area to the left of the 14th fairway and used it to cut down the long and thick grass to a more manageable and playable level. It coped very well in both areas.
Figure 7: Second fairway area scarified and collected.
Figure 8: Thick area on left of 14th. Before.
Figure 9: Same area after.
Now probably the area letting us down the most at the minute is the bunkers. They are a very time-consuming area of the course, with raking, sand depth checking, weeding, strimming, spraying and general shaping all taking a lot of time. Over the last couple of weeks, we have had two bank holidays which has resulted in around 80 hours of maintenance time being lost from the staff not being in. We have spent a lot of time over the last couple of weeks keeping on top of the growth that has started all around the course. However, now that it is under control, we will turn our attention to the other areas of the course, such as bunkers and trees.
All the bunkers are to be strimmed, blown, and raked. All the weeds will be sprayed with a weedkiller. We will spend some time in the bunkers moving sand around so that they become more playable. This will also show us which areas are in most need of more sand being added. All the trees will be strimmed round and the bases weedkilled, work that has already been started in certain areas.
In the early spring time we carried out some work on some paths to try and alleviate some of the wear issues on them. The path from the 6th green to the 7th tee was edged properly and a lot of the muddy old material, which was just producing mounds of grass, was removed. The old path material which remains has mixed in with the subbase and it is now not in ideal condition moving forward. However, the path is to be improved. We are looking to bring in a demo machine which will turn over the path and once rolled, be like a new surface again. This is not a final solution though to our paths around the course. This subject was recently discussed at the greens committee meeting and more long-term solution options are being investigated for the future.
We have roped off certain areas of high traffic wear for a limited period to help those areas have further recovery time. These areas will receive maintenance work to them to try and improve them for the future. Once this work has been carried out, they will be brought back into play.
There is a lot of work going on right now and all the staff are working hard to keep on top of presentation levels so that you can all enjoy the course as much as possible.
Steve Hemsley
Head Greenkeeper
