Post-Greens Maintenance Week
Without rain for 15 days, and with only 16mm so far in the whole of August to date, conditions are very dry on the course. The greens have suffered during this time, and although moisture levels are fine, through using the overnight irrigation and some much needed targeted hand watering, the greens are still struggling in places to recover from the anthracnose disease outbreak over previous weeks. As I have said in previous updates, we assess what we have done so that we can improve for the future, especially in times of turf stress.
Recovery from the recent work on the greens is still ongoing, and we are trying to bring them up to speed as quickly as possible. We have also been short-staffed due to illness and annual leave, and so we have been stretched as a team in what we can achieve during this period. Danny, the new deputy head greenkeeper, starts in just over a week’s time, and will bring much needed experience to the team going forward.
Figure 1: New creeping bent seed running through a diseased patch of the green | Figure 2: Germinating seed.
Having been put in just a week ago, the new bent seed on the greens is really starting to show up now. We did raise the height of cut slightly (by 0.3mm!) to offer the new seed some protection in its infancy. More dressing will be applied next week to help with improved smoothness to the greens, and the greens cutting units will also be having new bottom blades and a fresh regrind, after all the work has blunted the blades, which has a large effect on smoothness and speed.
