Our golf course has no water bodies on it apart from the drainage ditches that run alongside most of the fairways. There are a few areas however that could potentially be made into small ponds with an inlet and outlet so that the water stream at the outlet side is still uninterrupted when the pond is bring fed.
After spraying a dew inhibitor it is quite easy to spot any areas that had been missed. Although I hate to admit it, from these pictures it is clear that I missed a spot or two.
This highlights the importance of the need to be 100% sure that the sprayer achieves 100% coverage. Although relatively small, these missed areas could make a difference to the area in which they are located.
Last week we sprayed the greens and aprons with the mixture of products seen in the pictures. This in the hope of helping strengthen the turfs resistance to disease.
Two weeks ago I was tasked with collecting soil samples from six of the greens on the course for testing at a lab. I was given six plastic sandwich bags and each was labelled with tge number of which green the sample needed to be collected from.
The head greenkeeper said that I need to take cores from five different areas on each green. Each time I needed to mix the soil from yhe core and place a small quantity into the bag. This in the hope of achieving a representative sample of the soil on each green.
For the past couple of months we have been spending most of our time blowing and collecting leaves. Thankfully, many of the deciduous trees have lost most of their leaves and we'll soon be able to carry on with other tasks.
Today we sprayed the greens and aprons with a dew inhibiting chemical. The head greenkeeper jokingly said that this is a good test of my spraying ability as any missed spots will be covered with dew.
I visited another golf course in London yesterday and found one of the trees had been labelled with OPM and a date. I also noticed what I assume is an old OPM nest.
On Monday this week the course had its first frost. The reason I mention this is because even though most of the turf on the course was covered with frost, the greens were still covered in dew which needs to be removed to reduce the chance of disease.
It seems to be common practice to burn garden refuse. I say this because I have noticed many houses doing this since autumn started.
Pictured here is a large smouldering fire fuelled by branches, bramble and wood chips from all the recent tree felling we have been doing.
I understand that certain waste is best eliminated by burning such as tgr bramble which could spread seed however I struggle to comprehend this exercise. Surely this green waste could be put to good use somewhere else?
Today was the first time that we cut the turf around the mounds left after installing the drainage on this fairway.
I was instructed to not drive over the mounds by any means.
We also leave the area roped off so that no trolleys can have access, although pedestrians are allowed.
Yesterday we needed to alter the pin-positions but it was quite tricky as the greens were saturated. This means that it is really difficult when you try and lift the core of the new hole you are making. This is because the water seems to create a seal which prevents any air from entering the cavity you are making and therefore the core is sucked into the hole and sometimes doesn't come up.
Our deputy head greenkeeper figured out that by making a small hole in the direction of the hole-changer until you make contact with it, you create an inlet that allows air to enter the base of the core. This prevents the core from staying behind and makes it easier to extract it too.
These photos show how the greens have recovered since being infected with Fusarium. Note how the recovery starts from the centre of the patches.
Over the course of last week all the fairways on the course were verti-drained.
In some instances they were also top dressed with a fine sand however this was only done on the ones that have the worst drainage.
Some more before and after pictures showing the tree maintenance that we are carrying out.
I have also included a photo of the chipper that we use to reduce the branches to wood chips. This is most useful for the removal of branches that would otherwise need to be further reduced in size with a chainsaw.
Yesterday and today we continued with tree maintenance on the course.
The head greenkeeper informed me that this has not been done on the course in many years (approximately 10) and we will be carrying on with this throughout winter.
Today the first assistant greenkeeper was tasked with slitting the greens. The pictures show how flat-triangular spikes make slits in the turfgrass followed by a roller which pushes down any areas that may have been lifted.
Our deputy-head greenkeeper informed me that this practice is normally carried out fortnightly from autumn through to winter and is intended to aerate the greens. This practice is not followed by top-dressing.
Today we got around to cutting up another tree that vfell in the heavy winds we had earlier this month.
It was quite a tricky task and I performed it under the guidance of our head greenkeeper who has over 15 years of experience with chainsaws.
Included here is a closeup of two chainsaws each with a different drive system. On the left is a sprocket and on the right is a rim and spline drive.
The reason I included these photos is because during today's task the chain brake broke on one of the saws. You can see this in the area that is circled on the photo. This brake is a vital safety feature on the saw and will prevent major harm to an operator if tge saw kicjs back.
Today we replaced two of the sleeper bridges with a more modern and grippier alternative, this being fibreglass grating. These come in standard sizes and are easily cut to size with a circular saw fitted with a diamond tip cutting disk.
Last week Monday we sprayed the greens with Eland however this week there is still some strong signs of disease (Fusarium) on one of the greens.
I was informed by our head greenkeeper that the shorter daylight period in combination with the turf constantly being covered with dew is what encourages the fungus to grow do strongly.
This week we started cutting all the deep-rough areas with a flail mower. This practice maintains the grassland areas and the head greenkeeper mentioned to me today that it also encurages wildflower growth.
Today we removed the rootball of the fallen tree and and at the instruction of our head greenkeeper we placed it in an area a fair distance out of play and hidden from the fairways. This could potentially create a valuable habit fot beetles, reptiles and other organisms too.
As seen in the pictures, we also repaired the damaged bridge just in time for the weekend however we still need to repair the damaged tar pathway.
Yesterday we had some strong winds on the course and unfortunately one of the old oak trees alongside the 11th green was blown over. Fortunately though the tree didn't fall directly onto the green and the apron and surrounds took most of the impact.
As you will see in the pictures, tge pathway bridge sustained some damage caused by the root ball that lifted.
Two of us managed to remove all but the rootball today with much chainsaw cutting, chipping, raking and blowing
When felling trees it is sometimes necessary to remove the remaining tree stump. This task is carried out by using a stump-grinder.
Although this is a time consuming process, as the stump is removed in small increments, it us largely effective in that no new shoots will grow as there will be no stump left over.
Today we removed all the spent geraniums from the gardens at the clubhouse.
These were easily removed by hand. Then the flower beds were raked clear of any dead leaves, turned over with a garden fork and raked level.
We are systematically going around the course and pruning all the trees that are in need. The goals of tge exercise are to remove any dead woodvand lift the crowns so machinery can drive beneath and so that when golfers land in the rough then they might still have a shot at the green without further penalty caused by low branches.
The one picture shows how a remaining stump has been cut into with the chainsaw. This is done to prevent regrowth of the unwanted tree and the idea is that water should be able to stand on the stump and encourage it to rot.
The greens on the course currently have quite a slow ball-rolling-speed even though we double-cut and double-rolled them with a turf-iron last week. The sward is noticeably quite thick and I immediately thought that we may be behind on the verti-cutting schedule. This however is not the case.
The head greenkeeper advised that there has been excessive growth because he didn't include a PGR in the last fertiliser application as this is what his literature suggests.
From this one can see that literature can be used as a guide only and not a sure schedule. The weather is always changing and a greenkeeper needs to adapt his practices to suit this.
The head greenkeeper aims to maintain all the heather around the course in its building phase and in order to do this he trimmed all the areas planted with heather using a totary mower set at approximately ten inches high.
There are four growth stages in the life cycle of heather plants. These are: pioneer phase, building phase, mature phase and the degenerate phase.
In the pictures one can see severe damage caused by the fungal infection as it has not been treated with a fungicide.
When maintaining bunkers it helps to create a step around the edges to prevent sand spilling out when golfers rake their footprints.
Yesterday we fertilised the fairways with a soluble granular fertiliser and added the plant growth regulator (PGR) Primo Maxx which is the preferred product of the head greenkeeper.
