Syringing the greens

Some greens are susceptible to dry spots. One way to overcome this is to water the dry areas ot some point throughout hot days. 

Temporary hole covers

We had previously covered this hole with some railway sleepers, however we did not overlap the edges enough (15-20cm) and some of the sleepers fell down into the hole.

The head greenkeeper sent us out to reinforce the covers by placing two long beams at the base and perpendicular to the existing beams. We overlapped these supporting beams at least 50cm on either side. Hopefully this will be sufficient to hold until we are ready to cover the hole permanently.

Bridge maintenance

One of the cross-beams on this bridge was starting to show signs of deterioration.  It was sagging and a slight crack was visible. This calls for immediate attention as it could result in an unnecessary accident.

The beam was replaced with another railway sleeper, however in order to keep the bridge uniform we placed the new beam at the end and put the end beam in place of the one that we removed. This means that all the beams are evenly worn in the centre of the bridge,  making it more aesthetically pleasing.

Heather conservation

This morning we sprayed a guide-line around some of the heather areas.

This is in order to prevent the machine operators from cutting into the heather bed.

A closeup view between the white line and the heather bed would reveal small shoots of heather plants that have  previously been mowed down.

Pin position alteration

This morning all the pin-positions on the greens were changed.

Our head greenkeeper advised that the pin should be no less than three paces (or the length of the pin) from the edge of the green.

He also said that one should try alternate the position of the pin between holes especially ones that immediately precede/follow one another.

As seen in the pictures,  any protruding leaf blades were trimmed in order to get the most clean-cut finish possible. When doing this, one should be extra cautious as trimming into soil could result in a brown coloured lip around the edge of the hole.

Silt in drainage channel

Today we had to remove some of the buildup of silt that was blocking water flow in one of the drainage channels.

This was done using a small digger. The silt was dumped in an out-of-play area and added to an existing mound that will eventually block visibiliyt of the recycle bays from one of the fairways.

Grass species

Today our head greenkeeper informed me that our greens are made up from approximately 70% Poa annua and 30% Agrostis palustris.

This is very interesting to me as I know Poa annua as a weed.

The head mentioned that this is common practice in the UK as the Poa annua is such a strong grower that there is no point in trying to get rid of it. He also mentioned that the consistent verti-cutting controls the seeds that usually accompany Poa annua.

Weed control

Today we had to weed certain areas of the course.  This was done through physical removal of the unwanted plants by using a spade to dig them out of the ground.

Trimming hedges

Today we started trimming a hedge around one of the tee boxes.

The head greenkeeper gave me some helpful advice being: when trimming a hedge with a hedge-trimmer one should only cut on an up-stroke.  This will prevent the trimmer being pulled into the hedge and avoid any unintentional gouges.

Top dressing the greens

The greens have recovered quite well since the work that was done on them last week.

Yesterday and today the greens were all brushed before cutting them. They were then top dressed lightly again today and the dressing was incorporated with a drag-mat.

Cleaning out the grass bays

Our golf club has grass bays scattered around the course for the greens staff to offload clippings into.

Yesterday we went around and emptied them all and if necessary trimmed any grass that was growing around them.

The head greenkeeper requested that we don't trim too much around the bays as ideally they should be hidden from the views of players.

Removing a fallen tree

Yesterday we had to remove a fallen tree from one of the rough areas.

This was done by cutting it up into smaller pieces with a chainsaw and then these pieces were taken away to our green waste recycling bays.

Grease on the green

I showed the head greenkeeper these marks on the greens having assumed it was oil.

He responded saying that it is most likely grease and not oil and carried on to tell me that it will most probably not kill the turf. He also mentioned that when oil from an engine falls onto the turf it is the heat that burns and kills the turf and not the oil itself.

Trimming Rhododendrons around the tee boxes

Today we started trimming the shrubs around one of the tee boxes.

This was done using two-stroke hedge trimmers. One was fitted to an extended arm which helped reach the higher spots.

Post course work - Green cutting

After 12mm if rain last night we found a stark difference when cutting the greens compared to yesterday.

I believe that the rain washed all the topsoil into the greens as even though there was dew on the greens the mowers did not lift any topsoil.

It is also worthwhile noting how many clippings are in the grass-box compared to yesterday. 

Great looking greens considering the work done on them just four days ago.

Post course work - Cutting greens with dew

Yesterday was the first day we cut the greens with the walk-behind mowers since working on them on Monday and Tuesday. 

There was dew on them and they picked up quite a lot of the top dressing. This meant that they all had to be swished to break up and re-incorporate the lifted top dressing.

One should also note how few clippings there are in the grass-box after cutting an entire green. There looks to be more topsoil than grass.

Soil/sand types

This picture shows the three types of media we currently use for top dressing or filling divots.

Fron left to right:
~ top dressing for greens
~ top dressing for aprons
~ rootzone mixture (for topdressing tees and filling divot holes)

Course work - hollow-tine the tee boxes

On Wednesday and Thursday we worked on  all the tee boxes as follows:

- mow
- hollow-core
- pick up all cores by hand (spades)
- blow excess debris off with a backpack blower
- topdress
- brush topsoil in  with mounted triplex brushes
- spread seed
- spread fertiliser

The tees were all blown clear again on Friday after they had been mown again.

Graden contour sand injection

Our head Greenkeeper is running a trial  using a Graden CSI.

This machine scarifies the ground but also fills the grooves made by tge scarification blades with both sand and seed. Each pass removes 15% of the surface.

In this case we completed two passes; removing 30% surface area in total.

This is the only green that we did this to and it is also the only supplementary cultural practice that this green was given.

Supplementary cultural practices - greens and aprons

In order to carry out some course work on the greens and aprons, 9 of the 18 holes on the course were closed on Monday and Tuesday. The front nine on Monday and the back nine on Tuesday.

The procedure was as follows :

- cut with a triplex mower

- bi-directional verti-cut

- clear remaining debris with backpack blowers

- hollow tine (different machines for greens and aprons)

- pick up cores

- clear remaining debris with backpack blowers

- verti-drain to a depth of nine inches

- double-roll with a turf-iron (greens only)

- topdress (different medium for aprons and greens in order to cut costs)

- brush top dressing in

- fertilise

- water

Indiscriminate herbicide application

A few months ago on 07-05-2014 I posted some pictures of what I had planted in a barren section of a drainage channel. Then on 16-07-2014 I posted some pictures of herbicides being applied to these channels. 

In this post I would like to highlight the importance of both communication and education. 

After I planted up this channel I did not communicate my efforts to the rest of the team.  If i had done this, I would have been able to explain my intentions and indirectly educated the team about the benefits that could arise from what I had done. Having failed to do this my efforts were in vain and no benefit has been gained .