February Gales change the shape of the course.

Wow! They were some strong winds on wednesday night. Probably the strongest I have ever experienced. They were that strong I had to chase the contents of my wheelie bin down the street at one point! The good news is, our new fence stayed up around the office area!! The bad news is that we've lost a dozen+ trees, 5 of which we have lost on the 3rd hole.

We've lost 3 large trees from the right hand side, and a couple on the left hand side.
We've lost a couple from the 10th hole one from the 12th, and the rest on park side with the walk upto the 14th tee being the worst affected. These have now been either collected, or made safe and piled for collection at a later date. I don't like to tempt fate, however I will on this occasion by saying we've got away lightly compared to some golf courses. With one course not so far away from us losing 50+ trees, thats a lot of work just before the season starts! Lets hope we are near the end of the bad weather but something tells me we're in for much more in the near future i'm afraid!
Other work that has been completed since my last blog post are: The large conifer on the corner of the car park has been removed. I had this inspected by a tree surgeon and he deemed it dangerous as the top half of the tree was either dead, or dying so it was going to come down causing some danger at some point so we decided to take it out. I must say what a difference to the view from the car park it has made, you can actually see the course!!

We've been very busy in the sheds for the last week or so, i've already mentioned the new fencing that been put up around the office area. This will be painted as soon as the weather permits. We've had a damn good tidy up of the sheds where we have given all of the hand tools a new home, I must say it looks ten times better and will allow us to be much more efficient.
You may have also noticed that there are no hole signs out next to each tee anymore? These have had a massive overhaul. With all the old paint and varnish sanded off and a new varnish put on, we have also ordered new sign boards, which hopefully will look even better than the original ones. I can honestly say that the wood frame looks better now than when they were new!

We are looking for new hole sponsors at the moment at a bargain price which I believe includes a free fourball, so please if you wish to advertise your company on our signs then reply to this blog and I will put you in touch with the relevant department. Hurry though as they're getting taken up fast!!
Other jobs for the for the next couple of weeks include servicing all of our machinery, clearing out around the 17th tee, clearing the back of the 16th green reshaping the woodland close to the 14th tee putting in a new path way around the 14th tee area, and sorting out the banking around the car park.
Busy busy busy!
Leigh