These blog posts have died a death this year, so first of all please let me apologise for that. I promise I will start posting more regularly from now on!
Monday the 1st of September sees the beginning of our 'Work Window.' I personally think this should be re-named 'Greens Maintenance Fortnight' as it seems like its creating a little confusion between our newer members and probably insinuates that we only do some 'work' in this fortnight! Which i can guarantee you thats not true!!
I would like to personally welcome all the new members that have joined this year and I wish you all the best at Trentham Park Golf Club.
The work that we are doing this next couple of weeks will be reasonably disruptive to the greens, there is no getting away from that I'm afraid. From tomorrow we are going to be using our Wiedenman aerator to punch 18mm(nearly 3/4") holes into the greens after layering the green with a bed of sand. This will then be brushed into the holes. We will then top up the sand to fill the holes up as best as we can.
After doing this operation to all of the greens the Wiedenman will go back to the shed for a quick grease up and a change of smaller 12mm(just under 1/2") tines and we will repeat the process.
WHY ARE YOU DOING IT TWICE? I here you ask!! If you imagine large 18mm holes in the green and then imagine a smaller hole going into the green afterwards this smaller hole will help to 'close' the larger holes up. This in turn will allow us to get almost double the amount of sand that we would normally get in. Afterwards they will all be topped up with sand, brushed in and rolled.
This operation will probably take most of the week and, like everything we do, is dependant on dry weather. You will notice greens with a thick layer of sand on just like the top picture, these will be left to 'bake' in the sun (should there be any!!) once dry the sand brushes in really well.
After the whole process is complete we will then be concentrating on recovery, this again, is VERY MUCH weather dependant. In ideal conditions we will be fertilising with a granular feed which will give the turf the nutrients it needs to recover, we will be putting some seed into the few bare areas that we have, and we will also be spraying the greens for pests such as Leather Jackets and Chafer Grubs. I also want to spray a product to wipe out the bits of moss that we have knocking about.
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| Chafer Grub |
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| Leather Jacket |
After all this is done it should set us up for the winter period pretty well!
I understand you all want to play golf on a course that is always good. But without us green staff doing disruptive work to the greens, things would go downhill fast! I hope you all understand that we can't stand still!
So, if you are fortunate enough to be playing next week, and you see us working hard on the greens, be sure to smile and give us a little wave! But please, pick your ball up and move to the next hole.
Thank you.
Leigh
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