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| Yet more holes |
Recovery from drought stress and the poor irrigation system has meant patchy growth, with some parts of the green responding well to feeds and tining and other parts lagging far behind.
This has meant uneven, slow, bumpy surfaces compounded by greens mowers leaving a poor finish.
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| More sand |
Improvements are coming quickly with the lower receiving 10 ton of extra sand this week and seeded areas on greens are beginning to fill in.
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| Seed starting to pop |
Hi, can you explain why the greens are being left soo long so you have to really hit putts from even short distances? There is plenty of growth, also by having long grass on the greens it exaggerates the bare patches so when putting across them it is impossible to putt properly. This weekend both courses greens were ridiculously slow, every player said the same thing. This is not a one-off, the greens at Hainault are always very slow and don't know why they are never cut shorter. thanks
ReplyDeleteColin,
ReplyDeleteIt appears last weeks reply to you did not come through on the public site so lets try again.
Thank you for your comment. I do in many respects agree with much of what you said.
Greens would definitely run smoother if the long grass was cut shorter to better match the bare areas. The bare areas have been overseeded and this fresh seed needs protection from abrasive blades and wheels.
With only a few weeks of strong growth left I took the decision to turn off summer greens and move straight to Autumn recovery. This means lots of seed, dressing and extra fertiliser. Plus raising the height and adding to the mix such things as Calcium, Phosphates and extra Potassium to further boost plant strength.
Leaving greens stressed, hungry and patchy would be an invitation for poor surfaces for the next 4 months. Unfortunately the long term health of the greens is more important than any members competition even if that particular event is the club championship. We have spent a large percentage of the summer working on the irrigation so next year, even if hot, will not see sward loss to our current extent.
The second part of your comment I would definitely disagree with, for much of the spring and summer, greens have been stimping above 8.5 and generally around 9. This is obviously only important if the green is also smooth which is much more important from my point of view.
I hope this goes someway to answering your question and you can be sure that the lack of quality on the greens is felt more keenly by all the greenkeepers who take great pride in trying to create good surfaces.
Thanks Paul