A busy period on the golf course as we attempt to finish any outstanding work before we get going in early season.

The entrance has had a much improved spruce up along with some of the shrub beds around the 1st Tees.  We have also finished some turfing jobs on the golf course, including the 9th Tee Old and the 8th green Old.

New bed

The 11th green on the Old course has been poor for a number of years.  Earlier in the winter we cleared large swathes of the woodland behind the green to not only help the woodland florish but also to impove light and air flow onto the green.  We have now removed the mounding behind the green to enable water to run off into the ditch.  We then returfed this area and also took the opportunity to enlarge the green to gain some extra pin positions. 

11th Old

Green Extension

9th Tee Old

 Course looking good at the moment in preparation for spring.  Greens have been tined and topdressed once and will be done again in the next few weeks.  Most of the rest of the course has been aerated and we await some warm weather.  With the dry and cold weather we are cracking on with tree work around the golf course.  Opening out the canopy to help new growth and encourage wildflower growth, removing invasive species and clearing out dead and dangerous trees has all been achieved.

Removing invasive holly

We have also created a new piece of pipework to hopefully improve irrigation pressure on the golf course.  10th Old has been joined to the 12th green London through the trees with nearly 200 metres of pipe.  This will help the pressure on a number of our weakest greens in the height of summer, with better coverage to the surfaces.  We will also fit new valves to further help on the 12th green London.

 

New pipework

As well as solid-tining, 2 greens were hollow-tined.  One, the 18th on London in order to repair the bike damage.  This was also seeded so should recover fully once the weather breaks.  The 11th green Old, not helped by the lack of light, water sitting on the green and general poor condition was also seeded to speed up recovery.  The back of this collar and surround is being leveled soon and the wet spot at the back of the green is having a drain run through it before spring.

11th Old

 Well the weather is predictably wet.  A wet December has pretty much caught us up after a dry year.  January has started in much the same way, so the course is looking pretty sorry for itself at the moment.  The order of the day therefore is staying off the golf course.  As fewer machine marks as we can and limited works on the in play areas.  Pathways are pretty much finished for the winter season, with only the extension on the 1st London to finish once we have some drier weather.

Right 9th Upper

Woodlands are now the order priority with the first stage of work being completed on the pathway from the 9th Tee Upper and the 13/14 London and around the 14th Tee area.  Once done, we are finishing the small section between 8 and 14 on the Upper and around the new Tee mat on the 2nd Upper.  We will then move to our big section for the winter, to the left of the 9th fairway Upper.  This will need extensive removal of tall, unstable silver birch and the clearence of the under storey, through to the 11th green Upper.

14th Tee London

 Once we get the sniff of some dry weather greens are to be deep tined, with 10mm tines down to a depth of  250mm, along with 2 ton of sand a green.