Happy New Year and apologies for the late report!
In December our tinning work continued on the greens, and they have been solid tined to a depth of 3/4 inches which will just break through the crown of the plant to allow the exchange of gases. The surfaces have continued to have great coverage over the winter so far, albeit the greens have been soft due to the recent heavy rain, and we are trying to help reduce this by targeting the wet greens with the installation of drains, like the below that was installed on the 7th.
Thank you for your patience over the past few weeks with temporary greens, we try to only put these in when necessary and it’s a difficult balance between trying to get main greens in play and protecting them enough so that we can all enjoy great greens going into the spring! We would also like to ask that buggies please keep to the rough and if an area looks too wet, drive around it.
The greens have had an application of fungicide to help prevent disease in this wet and mild weather (perfect fusarium weather) and a winter turf hardening package to help toughen the plant ahead of the cold months and reduce the chances of disease.
Winter Projects
The winter works have continued and we have now added another water system isolation valve. This means that we can now isolate the course into four sections which is important to ensure that if we do have a leak, the watering system can continue to be used in larger areas until the repair has been made.
More dead trees have been removed, with approximately 20 more to go and the work on the old and woody areas of gorse continues.
In addition to the above, new mats have been put out on the 2nd & 9th tees, we have raised two sunken water system boxes and winter maintenance of the machinery has started.
This will be my last report as Head Greenkeeper and I am proud to have held this position. I will soon be going to 3 days a week but doing all I can to continue being a positive and proud member of our great team.
Thank you for all your support and over to you Matt!
Vince Vosper
Head Greenkeeper