All greens have been aerated with the Air2g2 with the two outside tines at 225mm (9") and the centre 150mm (6") see picture below.
Lee & Greenkeeping Team
The rate of recovery on the greens has been slow and compromised by the prevailing unseasonably cool weather conditions of late. Cold night time temperatures and lack of rainfall has held back the recovery. Yesterdays rainfall was very welcome (39 mm) and should speed up the recovery process along with the increased night time temperatures There are signs of seed coming through on most greens which is encouraging. We are still having to cut the greens at winter height to protect any new seedling. Unfortunately this will slow up the greens along with the sudden spurt in growth. Also the height of cut will exacerbate the bare areas and potentially make them more bumpy for a while. The annual meadow grass (Poa annua) is seeding at the moment this will also add to the slowness and bumpiness. The annual meadow grass seeding could indeed help us with the seeds falling into some of the bare areas. The plan going forward remains the same as my last blog. The greens were sarel rolled, top dressed, seeded, brushed and rolled on Monday with seaweed applied on Wednesday, we will try to do this weekly. We will also continue to overseed the bare areas with bent seed as and when the weather lets us All greens have been aerated with the Air2g2 with the two outside tines at 225mm (9") and the centre 150mm (6") see picture below. The pictures below show a clear difference in soil texture. The top three inches is the sand we have built up over the past few years and the darker soil below is the fine compacted soil. The picture on the right shows our core holes from our August renovation is penetrating into the poor soil below but not deep enough. General course condition has been very good with all the disease scars on the fairways healing well from the winter. Tee's and approaches performing well. pictures below show the effects of the rainfall we had yesterday. Thank you for reading
Lee & Greenkeeping Team
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An update from Paul Woodham visit from the STRI (our agronomist). I covered in depth in my last blog what I thought was causing the problems with the greens. Below are some bullet points from our visit (should make for easier reading).
- Grass loss caused by poor draining soils at a depth of 75mm. - Previous dressing used is the main cause of the problem. Where the particle size of the previously used dressing is too small/fine the water is not draining through it fast enough. The top 75mm is free draining. - Where the two dressings meet is the problem area causing a perched water table. The fineness of the dressing has caused the soil to become tight and compact. - With compaction comes poor rooting, loss of grass and poor drainage. - The chemical I sprayed had minor scorching effect on a small number of areas but has not caused the loss of grass. - The problems have accumulated over the past years with the amount of golf now played on 125 year old greens and the fact we do not use temporary greens during frost and wet weather. - Some of the areas have been caused by frost damage especially on the putting green. SHORT TERM PLAN - Overseed greens with a fescue/bent seed. - Regular brushing and light dressing. - Sarel rolling. - Regular light liquid feeding and seaweed. MEDIUM TERM PLAN - Increase the use of the Air2g2 at different depths. - Micro hollow coring on the worst greens. - Re-think our August renovation work and solid tine rather than hollow core. LONG TERM PLAN - Introduce pipe drainage to all greens (plan to be formulated) - Increase use of Air2g2. - Annual deep aeration. - introduce temporary greens and possibly closure of putting green in frost. The weather is against us at the moment. Whilst we are having good temperatures during day the night time is still very cold. Current ground temperature on the greens is 9 degrees we are looking for 12 - 14 for any consistent growth. Also the lack of moisture is a major factor. We have had 32mm since the 1st March. Typically we would have had around 90mm. Unfortunately there is no quick fix. patience and good weather is what is needed with the occasional rain shower. Thank you for reading. Regards Lee I thought it was necessary to write a blog on the issues we are having with the greens at the moment. Hopefully it will answer some of your questions and put to bed some of the speculation that it could be (very interesting some of it). We decided to hollow core the problem greens 6th, 15th & 16th (at the time the 3rd was showing no signs of stress). After initial testing we were left scratching our heads. We took core samples from each green. Organic levels (thatch) on all greens were no different from any other green on the course. Thatch levels were 5%-10% deeper than the rest of the course but as like all the greens the organic matter was loose and free draining. By this I mean the water will percolate freely through the thatch where as if it were tight and fibrous it would act like a sponge and definitely hold the water. So that was organic matter levels ruled out. Next we tested root depth and health. This is hard to quantify this time of year as the plant is not quite growing. We should be seeing roots on the meadow grass (Poa annua) around 50mm. Most of the samples we pulled had roots of 50mm - 75mm. Roots were healthy and showing signs of new shoots. Root health ruled out. Although we did have some interesting roots on the worn areas, I will touch on that later. Next we tested the water content down to 75mm with our water probe. It was slightly high as we would expect but not high enough to worry about. Wetting agent (penetrant) had been applied at regular intervals during the winter to help facilitate water from the surface through to the sub-soil. Plant health was good at time of testing. So where do we go from here. I called our agronomist from the STRI for some advice, after explaining all the symptoms and the testing we had done we came to the conclusion the only thing it could possibly be was a perched water table. The grass plant is effectively drowning as the water is not percolating through the profile. Keeping it simple it means water is being trapped/held between two types of soil/layers. In our case I would say because our greens are over 100 years old and has no drainage by way of design. Old push up greens were designed to hold the water during the days of no automatic irrigation. As you can imagine over the last 70/80 years water has been applied damaging the sub-soil structure along with a too finer particle size top dressing previously used has caused a definitive layer (this is why we aerate so much to keep these layers free draining). Imagine a hollow tube filled with marbles, pour some water into the top of the tube and it flows pretty easily to the bottom. Now place some smaller objects into the tube like peas for instance, pour water into the tube and the water mover less freely but also catches small particles easier. This is why we dress the greens with a large size sand particle as to a very fine particle previously used. So to summarise the water is getting trapped between our dressing and a poor quality sub-soil which is causing the water to drain away very slowly. This hopefully will be confirmed by our agronomist on 19th April. See image below of perched water table (sorry about the labels) Loss of grass coverage. There are a few reasons why we have lost grass coverage on some of the greens. We experienced this last year possibly worse. Firstly we were unable to change the holes for over 2 weeks due to the frost. When we eventually did change them some of the frost had penetrated 3-4 inches down. Footfall causes most of the damage during the frost around the hole. This is most evident on the 6th green at the back. The plant is constantly being put under stress by humans as well as environmentally. Holes not being changed for 2 weeks also causes compaction which is where we were seeing shallow rooting 15mm - 25mm. Being a busy course with a lot of footfall in a 2 week period. Even if we did change the holes during that 2 week period I think a review of our frost policies may need looking at. Temporary greens or 2 holes. A lot of the damage is also compaction caused from walk off/on areas We have also had a chemical toxification/compatibility issue. Prior to spraying any new chemicals it is imperative you we do a jug test. Take a tablespoon of each chemical you are using and mix it in water to see if they are compatible. If they are not they will coagulate, solidify or separate. So I sprayed a chemical in with 2 other chemicals to control the moss in the greens. I did a jug test and they were compatible. My only though is the sprayer tank was contaminated which would be a surprise as we clean after every use or they reacted in a greater volume of water. This combination of chemical has scorched some of the grass and is very evident on the 3rd. Localised scorching can be seen of some of the other greens. This is a testing time of year in the cycle of the grass plant. Night time temperatures are still cool with higher than normal day time temperatures with no rain is probably the worst combination. The grass takes time to recover from the night time temperature, then losses water from the leaf (evaporation) where the temperatures are high, no rainfall to replace the water lost from the leaf and so the cycle goes putting the plant under increased stress. Add a toxic chemical to the equation and you have the loss of grass we have. Solution, be patient. We are still in early April so i'm not panicking too much yet .Nighttime temperatures need to get a little higher, natural rain would help. We can overseed the bare areas and apply seaweed and micronutrients to encourage growth. I have no doubt these areas will recover, like I said they worse last year and they came good. We need to find why these areas are occurring and treat them accordingly. Hopefully i will have some more information after the visit from the STRI. The picture below shows the footfall in the frost from one 4 ball. Here is a link to our industries monthly magazine file:///C:/Users/user/Downloads/gi-april-2017.pdf
Particularly page 30 PESTICIDE WITHDRAWAL WHERE ARE WE? as we find it increasingly hard to control worms and other pests this article might help you understand the future difficulties we may have. The second article a favourite of mine Page 42 HOW DO YOU DEFINE FAST, very interesting. Thank you for reading. Regards Lee & Greenkeeping team. I thought I would write a quick post on Fusarium seeing as this year has been by far the worst outbreak we have had to date especially on tee's, approaches & fairways. With greens being pretty clear all winter What Is It? Fusarium Patch is a fungal disease that attacks areas of fine turf when local conditions are conducive for the organism to become active. Have I Got It? Fusarium Patch is one of the most common diseases found attacking fine turf. Annual meadowgrass (Poa annua) is the species most susceptible and makes up a high percentage of the sward in the turf on the surfaces of our course. Other grasses are susceptible such as Perennial Rye ( Lolium perenne) & Bent grasses (Agrostis) but it remains most prevalent in Poa annua. The first signs of Fusarium Patch activity are small brown or straw-coloured spots. If the attack becomes aggressive the spots will merge into larger patches, often with a dark red or orange perimeter to the affected area. If I Have Got It How Do I Try To Control It? Because Fusarium Patch is a fungal disease it does not like being exposed to ultraviolet light. Therefore if bright sunny weather follows early signs of an attack it may subside naturally, particularly if it is also breezy. However, the most likely time for this disease to occur is the damp autumn months as sunshine usually is in short supply. Prevention is better than cure. We have some fantastic chemicals at our disposal to prevent an outbreak. However these can be very expensive, anywhere between £450 - £850 for one application which can last between 3/4 weeks depending on growth rate of turf. Where it is cost effective and a necessity to apply a fungicide on greens and maybe approaches it becomes very costly to apply to fairways. Two or three applications would be needed. Although fusarium is very evasive and quick to infect the plant, the grass plant has the ability to recover very quickly in the correct conditions. So although we have had a very bad infection this year my approach is not to spray the fairways and wait for a natural recovery which will happen in the spring with a little nutritional help from us. Infact recovery is well underway at the moment. Below are a few useful links for more information. http://www.bigga.org.uk/about-us/magazine/back-issues/02-2004/fusarium-patk-snow-mould/00415.html www.pitchcare.com/shop/iguide/fusarium https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fusarium_patch HOLE CHANGING I thought i would fill the rest of my blog with the process of changing holes. The process has to be carried out with precision and care. Selection of pin location is vital e.g. if inclement weather is coming we must locate the pin in the driest spot on the green or if we notice a area getting worn by golfer footfall we may locate the pin on the opposite side to relieve the wear. There are no regulations as to how close to the edge of the green a pin can be located so during the winter we may use locations very close to the edge of the green to again spread the wear. We try not to locate the new position within 5 meters of a old hole plug. Tools used are as follows; - Hole Cutter - Board - Cup Setter - Scissors - Paint Applicator - Paint - Soil Remover - Hole clipping tool Process is shown in the pictures below. 1) tools required 2) select location place board 3) insert hole cutter through hole in board making sure the spirit level on the handles is level 4) hammer in hole cutter whilst standing on board 5) remove hole cutter with slow twisting motion whilst standing on board 6) use soil removal tool to remove any excess soil from new hole 7) brush in loose grass and trim with scissors or hole clipping tool 8) carefully insert cup into hole without damaging edges 9) use cup setter and push down gently until cup is at correct depth and give a gentle twist on removal 10) put protective cover over cup prior to spraying paint 11) insert paint applicator 12) place paint into applicator and give 3 quick bursts making sure you slightly rotate the can 13) remove paint applicator and protective cover and place pin So that is the hole changing process here at Burnham. Holes are changed twice a week and on days of tournaments. We paint the top of the hole all year round but in the winter the longevity is not so good. As you can see the hole is presented to correct depth and finished neatly with no burred edges or crowning. The use of the board leaves a true level surface around the hole. Of course the hole will deteriorate over time with play and the most contributing factor to hole crowning is footfall. Holes are checked and trimmed daily.
Thank you for reading. Best regards Lee & Greenkeeping Team A very belated happy new year to you all. As i am writing this the rain is starting to fall pretty heavy now. This could cause us a few problems going forward. With the cold weather of late (a couple of days have hit -8) the frost has penetrated down to 6 inches on some parts of the lower greens (1st, 3rd, 8th & 14th) with the average depth of frost around 2/3 inches. With the ground temperature so low we would need a sustained period of mild day and night time temperatures to induce a full thaw. For me the frost is not my main concern it is the thawing. yes there is still substantial damage to the plant from frost but with the ground thawing from the top down this causes the most issues. As the ground thaws anything that is causing movement to the surface will cause root shearing. This can be anything from a pitching golf ball to footfall. Root shearing is the point where the thawed soil meets the still frozen soil with any roots in that intermediate zone will be sheared off. See link for better explanation http://weather.headlandamenity.com/2017/01/january-30th/ There is a lot of frost damage from trolleys around the 1st green. This morning was again frosty, with the rain forecast heavy for today be prepared for course closures this week. As the rain hits the frost it has know where to go causing the water to puddle. As the temperatures rise we should see the ground thaw and the laying water should dissipate quite quickly, finger crossed. With a relatively dry start to the year and winter in fact we have managed to get a few winter projects crossed off of the list. Below is the recorded rain data from our weather station. As you can see a good January so far compared to the previous 3 years. We forget quickly how bad last winter was. In Oct, Nov, Dec 2015 & Jan, Feb 2016 we accumulated 420.3mm which was well over half of the yearly rainfall for both years. And we have to remember that is not just 420.3mm in the weather station but 420.3mm over every inch of the golf course. As I previously mentioned we have made a good start to the winter work programme. The first project we did was to fill in both fairway bunkers on the 12th. I felt these were too penal to mid - high handicap golfer along with it being stroke 1 for men and stroke 5 for ladies that is challenge enough in its self. So we filled both bunkers it creating some subtle mounding to provide some individuality between holes 5 and 12. We imported some 100 tonnes of sub-soil. We then planted so Beech trees (Fagus) rather than Scotts Pine (Pinus sylvestris). Although Scotts Pine are quick growing and would probably provide a better divide between the two holes we decided to go with a mixture of Copper Beech (Fagus sylvatica "purpurea") and Common Beech (Fagus sylvatica). Slow growing but in time will provide a good barrier also as stated in the club name we are Burnham Beeches. We carried on the planting right the way down to the rough by the ladies 5th tee. The 17th path tee edging has had a total revamp. All the existing half round timber was removed and replaced with oak sleepers, as was all the surrounding timber around the path. The bottom row of oak sleepers have a 300mm metal rod through either end that is concreted into the ground for stability. The sleepers are all fixed together by 175mm hex screws. We decided to lay them flat on top of each other for stability. The path was redug to level as it was sloping towards the bench. It was excavated 300mm down to accomodate type 1 scalpings. drainage was installed and 75mm/100mm of path material was applied and compacted. The tee side of the sleeper wall was turfed with RTF (Rhizomatous Tall Fescue) which is hard wearing and can potentially send its roots down 1m. Turf mesh was placed directly above the steps at wear points and also leading to the path from behind the 16th green. This will remain closed untill the turf has fully grown through the turf mat. We have also stripped and re-turfed the wear areas along side the men's 11th. The turf was cut using a turf cutter. Then the area was rotovated and some rootzone was added to ameliorate into the original soil. The area was turfed again with RTF and a turf matt was laid along side the tee. There has been quite a lot of tree/scrub clearing taking place. The right of the 12th path up to the fairway was cleared of all the scrub and holly, all the leaves were raked down and disposed of. Stumps were ground out. This will speed up play and aesthetically look better. To the right of the 16th green has also been cleared of all the scrub. This area was mainly bramble and weeping holly branches. All the brambles were removed and holy branches were taken up to roughly six foot. This area was pretty close to the green and very penal to not a particularly errant shot. This again will speed up play and will also let some much needed air and light onto the green. The 9th medal tee and ladies 9th tee again have had some scrub clearance. We have removed quite a bit of blackthorn/brambles in front of the mens medal tee that was obscuring the tee shot. Around the ladies tee we have done the same and removed some small hawthorn. The old apple tree had to be removed due to poor condition. We have also installed some drainage to try and catch the spring running behind the ladies tee. This has yet to be completed. To finish this job off we will strip the back half of the ladies tee, relevel and turf. Both ladies and mens 15th tees will have some trees removed to the left of the tee. mainly holly trees. These act as massive wind breakers and light covers. Work is already under way with the majority of the trees removed from around the ladies tee with just the men's to do. This work will let some mush needed air and light onto both sees of tees. Work here will be continued over the next few weeks. We have had tree surgeons in to remove two dead beech trees and coppice three more to the right of the 14th green. The main reason for this work being carried out was the poor state of the dead trees overhanging Green Lane and the course. This became a Health & Safety issue. The 14th green/rough will also benefit from this work. The area to the right of the green was poor at best. The added light/air should improve that and at least make it playable with a few cultural practices thrown in to help. The scrub to the right of the 3rd mens medal tee all the way down the path and the oaks by the bridge have been trimmed allowing a better view to the green Upcoming WorkWeather permitting of course. Complete behind the ladies 9th tee. Complete 15th tees. Returf to the side of the mens 4th tee and lay turf matt's. Time and weather dependant we will remove the upright wood on the 6th tee and replace with exactly the same as the 17th. In the coming weeks we plan to get some aeration in on the greens. We will go with a 12mm x 220mm time first on our Widenmann then try and get as much dressing into the holes as possible. Apply a little more dressing then tine with a 8mm x 75mm tine. if the weather is not conducive to dressing we will just aerate. Work will be carried out to the 5th bunker to try a rectify the ever increasing drainage problems. BIGGA 2017 Awards As some of you may already know we were the winners of the BIGGA Championship Greenkeeping Performance of the Year award for our preparation of the course during the Ladies England Golf event. This has to be the most proudest moment of my career to date. We as a team are sound proud to receive this award especially as we managed to pip The Grove to 1st place. I would like to take this opportunity on behalf of the Greenstaff to thank John Smith and the board for nominating us. Also a big thankyou to Stephen Wilson for taking the time to drive myself and Rob all the way to Harrogate. Thank you also to those of you who sent us cards or conveyed your congratulations, it makes us immensely proud. See links for articles http://www.bigga.org.uk/members/news/these-talentards-at-btme/00901.html http://www.englandgolf.org/news.aspx?itemid=11742&itemTitle=Top+award+for+England+championship+greenkeeping+team&sitesectionid=38&sitesectiontitle=News&returnlink=news.aspx%3fitemid%3d11756%26itemTitle%3dEngland%25e2%2580%2599s%2bTowndrow%2bbeats%2billness%2bto%2breturn%2bto%2binternational%2bgolf%26sitesectionid%3d38%26sitesectiontitle%3dNews I would like to take this opportunity to thank all of you for your support and for the majority of you adhering to the white lines.
I would also like to take this opportunity in wishing Patrick all the best in his new adventure. Thank you for reading and lets keep our fingers crossed for a dryish end to the winter. Don't forget to check the Headland weather link for the daily forecast before you set out. Lee & The Greenkeeping Team Three weeks since we completed our renovation work on the greens. The recovery has been fantastic considering the operations we carried out. Also the timing turned out to be perfect. The front 9 was completed on Monday and the back 9 on Tuesday. Everything went to plan and no break downs. The sun shone for us an both days which dried the sand out in quick time. The only operation we did not carry out was the scrification as we thought the top 10mm was pretty good and out target area was 20mm - 40mm. We have buried our thatch down to that area with the amount of sand we have been applying so we were trying to remove the organic matter (which is very open and not causing us too much bother) and create channels to remove surface water. This year we also hollow cored the potentionally wet areas on the approaches in with the greens and all of the 5th, 7th & 17th approaches. We also ran the verti-drain across all of the approaches and the tees, top dressed and brushed in. This year we over sowed with a dwarf rye (Lolium pernne) grass as we have done the previous 2 years. We used Barenbrug seed, cultivars used were Barolympic, Barsignum & Bargold. All of these cultivars have a top fine leaf merit and can be cut to a height of 2mm. All of these cultivars have a finer leaf than most bent seed. Over sowing with dwarf rye grass speeds up the recovery process. This year the seed had germinated in 6 days where as bent seed would have taken 12/14 days. 130 tonnes of sand applied in total. A quick recap on the procedures we carried out. GREENS - Hollow cored with 19mm core 75mm deep - Top dressed (pure sand) - Applied 1/2 grass seed (via fertiliser spreader) - Brushed and filled holes with counter rotating brush - Applied another heavy dressing - Vert-drained with a 12mm x 225mm solid tine - Brushed with counter rotating brush - Applied rest of seed (via fertiliser spreader) - Applied more dressing and brushed filling holes to top - Rolled with turf iron - A wetting agent + Oxyturf was applied wednesday morning - A high rate liquid fertiliser was applied with added phosphite & seaweed was applied on friday. APPROACHES - Hollow cored with 19mm core 75mm deep - Applied heavy dressing - Applied seed (same as greens) - Brushed with counter rotating brush filled holes - Verti-drained with 12mm x 200mm solid tine TEES - Verti-drained with 12mm x 200mm soild tined - Applied dressing - Brushed with counter rotating brush DRAINAGE 1ST GREENTo cap a busy month off we had some PCD (Passive Capillary Drainage) drainage installed on the 1st green. See link below for more details. http://www.djuke.co.uk/pcd-passive-capillary-drainage It was a straight forward process. Starting at 5.30am we were finished at 2pm. It is by far the most least intrusive drainage i have seen with great feedback from other clubs that have had it installed. We were planning to reinstate the turf we stripped from the trench line but unfortunaty the turf was hydrophobic (repelling water) and crumbled when we picked it up so we opted for a dwarf rye & fescue seed mix after we had shingled and top soiled the trench. below are some pictures of the operation. What the pictures above do not show is the size of the roller that was used to compress the turf back into place. The irrigation system has really proved its worth over the last 2 months. Now our bore hole licence has been increased it gives me more freedom to water more often and that is showing at the moment.The same problem remains i am still using it quicker than i can get it down to the reservoir. If you are in any doubt as to the benefits of irrigation take a look at the top practice range which has no irrigation. The wild flower seed proved to be popular with a few packets still remaining in the pro shop, obviously we are too late to sow now., A big thanks to my lads for all their hard work during maintenance week and every other week come to think of it. Also to Cameron McMillan (owner of JDUKE) for his tidy, efficient and professional work. A special thank you to Sam Davies who has been taking pictures from his drone for me, the majority in his spare time i might add. I have some video footage as well which unfortunately i can not upload. If any one would like to see please contact me. He is available for wedding, barfitsmas, stag parties etc. Some more pictures from Sam's drone below. Thank you for reading and your continual support.
Regards Lee & Greenkeeping Team My favourite time of year has arrived again when I get all my fan mail. Course renovation works are two weeks away. Work starts on the 8th August with the front 9 closed on Monday, the back 9 Tuesday. This year we will be; - Double scarifying the greens to a depth of 10mm. - Hollow coring with 19mm tines straight through the greens into the approaches to a depth of 75mm. - Apply roughly 3 tonnes of Leighton Buzzard B sand (Dakota) - Brush in with counter rotating brush - With hole 80% - 90% full over seed with Barenbrug Allbent @ 4gms/m2 - Apply another 1.5 tonnes of Leighton Buzzard B sand - Vetri-drain over the sand prior to brushing with 12mm x 250mm tines - Brush in to fill all holes - Turf iron - Top up with sand as necessary. All this of course weather permitting. I know and fully understand the frustration of some of you regarding the work being carried out in August. The reasons for doing the work in August are as follows; the soil profile is at a optimum for tinning. We call this a friable soil which means the soil is in a perfect state to create cracks, fissures and air pockets allowing the roots of the grass plant to take advantage. Hollow cores are fully removed with no plugging. Plugging is where part of or even all the core is left in the hole. Surface tension created by excess moisture causes the plug to be broken off or left in the tine hole. August is the optimum time for recovery. Soil and air temperatures are perfect for germinating seed. Sand dressing dry out quicker allowing us to get more sand into the tine holes. OTHER NEWSThe ladies English Amateur Stroke Play event was a huge success considering the weather. My guys put in a trmendous effort and some serious hours. 4am-9am was the morning shift back in the evening for a 5.30pm-9pm shift as well as staying on standby for any squeedgy work. With lots of positive feedback from competitors/members and the EGU the deserve a massive pat on the back, thank you. We also had a few members help divoting tees and faiways in the evening which was a tremendous help and much appreciated, thank you David Barker (Vice Captian), Steve Ball, David Keel and Dave Clement. two of my greenkeeping friends from Lambourne GC helped us in the evening a huge thank you to Callum Keogh & Matthew Weatherstone we couldn't have done it with out the extra help. The weather hit the headlines in June again. We had 130.6mm rain in June, our yearly average for the past 10 years has been 66.3mm with only 15.3mm falling last year. The rain seems to have been heavy but in short bursts which is the worst combination. We have pushed sand up bunker face 6 times since the start of June, squeegeed water from greens 4 times. We have put some extra drainage in some of the hollows that are too deep to push the water out from. Infront of the 15th approach, back left of the 17th green and behind 3rd green. Pictures below of the rain in June/July The wild flower seed behind the nets has taken well along with the bee hive. See link for more information on the wild flowers.
www.lgseeds.co.uk/uploads/Colour-Splash_2015-web.pdf and this link for the bees www.sherriffamenity.com/UserAssets/Info%20Sheets/Beepol%20iPad.pdf I am happy to help or advise in any way i can. I have also ordered some small packets of wild flower seed if you fancy giving it a try. They should be here next week and available from the Pro Shop for £5 per 30g packet. The rough has been a bone of contention this year with lots of people finding difficult to play from. the problem has been the density of the rough not the length. We are cutting at the same height as previous years. The cause of this problem has been the mild wet winter we had along with the mild wet June we had. We also have had both rough mowers broken down at two different times recently for between 2-5 days. This nice dry weather should help it dry out. So going forward general course maintenance and renovation week to look forward too. Thank you for reading. Regards Lee & Green Keeping Team A nice taste of spring this week with temperatures hitting 18 degrees, then brought straight back down to earth. Temperatures dipping down in the coming week with a frosts forecast This can be a tricky time of year for greenkeepers. Producing a smooth surface can be very challenging. There are a few reasons why it can be a challenge; the soil temperature has not reached the magic number for meadow grass (Poa annua) to grow consistently, the grass plant is growing down a tine hole producing a healthier more vigorous plant giving the impression there are tufts of grass, meadow grass is producing seed heads, cold night time temperatures. We have some good tools at our disposal to try and help combat uneven growth. Regular light top dressing, verticle mowing (verti-cutting), foliar/liquid feeding the plant (spraying with low water volumes helps the plant leaf take up the nutrition). Foliar feeding is our preferred method this time of year. Slow growth and cold temperatures means the grass plant is unable to uptake and convert the nutrients in a granular product. Foliar/liquid applied fertiliser is sprayed onto the leave allowing it to absorb into the tissue of the plant and translocate to where the nutrition can be converted into food. Fairways have had a feed, herbicide and iron applied this week to keep them ticking over and to help recovery of some of the damage caused by worms in the winter. See pictures below. Approaches have had a fertiliser applied to give them a much needed kick start. This was back in February. This product will last 12-16 weeks which by then we will be into our foliar/liquid/GPR feeding programme, same applies to the tees. See pictures below. STRI Visit The Agronomist from the STRI came to the club on Wednesday 13th April for his first visit of the year. See bullet points below from visit. See club website for full report. - localised areas of the greens have experienced sward thinning commonly through traffic and on/off routes and through areas of wear such as water collecting points and perimeter clean up cuts. - Continued wet conditions has encouraged formation of algae squidge in the bare areas which is stunting recovery. - play during the last wet winter has resulted in soil compaction which is reducing drainage potential. Soil moisture levels remain high but greens beginning to firm up. - The weakest green the, 1st ideally requires drainage to bypass impermeable soils. - There is evidence of improving winter conditions through green approaches. Improvement will take time and wear and compaction is still seen in the more vulnerable low points i.e. 3rd approach. - Bunker and path improvements are superb and work has been executed with care and attention. From my point view it was a positive report. Our soil moisture content was slightly high but our organic matter (thatch) levels have improved slightly in the top 20mm (6%) which is great considering how wet the winter was. An even bigger improvement in the 20mm - 40mm (4.4%) a reduction of 14% on last years. The worn areas are caused by greens mowers and traffic from golfers as well as the ever increasing winter societies. if you notice most of these areas are at the front or on the sides where golfers walk to the next tee and our mowers cut around the perimeter of the green. Theses areas have been double verti cut to provide a seed bed. We will be pre-germinating bent seed (Agrostis). Soaking it in water for 24 hours allowing the seed to take up water. Dry it out on a tarp for 48 hours in a warm room or until is chits (shows first signs of emerging) then sow the seeds. This process will help us with establishment but unfortunately we may have to wait until it warms up a bit. Approaches have improved a lot from last winter. Last year the 17th was totally unplayable and constantly water logged. This year we have only had wet spots at the very front and back of the approach, 75% has been firm and playable through the winter. The deep tine aeration and dressing programme is starting to pay off. Other improving approaches 4th, 7th, 8th,14th, 16th, definantly improvements on last year although still a way to go. unfortunately the 5th approach took a big step backwards. Some of this damage was caused by the bunker project, this area is also situated on red clay. Stimp meter reading was 9ft 2" Truness reading was slightly under target range. Smoothness was considerably under target range. Firmness was really good. OTHER NEWS Greens were double areated on monday/Tuesday with 12mm x 175mm soild tine followed by 8mm x 100mm soild tine then vetri cut. A penetrant has been applied to help facilitate the water from the surface. The over seeding programme is in full swing. Most of the walk off areas have been done once, approaches twice and 50% of the fairways. Walk off areas will be done at least 2 more times. We also hired in a machine called the Air2g2 which blasts compressed air into the rootzone creating fissures for the roots to find. We used this on the greens. All the new bunkers have had their first cut and trim. Some of them below. Thank you to all of you that showed up for divot evening, 40 plus in all. A job well done , fantastic effort even by Captain Murphy who had his bucket on a power trolley. Some more pictures from the course. Clearing work paid off behind the 10th green, Red kites nesting, we have seen at least 2 nests and all the new tee posts have been installed. Next on the agenda is edging, weeding, de-stoning and topping up of sand in the older bunkers. This will start on Monday. Fly mowing of tee banks and green surrounds. general cutting and maintenance.
Thank you reading Lee & The Greenkeeping Team Happy new year to you all. Well the weather trend has carried on from last year into the new although temperatures are starting to dip a little now with fingers crossed a dry spell coming in. We are at saturation point at the moment (or field capacity). The water table is at its highest with this winters rain fall, well actually since august it has been building up as the figures below show. Aug 106.2mm, Sept 66.5mm, Oct 58.7mm, Nov 105.2mm, Dec 75.7, and 50mm in the first 6 days of January. So when the water table reaches a certain point any rain falling thereafter has no where to go. With this back up in the soil profile it takes longer for any rainfall to percolate through to the subsoil where it will drain freely. Closing the course isn't taken lightly. I appreciate a lot of you are working people and only have the weekends to play golf or your golfing time is limited during the week that is why i do not take the decision to close the course lightly. My decision is purely made on the conditions at Burnham. I never consider other course closures in the area as every site is different e.g courses like Gerrards Cross, Stoke park, Lambourne all have big walk off areas around their greens and can spread the wear better. Flackwell heath, Wycombe heights are all situated high up and are free draining, so these course could potentially be closed less than us. We are a very tightly packed course with tees and greens in close proximity (pinch points). marshalling traffic is tricky. A good case of this is the area just short of the 8th approach. We had ropes across that area when the bunkers were being constructed for 3 months. With the traffic from golfers walking across the same path and it has caused compaction which in turn adds to the fibre levels. Compaction is a silent killer if you like. You cant see the damage it is doing at the time but the damage it dose to the structure of the soil is detrimental and is only highlighted in the winter when water can not percolate the compacted soil and fibrous turf. We are now at the point where the course is closing for health & safety reasons. We have recently had a lady member slip down the bank on the 5th, thankfully she is ok and that is what we are trying to avoid. There are numerous dangerous areas out there at the moment. Its all about the recovery in the spring. Balancing opening the course with the damage it will cause. OTHER NEWSWe have a few areas at fronts of greens which look like we have lost grass. It looks a lot worse that what it actually is. Where we have been dressing the greens and approaches a lot lately we have managed to overlap a little too much and covered the grass. There is full grass coverage underneath but the sand has stained the grass giving it a orange appearance. also these areas are high wear areas i.e mowers turning and cutting, golfers walking on and off. All the new bunkers have been finished bar the sanding which will be done as soon as we can get the tractor out there. 15th & 12th path have been completed and are proving to be a great success. We just need to grind a few stumps out on the 12th bank. New roller shutters & bollard have been fitted to the green keepers complex for extra security. Pictures below of the new 12th & 15th paths Thank you for all your support in 2015 and also you patience. Finger crossed the weather is on the change. I will do my best to keep the course open as much as possible. For those of you that are carrying thank you, for those of you that could carry please consider it as it is the trolleys that cause the wear and for those of you who can not carry i understand. Unfortunately if these weather patterns persist we maybe looking at trolley bans in the future.
Thank you for reading Lee & Green Keeping Team As autumn falls, the clocks go back this weekend it signals the start of a busy period for us. I really enjoy this time of year give us something to get our teeth stuck into. As you will all be aware the bunker project will start 26th October. Profusion have move their plant and living quarters on site ready for action. This year we will be doing hole 1-7 there maybe some temporary greens in play at time but we will try to keep the disruption to a minimum. We will be following the same process as previous years. 1) mark working areas 2) strip surrounding turf 3) remove and store topsoil 4) rough shape new bunker 5) agree shape and finish shaping 6) lay upside down turf in bases 7) lay reveting turf around edges 8) place topsoil on working areas 9) turf surrounding area 10) place sand in bunker and compact. If all goes well we should be finished in 5/6 weeks. Profusion will also be laying 2 new paths for us. The 12th & 15th paths will be stripped down and replaced with a synthetic mulch. This will be easier to walk up and also more aesthetically pleasing (schedule for paths to be agreed) APPROACHESOur autumn renovation of the approaches has been completed. As we know we have been suffering over the past few years with boggy approaches. We took a little advice from the STRI and decided to hit them hard whilst we had the chance at the beginning of october. We started by double scarifying at a depth of 8mm to remove any surface fibre (thatch) which acts like a sponge. Unfortunately this ripped up a bit in places which we had to repair with soil and seed. Then we top dressed with approximately 2 tonnes per approach with the same sand as we use on the greens. Following that was the Verti-drain which we hired. This came with 14 inch x 3/4 inch tines (350mm x 19mm). Unfortunately we could only manage to get them into 11.5 inches which actually was pretty good considering the compaction in places. Then we brushed the sand into as many holes as possible. last but not least a autumn granular feed was put out which is high in K (potassium) which helps with root development and hardens the plant going into winter. So we put them through their paces which needed to be done, further dressings will be applied every time we topdress the greens. AUTUMN GREENS AERATIONIt's all about the timing with greens aeration. Too wet and the holes smear and just create channels for the water to sit in. Too dry and the sub soil crumbles and no air pockets are created. So we are looking for somewhere in between (which is called friable soil) for optimal results. As good a time as any was last monday (19th Oct). We decided to get two aeration operations in at the same time and this year unlike previous years we decided to take the opportunity to get some sand in the holes. The process was as follows. 1) Tine with 12mm x 220mm tines 2) Topdress at 0.5 tonne per green 3) Brush in sand 4) Slit with Greentek slitter to try and join the tine hole together. 5) Turf iron and blow debris. Aeration at this time of year is important as the window for opportunity lessens as we go into winter. Because our playing season is so busy finding the time to run a 12mm tine across the greens is impossible also we need to try and relieve any compaction we have created from footfall and machinery during the season. Also as i mentioned above we still have time to improve root structure to help us keep the plant healthy through the winter. tining creates lots of air pockets for the roots to follow, remember the roots grow in air not soil. Tining will also add much needed oxygen to the plant it also allows us to unlock and nutrients that have become unavailable to the plant. Drainage is also high on the list of benefits from aeration or to be more specific water percolation, keeping the water off of the surface and trying to get it past the thatch layer deeper into the subsoil so it can drain away. OTHER NEWSWe have removed the wood from the slope at the 12th tee. The wood was rotten and unsightly. Removing the wood and turfing the bank has given us a extra 2 yards on the ladies tee. We will be doing the same to the bottom tee. The leaves have started to fall so we will be continuously clearing them up until christmas i should think. With the temperatures still reasonably mild our routine maintenance has still been full on with most surfaces being cut 2/3 week. We are now into our winter disease preventative programme with disease pressure still high. We will spray a preventative fungicide monthly rather than waiting to spray at first sight. Prevention is better than cure. This time of year it can take up to six days for the fungicide to translocate through the plant and give full protection hence why we preventative spray. If we get disease during the winter we will be left with unsightly scars through until April. Topdressing will continue through the winter every time it rains. Winter work programme will continue as and when during the bunker work period.
Thankyou for reading Lee & Greenkeeping Team |
Lee BishopI am a proud father and husband. I have been Course Manager at Burnham Beeches GC for 7+ years. I have enjoyed 23 years as a greenkeeper. Archives
February 2017
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