The winter has not been too kind to us this year. There is still quite a lot of areas on the course that haven’t started to grow yet so we need to be careful when playing golf this spring.
We have been working hard on drainage problems on the course, The 10th fairway in particular, but the main focus has been bunker drainage. The guys have been doing a great job in the bunkers trying to solve the issues.
Almost all bunkers that have had drainage problems have been worked on. Drainage Pipes that were blocked have either been cleaned out replaced, levelled and/or repaired. A new type of sand has been added that should also drain much better as it’s a cleaner sand with no silt particles in it. The sand is a grey colour so its easy to see where we have been working. I hope the bunkers play better and the sand is nice to hit out of. 😊
The greens are not yet at a low summer height due to the winter damage we have on the low spots and the runoff areas. We are trying to grow them in and will increase the maintenance practices to solve this as the next few weeks passes and the night and day temperature increases. When the time is right, we can be more forceful to repair these areas and get the greens to their normal speed as soon as possible.
The 9th fairway is still very wet, and we have only managed to cut it with a fairway mower for the first time today.(11th may) The rest of the course has been cut two times already and we have re shaped most fairways to make them larger and changed some shapes. Its not a finished job yet and I might , over the course of the next few weeks change some cutting lines again. We have 2 fairway machines and only 1 rough cutter, so the plan is to reduce the cutting time of the rough machine and increase the area of fairways. I hope you will be pleased with the changes.
In front of the 5th green we are working on the drainage problem. This area will be marked as GUR.
There will be several areas on the course that are under repair. We will mark them with a blue stake with a white top and surround the area with white paint. Please keep off these areas until further notice thanks!
In the meantime, enjoy the start of the golf season, remember to take care of the course, place bunker rakes back in the sand after use, replace divots, keep off wet and severely worn areas where possible and most importantly help to take care of our greens by repairing your pitch marks
Thanks, and happy golfing.
