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.

As winter approaches it's all about the paths.  Lots of extensions, changes and new paths being built over the last and indeed next months.  These have been put in round the course to improve access throughout the winter months.  As we have found in previous years, each small path improvement has meant a better course in early season.  Alongside this we are upgrading mats, mainly on the Old course initially but with some new mats on the London.  Before we move onto plastic by early December, we are changing the mats on 3rd and 11th Old, with the 9th Tee Old recieving a larger mat on the back tee which struggles to be any good through the season

3rd London

New path and mat.  3rd Tee Upper

New mat 14th London

Path 14th Old

Seeding from earlier in the season has produced great results on greens, tees and approaches and all surfaces are moving toward winter in good condition.

 

Dry, dry, dry is the order of the day.  Course looking and playing really well.  Surfaces in a good place for June with our focus just on further refinement and improvement as we move into the summer months

Looking good

The rough after its usual mad growth of the last month is settling down.  Some areas of uncut are still too thick so we will address these as the plant begins to dry out.

Rough clean

Our biggest achievement in the last number of years is improving irrigation pressure and consistency.  We are now able to tailor greens much more easily, meaning we can lower greens height and push them that little bit more than in the past.  This extra time gained by greens efficiency's mean we can now move to watering and divoting tees on a regular basis through the season.

Good coverage

Now we have broken the back of the mowing in spring those jobs left over from early season can be finished.  The 3rd Tee is ready for its final soil topping and level and we may turf as early as next week.  Also we are turfing the 13th Old at the same time.  After a few covid affected years we will be restarting bunker improvements on the course in July.

As to be expected this time of year we are waiting for the weather to break.  Surfaces are in the main in good condition, greens are just in need of refinement.  Some dressings and light tining will be undertaken in the next 2 weeks.  By then we should have had rain and greens will come alive.  We have fitted a new valve assembly to the 17th London, which has fixed an annoying leak but will also improve pressure to the green.

17th London

The new 3rd Tee London is taking shape and I would expect to see this turfed in the next few weeks.  This will obviously impact on yardage but we are planning to move the centre of the fairway left to gain a few yards and make the shot a little more interesting.

3rd London

All the tree work we have undertaken in the last few months is coming to an end.  The final few areas of bramble at the tree edges is been finished and that will be it till next winter.  Woodland edges are already looking better, more bluebells poking up but also less potential from falling bits as we've cleaned most of the weak, problem areas

Bramble clearance

As the weather has improved, so the list of jobs has changed tack.  Greens have had a 10mm solid tine down to 100 mm.  Each green has also received half a ton of sand.  This along with a heavier than normal application of fertiliser has helped push them along.  Still a fair bit of scaring but overall, looking and putting well.  Cutting has begun on most surfaces and course is starting to improve across all areas.

This false spring will soon give way to more typical weather which will help us get back on course with other work.  Still to complete new ladies Tee on the 1st Old course and maybe 13th Old along with the back Tee on 13th old.  Also yet to start but a high priority is the new Tee on the 3rd London.

The 1st Tee Old has had a little tidy up, we have added a terraced bed behind the Tee and will bark and plant it this week.

1st Old

Ready for plants

We have also rebuilt a new mat at the front of this Tee ready for the new winter season.  A good deal of the mats are in poor shape across the courses so addressing these will be an aim before next winter.  We also have a number of improvements and additions to make on our pathways before the next winter season.

New Mat