MONTHLY REPORT: MARCH 2021
Prepared by Course Manager, Robert Bacon
Weather Summary
Since the last report in mid-February not much has changed, weather wise. February finished with an average daily temperature of 4.6oC. March began dry with the 1st to the 7th recording 0mm of rainfall. We would pay for that with the 8th to the 16th recording 108mm. The 17th to today(23rd) has again recorded 0mm of rainfall with a couple of days also reaching 15+oC
Course Status
Our full course is now in play with White, Yellow and Green markers now on the main tees. The blue markers will return to the course once a level of maintenance has been applied to the teeing grounds.
Our greens have received aeration and topdressing. They will receive their first granular fertiliser app on Thursday (25th) ahead of forecast rainfall. The granular application and rainfall will assist in settling the greens down after the aerification/sanding.
Further aerification in the form of graden sand injection will take place on a few of our most troublesome greens, this would be a maximum of 6 full greens. Our most troublesome greens hold too much water and that mixed with heavy foot traffic is an obvious worry. Some high traffic areas on several other greens will also receive this work, this would be a very small percentage of the greens, focusing on the walk on walk off areas.
Our Tees and approaches will also receive a granular fertilizer this week. The fertilizer on the tees will be followed by intense divoting and overseeding.
Our tractor mounted blower remains down, the good news is that an engineering company can fix it. We expect this to be back operational early next week which will help to improve the aesthetics of our course and clear debris from our fairways ahead of the first fairway fertilizer application.
Updated Winter Program
3rd Green – New drainage installed & Front bunker modified with bunker face being lowered.
THIS IS NOW COMPLETE. We will renovate all 3 bunkers on this hole ahead of returning the green to play which I envisage to be the weekend of April 3rd/4th.
New Ditch at 10.
DITCH COMPLETE
Bridges will be added in due course.
BUNKERS
We have begun to rotavate the bunker bases to reinvigorate the sand. Once complete, we will edge & top up with sand.
GORSE
Focusing on the carries at 14 & 17. We have a contractor visiting site tomorrow (24th) to inspect the required works from which we will formulate a gorse removal plan. I expect this work to be carried out ASAP. This may involve complete hole closure. This will be communicated in advance.
PATHS
We will be removing the badly worn astro-turf from the path on 14. We will also be inspecting drainage on several paths prior to a top-up.
DIVOT SQUADS
We will be looking to divot all our fairways as the temperatures start to rise. Towards the end of March, we will be looking for volunteers. While we remain in ‘lockdown’ this may be hard to organise, safely.
Over the next couple of weeks, we will look to have a ‘divot day/s’. I will pass dates on to Peter.
Robert Bacon – Course Manager