June Greens Report
Greens Report May
Greens Report June
June has seen yet more considerable dry weather, with only 33mm of rainfall in recent weeks. These dry conditions have meant we have spent significant amounts of time hand watering dry areas on the greens, and hand watering all of the 9 hole greens. Our irrigation system while still working, is operating very inefficiently due to the ongoing electrical faults. Up to 80% of all greens and tees can often fail to irrigate during the night meaning having to irrigate manually either at work, which takes up man hours, or operating it manually from home which can take anywhere between 2-4 hours depending on the amount of fails, which means extremely late nights, which don’t mix well with 5am starts. We have also been overwatering selected drier greens as a precautionary measure in the event of the irrigation system totally failing. It is imperative that the club have a reliable, efficient irrigation system particularly during spells of dry weather we are experiencing. Greens and tees can deteriorate very quickly without irrigation sometime within 24 hours in hot, dry windy conditions. The irrigation PVC pipework will be around 50 years old, the expected lifespan of the pipework is 25-30 years. The main electric cable which powers the control system will be more recent than the pipework but has a shorter expected lifespan than the pipework. The cable can become degraded and corroded overtime, especially when buried underground. Unfortunately anything to do with irrigation doesn’t come cheap, but without irrigation we have no greens, and without any greens means no business.
The irrigation company we use have been onsite last week to try and diagnose why these electrical issues have arisen, unfortunately an answer was not found during this visit. They will be returning next week all being well with a few other tests to carry out. Hopefully we will have a clearer idea of the cause of the problem and what work needs to be carried out to resolve the issue.
Regular weekly routine maintenance continues with the cutting of all main playing areas, bunkers edged and raked, strimming, divoting tees, and keeping up to date with monthly machine maintenance. All main greens have been lightly verticut twice this month at a depth of -2mm and more recently -1mm. This process helps to remove lateral growth and surface thatch, this improves airflow, ball roll and also aids water down through the surface, verticutting is a main factor when it come to true playing surfaces. Our monthly application of Attraxor, liquid fertilizer and phosphite was applied to the greens. These products are mixed into the same tank and sprayed out together. The Attraxor is a plant growth regulator which helps to reduce vertical growth and encourages and denser surface. In addition to work on the greens we have applied a granular fertilizer to all of the tees to keep them ticking over through to the end of summer. This will provide steady nutrition release to help aid growth, and recovery against wear and stressful conditions.
We have also applied a wetting agent to the greens mixed with a product called PlantMax, which is a biostimulat that encourages healthy root growth and protects the plant during stressful conditions. The wetting agent helps with water penetration and retention in the soil profile, this helps to prevent greens drying out to quickly.
We would like to thank Andy Lyth for painting all of the white fence posts on the course, they look a lot tidier now! And finally as many of you will now be aware, we will be losing a member of our team, Scott Cooper. Scott is taking the reins At Bridlington Golf. We would like to thank Scott for his commitment and hard work during his time with us, and wish him all the best in his new role at Bridlington.
Thanks for your continued support
Greens
June has seen yet more considerable dry weather, with only 33mm of rainfall in recent weeks. These dry conditions have meant we have spent significant amounts of time hand watering dry areas on the greens, and hand watering all of the 9 hole greens. Our irrigation system while still working, is operating very inefficiently due to the ongoing electrical faults. Up to 80% of all greens and tees can often fail to irrigate during the night meaning having to irrigate manually either at work, which takes up man hours, or operating it manually from home which can take anywhere between 2-4 hours depending on the amount of fails, which means extremely late nights, which don’t mix well with 5am starts. We have also been overwatering selected drier greens as a precautionary measure in the event of the irrigation system totally failing. It is imperative that the club have a reliable, efficient irrigation system particularly during spells of dry weather we are experiencing. Greens and tees can deteriorate very quickly without irrigation sometime within 24 hours in hot, dry windy conditions. The irrigation PVC pipework will be around 50 years old, the expected lifespan of the pipework is 25-30 years. The main electric cable which powers the control system will be more recent than the pipework but has a shorter expected lifespan than the pipework. The cable can become degraded and corroded overtime, especially when buried underground. Unfortunately anything to do with irrigation doesn’t come cheap, but without irrigation we have no greens, and without any greens means no business.
The irrigation company we use have been onsite last week to try and diagnose why these electrical issues have arisen, unfortunately an answer was not found during this visit. They will be returning next week all being well with a few other tests to carry out. Hopefully we will have a clearer idea of the cause of the problem and what work needs to be carried out to resolve the issue.
Regular weekly routine maintenance continues with the cutting of all main playing areas, bunkers edged and raked, strimming, divoting tees, and keeping up to date with monthly machine maintenance. All main greens have been lightly verticut twice this month at a depth of -2mm and more recently -1mm. This process helps to remove lateral growth and surface thatch, this improves airflow, ball roll and also aids water down through the surface, verticutting is a main factor when it come to true playing surfaces. Our monthly application of Attraxor, liquid fertilizer and phosphite was applied to the greens. These products are mixed into the same tank and sprayed out together. The Attraxor is a plant growth regulator which helps to reduce vertical growth and encourages and denser surface. In addition to work on the greens we have applied a granular fertilizer to all of the tees to keep them ticking over through to the end of summer. This will provide steady nutrition release to help aid growth, and recovery against wear and stressful conditions.
We have also applied a wetting agent to the greens mixed with a product called PlantMax, which is a biostimulat that encourages healthy root growth and protects the plant during stressful conditions. The wetting agent helps with water penetration and retention in the soil profile, this helps to prevent greens drying out to quickly.
We would like to thank Andy Lyth for painting all of the white fence posts on the course, they look a lot tidier now! And finally as many of you will now be aware, we will be losing a member of our team, Scott Cooper. Scott is taking the reins At Bridlington Golf. We would like to thank Scott for his commitment and hard work during his time with us, and wish him all the best in his new role at Bridlington.
Thanks for your continued support
Greens