Positively Happy - Hello Spring

As we head into the spring of 2017 the overall condition of the course looks very healthy. Fortunately we have had a very mild winter which has produced some very good conditions, but also some not so good conditions. The mild conditions gave us very aggressive and almost unstoppable disease outbreaks, yet the relatively dry weather has prevented vast amounts of damage developing from machinery and golfer traffic.

This has also been assisted by the recent introduction of new paths to help limit damage, particularly for staff machinery and buggies. 

Some of the older paths are looking a bit tired and some attention will be made on these in the future. 

The fusarium scars are now starting to shows signs of recovery as grass has begun to develop and spread. This is positive news and is far better than was expected so eary into the new year. you can see from these pictures that the grass is slowly growing through the scars.

lets keep our fingers crossed that the wet and cold weather is behind us.

New Pathways

During the week before Christmas two new paths were constructed by contractors SPEEDCUT.

A new path was constructed from the 4th tee to the edge of the 3rd fairway.

This area is prone to sitting very wet and becoming boggy during pronlonged spells of wet weather. 

This new path will help alleviate some of the problems this area has suffered from in the past.

The path around the 12th lake was also reconstructed. The path was made much wider to accomodate the use of buggies and to alleviate the problems of standing water. 

It was also improved to maintain the initial first impressions as you venture out onto the course.

Leafing ahead of schedule

Due to the very dry winter with very little rainfall, leaf clearance has progreesed far better than in recent years. The drier the conditions the easier it becomes to move the leaves across the surface and over further distances. This also speeds up the process of sucking them up as the Trilo Vacumn leaf collector is less prone to blocking as the leaves are not soaking wet and heavy, and are less contaminated with mud and other debris. Leaf clearance has gone so well this winter we have even started clearing the ditches far earlier that expected.