Technical
Day 25 - Root growth on the 4th green 15 days after turfing!
start. The 18th green was completed to the rootzone layer, the gravel carpet completed on the 10th green and we carried on for a while in the dark to move the piles of rootzone around the 10th green. The sub-base was completed on the 1st, and the 15th green was almost completely turfed.
Day 25 - another wet start to the day, with the weather looking unsettled for the next few days. The main construction work was nearly over and, whilst there had been minor track damage, I always expected there would be some repair work after the job, but it’s not going to be too much.
With some strategic replanning and haul routes changed, things were on the move again. The turfing crew had a good day with the completion of the 15th green; and the 12th green wasn’t far away. The rootzone import to the 10th green continued and an outfall drain on the 1st was excavated and installed.
During all of this, the 16th green had its first roll with a hand mower and then cut. The 8th and 9th greens were rolled with the turf iron and root samples were taken on greens 3 and 4. The roots were developing well, with at least 75mm of root growth on the 4th green in 15 days.
Day 26 - with a dry start to the day, work started promptly. Most of the construction crew had gone home for their three days off. Two of the crew stayed and finished the rootzone layer on the 10th green and then switched to the gravel carpet on the 1st. By the end of their shift, the 1st gravel carpet was almost completed.
The irrigation crew made a start at the 4th green, cutting the green drainage outfall, and what a tidy job they made of it! They also made a start on the irrigation, channelling the line at the back of the green.
The turfing crew worked over the weekend and made some real progress, with the completion of both the 11th and 12th greens.
The new greens were sprayed with a fungicide. Most of them were fine, but the 9th and the 16th were showing small signs of fusarium; the wet and mild weather not helping!
Day 27 - another day of poor weather for soil preparation. Each time the rootzone was fluffed up ready to turf, a light shower would set things back again! Some progress was made though, and the 11th green was completed. There was a small amount of
122 PC DECEMBER/JANUARY 2014
The Long Ashton greenkeeping team l-r: Peter Baynton (Greenkeeper/Mechanic), Mark Cox (Assistant Greenkeeper), John Bachelor (Deputy Course Manager), Allan Smith (Assistant Greenkeeper), Tom Wright (Assistant Greenkeeper), James Braithwaite (Course Manager)
remedial work to the front right-hand side of the 14th green to allow water to move across the surface and off the green. This area used to hold a small puddle. A small amount of turf was rolled out on the 14th green.
Overall, great progress has been made to get this far in the twenty-seven days of the project and we were still ahead of schedule.
Day 28 - the weather certainly seems to have taken a turn for the worse. Not much more construction work to do, with what I would consider minimal damage. There was always going to be some areas that were vulnerable to heavy construction traffic as the golf course has a few tight spots. The other problem with the logistics of getting the machinery around was that the course was still open for members and guests to play golf. This was overcome with great efficiency in my opinion. Great planning all round.
Although there was 4mm of rain overnight, the turfing crew managed to crack on! The weather was poor, but not as bad as had been forecast.
The 14th green was completed with turf, the 18th green was final prepped and around a third of the turf rolled out. The 14th and 18th greens turf was swapped (like the 8th and 9th) to give the turf from 18 a better chance out in the open.
Day 29 - the day got off to a wet start, with 8mm of rain falling in a very short period. This delayed all works for a while. Once the rain had stopped and the wind got up a little, it was decided that work could continue. The hauling route was boarded to reduce wheel rutting to the 1st green. This allowed the gravel carpet to be completed. Once this was in place and all the final levels on this layer were completed, it was time to import the rootzone. Whilst this was going on, the turfing crew continued to turf the 18th green.
Good progress was made with minimal surface damage. The 18th green was completed with turf, whilst preparation work started on the 10th green. The team working on the 1st green pressed on and, by the end of the day, was two thirds completed with the rootzone layer. Unfortunately, no progress at all was made with regards to the irrigation work.
Day 30 - the rain was with us again! It seemed like we completed the main bulk of the project just in time. The 1st green construction was completed and required levels achieved, followed by consolidation of the surface, ready
for the final preparation before turfing.
The 10th green was prepared and turfed. This left a small area at the top of the green short of turf due to some natural wastage (and, may I say, an extremely small amount in my opinion and M J Abbotts’ estimation). This turf will be taken from the flat chipping green so that we can have the full use of green 2a this winter. Due to the weather, this task took much longer than the turfing crew anticipated but, by the end of the day, all turf was down and plastic sheeting cleared up.
The irrigation crew managed to finish the drain line at the 4th green followed by some track clean-up work.
Greens 3, 4, 5, 8, 9 and 16 had another cut and roll, whilst 17 had its first light roll with a hand mower.
We had some torrential rain storms during the day whilst I was hand cutting the greens. Usually, at this time of the year, after that amount of rain, we wouldn’t entertain walking or playing on quite a few of our greens, let alone cut them! There wasn’t a drop of surface water on any of them. This was great news! Also, via twitter in the afternoon, a major competitor to Long Ashton tweeted that they were open on 18 temporary greens due to waterlogging!!!
Day 31 - started with rain, the forecast was for this to blow over around 10.00am and the sun to come out. The plans for the day were to continue with the construction of the 15th tee, finish turfing the 10th green and start the 1st. Irrigation also to go in at the 4th green. The Met Office actually got it spot on, the sun came out and the wind got up. Unfortunately the damage was done with regards to the 15th tee; it was just too sticky to work on. The spoil heaps at the 12th and 15th were shaped and had a light covering of recycled rootzone and will be seeded with a wildflower mix, where appropriate.
The turfing continued and it was found that the back of the 10th green was short of turf. We knew this may happen on some greens, so it was decided to take turf, where needed, from the following green. This then meant that there was only one green at the end requiring turf from the chipping green. Approximately thirty square metres was required to fill out the back of the 10th green. As mentioned, this was taken from the chipping green.
The plan was to harvest the chipping green
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