GOLF


Most love their job and hate to leave on a Friday with the course not looking its best so, if you are understaffed, the first thing you are going to do is make up that shortfall


nine holes, so aeration is a no go on those fairways. Greens are a mixed bag; a few were rebuilt and, topdressing over the years, means there is a good 5 inches of sand on them, which is good. When I first came here, I struggled with thatch on the greens to around 50mm and I’m still working out which are good and which are bad. It’s still part of my learning process, but we haven’t seen a temporary green yet and we’ve played on frost.”


Summer was a real struggle for Lucy and


Vertidraining is carried out three times per year


the team with an irrigation system in need of an upgrade. “The system is older than me at forty-seven years old now. Some greens have triple heads and they’re just awful. They were the bane of my life throughout the hot summer and created constant problems; we were doing a lot of the watering manually, but luckily we managed. There is definitely some major investment needed, to the point where I want to say to the club ‘let’s drop all the winter projects and re-invest in new heads on the greens,


install new PVC pipes and generally give it a good overhaul’; at present, we are just constantly fixing leaks.”


During summer, the greens are cut daily at 3mm with an old Toro 3250 Greensmaster and run over with the Tru Turf roller to improve ball speed and roll. In the winter, the height of cut is lifted to 5mm and only cut when needed (which has been a lot with the growth we have had this winter). Lucy likes to run the tractor-mounted GreenTek sarel roller over the greens and, once a month, she will use the Toro Procore with 8mm tines at a depth of 4 inches. Then, three times a year they will use the Verti-Drain 7316 at a depth of 8 inches. In Autumn, they pulled out 5 inch cores and replaced with an 80/20 rootzone mix. The team brush the greens with a tractor mounted V brush rather than choosing to scarify (with the heat we had last summer); this flicks all the unwanted debris from the base of the greens.


Whilst out on the course, I noticed a lot of disruption from worm casts and birds, and asked if this is a big problem. “Yes; worms and worm casts are a big concern, I have just started to look at! I’m currently investigating a product called Angus Downcast, which I’m being advised on by Ray Hunt from ALS. I’m tempted to use


I absolutely love my job. I loved the course; the members were great and it was such a wonderful


Caption 24 PC February/March 2019


course where I also played some nice golf


“


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