GOLF
cutting height of 5mm. Fescue is a fine leaf plant and it doesn’t slow the ball up as much as poa green, but depending on conditions we may have to reduce that height. We typically apply one-hundred and sixty tonnes of topdressing to our greens each year but, over the last couple of years, we have changed our regime twice. In 2018, I did a light topdressing more often, but last year we went heavy at the start and then just one dressing a month rather than two. That didn’t work as well, so we are now going light more often and matting it in. We will try and pick a dry night so that you will hardly see it the next morning; this also helps with the machines, as the heavier dressings were killing the units.”
“Once a fortnight, we will solid tine the greens and tees using a Toro ProCore 648 with 6mm tines. We have tried other machines, but they don’t compare to the ProCore; it can turn pretty much on itself which is useful when some of our greens have infinity edges. The way the 648 works is ideal for us and I don’t think there is anything on the market that beats it.” “In September, and right at the start of the
season, we will overseed the greens using our Vredo disc seeder, using a 100 per cent fescue mix at 5g/m2
. We don’t undertake
any scarifying on greens as fescue grass doesn’t like it; you basically bruise it, stress it and that’s when you get disease and reduced grass coverage. Instead, we have both a firm and medium brush to do the equivalent but, in another four years when the greens are more mature, there might be an argument. At least once a year, we scarify the fairways to get rid of some of the rough grasses; we have a little Yorkshire Fog, Poa etc. in them. Fairways are cut at the height of 9mm; at the start of the season we try and cut them at least twice a week just after the feed goes on, but generally when growth slows down, we cut once per week. Tees are cut at 10mm and get the same treatment as the greens. Every now and again we get Dollar Spot, which leaves some scarring, so a light scarification on that in the next year or so might be the way forward.” James has a fertiliser programme in place for the greens and tends to use low inputs, but he doesn’t always stick to what is set out for the year. “At the start of the season,
we will use a 6:5:10 with magnesium and iron, but sometimes we find we don’t need an awful lot. With our flushing out process, we need to ensure we have got all the main ingredients because, if not, we just end up suffering somewhere else. Then, after that, it’s a lot of liquid feeds, seaweeds and chelated iron to harden it up and tickle it through. Six to eight weeks after that initial feed, we use the ICL Greenmaster Pro-Lite Invigorator 4:0:8 which won’t give us flush growth, but will keep things ticking over. Then, we may spray another 6:5:10 going into winter and, our overall aim over the year is to apply around 40kg of nitrogen and 70kg of potassium.”
The club leases all machinery over a five-year period and they are not dedicated to any one manufacturer. They will look at what is the best piece of kit for the job in hand. James continued: “We do have a lot of Jacobsen equipment and work closely with them, as we found other main dealers didn’t have the backup that Jacobsen had when we were doing the main purchasing of machinery. We didn’t have our own mechanic, so it was peace of mind that, if
I’m the only one left from the original construction team, but the lads had
heard all about the fun we had and what was involved, so they were desperate to get their teeth into the new par 3 project
36 PC December/January 2020
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