Despite the poor weather the Greens staff have been very busy on the course. All Greens have been spiked and cut with hand mowers to help them with drainage during this prolonged wet period.
After the granular feed on all the greens we are seeing plenty of growth and also greens 4, 6 and 16 are slowly filling. We will verti-drain and over seed all Greens next month and hopefully this will see them come back with a full covering of grass.
We are applying a penetrating wetting agent to help the water go deeper into the soil. Also a fungicide and turf hardener package will be applied weather permitting. The mats have all been put in place on the 4 th , 8 th and 16 th complex and this hopefully encourage members to keep to the paths. Thanks goes to Colin Marshall for helping is get these very heavy duty mats up from St Earth.
Almost all of the trees on the 5th/6th have been felled and the last couple will be taken down on the 1 st /18 th shortly in readiness for the removal of the stumps when the weather eases and we can get a digger on the course.
The tee levelling has begun and the 9th sleepers have been completed and are looking very good. Work will begin shortly on the back of the 18 th . When the weather permits we will then fill with rubble against the sleepers and replace the topsoil and turf level to the top of the sleepers. Following the verti-draining in early March all of the tees and greens will be dressed.
Over the past few weeks many of the tree planting areas has been prepared in readiness for the very good response we have had from members sponsoring trees. These will be ordered shortly in readiness for planting in the spring. It is hoped that the social committee will organise a planting day to celebrate the changes to the course.
Some of the walkways and buggy paths are becoming very wet so we will be roping off, to encourage golfers to reduce footfall and buggy tracks to give the areas a rest.
The Wessex rough cutter has finally been fixed and we will now begin paying the lease. We have the purchase of the 3 machines that come off hire in April/ May to refinance as they come out of their existing non purchase leases.
Glyn Rowett
Greens Chairman