Due to the excessive wear this winter from the 18th green to the shoe cleaner, I have roped off this walk-off completely. As a result of this all golfers are being asked to leave the 18th green by the right hand side and walk through the car park.
Whilst I realise this is not the most convenient route, the wear that the existing walk-off is showing is not acceptable. If we do not try and alleviate the volume of traffic over this area at the moment, then by the spring time the level of damage sustained might be too much for the area to recover, as it is constantly under pressure from traffic. With this being in full view of the clubhouse this would definitely not be desirable, nor would it be anywhere else on the golf course and indeed we have had to rope an extra area at the 5th green for the same reason.
We will install extra drainage and aerate this area to try and aid recovery.
Your cooperation is very much appreciated.
Graham Mackie
We have thinned between the 2nd and 3rd on the West Water to enable us to plant some broadleaf trees and allow morning sunlight to hit the 3rd green/4th tee.
Views of the 2nd and 3rd holes as the golfers would play them. Still enough trees to make the holes feel tree lined and hence play the same way.
Above a view of the 3rd green flooded with morning sunlight. Note how the trees have been thinned on the angle so allowing the sunlight through, but when you play the hole the gap is not visible.
Sunlight is vital to encourage the ground to warm up quickly and therefor get the grass plant growing especially in the cool spring mornings.
Below a look at the 7th green and you can see how much shade is cast by the stands of pine and spruce trees around the golf course, this photo was taken immediately after the photo of the 3rd green.
Now that the new turf on the bunkers has had time to settle and begin to root, we can now shape the base and fill with sand
Digging out the base.
Compacting the base with a vibrating plate
Filled with sand and compacted.
The finished bunker!
We have now started our winter tree thinning programme. I thought this would be a good time to try and explain the selection process for thinning. They are as follows:
- If pines are crowding out a specimen broadleaf tree, a beech for example, then the pines will be felled to allow the broadleaf to flourish.
- If possible trees with poor structure, ie broken tops or double leaders, will be selected and felled.
- When we have a area of pine trees, it is important to understand that when branches from one tree touch an adjacent tree,these branches will wither and die. Thats why if pines are touching each other then we will thin.
An example of trees that have not been thinned when branches have touched. Note there are no lower branches.
An example of trees that have been thinned to allow the tree to flourish and bottom branches to form.
If areas where we have thinned have opened up, then we will underplant with broadleaf trees to break up the mono culture. This allows a stand of trees to have the diversity of different species at different ages.
The strong winds of 8th December resulted in a total of 43 trees being either blown over or snapped in half. Work is ongoing to tidy up the damage.
There are four main reasons for thinning this area, they are
1 To allow for a wider walk through area so as to eliminate the need for a path.
2 To give the specimen Beech tree room to flourish.
3 To let more air and light onto the 8th tee.
4 Open up the view of the hills beyond as golfers walk through.
Shuttering the tee to level the rootzone.
The finished tee turfed.
We are now in the process of rebuilding the 8th medal tee. This will involve-
Stripping off the existing soil.
Levelling the base with a laser level and realigning the tee to point down the fairway, as the original tee pointed to the right hand semi rough.
Installing drainage into the base.
Repositioning irrigation pop ups.
Spreading, compacting and levelling 6-8 inches of rootzone over the base using rails, which have been laser levelled and a shuttering board.
Turfing the tee with a dwarf rye/fescue blend.
Stripping 8th medal tee
Installing drainage
We have now started our bunker refurbishment work. The stages involved in this are as follows:
1 Strip off the old turf and reshape the sub soil as necessary
2 Import top soil and spread to a depth of 100-150mm
3 Rake soil to acheive a final smooth finish
4 Turf the bunker
5 Dig out the base to give a gentle bowl shape and compact with a vibrating plate
6 Fill with new sand
Rather than do one bunker at a time we will complete a stage to all bunkers being refurbished. The reason for this being, that when it comes to the turfing stage, it is much more cost effective to purchase turf in a big load rather than a pallet at a time, especially as haulage costs keep increasing. Also if the turf is left rolled up for any length of time it starts to yellow and die off so we have to be ready to lay all the turf when it is delivered.
