September 2015

30 years service!
Not many golf clubs can boast that they have had a loyal member of staff for 30 years, but we can! Chris Locke was recently presented with a limited edition ‘Arsenal Legends’ print in recognition of his achievement. Well done Chris!

We would like to say a big thankyou to Mr Alan Rowley and also Ms Anne Davies for attending our greens open event in July. They were able to ask any questions about what we do on the course, and Mr Rowley was also given a tour of the maintenance facilities, he commented that he never knew that we had so much equipment. It was a shame that more people did not attend as it would have been a great opportunity to create a better understanding of what we do and why.

You may have seen a few new mowers on the course recently, these are not ours but are demonstration machines. Our greens mowers are now in their 6^th season and are becoming uneconomical to run and maintain. We hope to purchase 2 new greens mowers and then demote the current mowers to tees and approaches, reducing their workload and prolonging their lifespan.

We have been busy tidying a few areas on the course recently. We have pruned back the hedges infront of the 5^th and 12^th tees. The hedges were getting overgrown and encroaching on tee shots.
The rear of one of the greenside bunkers on the 1^st has been reshaped to stabilise the edge, this now looks much neater and is safer to walk into.

We will be continuing to tidy areas around the course as time permits.

And it’s that time of year again where we renovate the greens…..
During the week beginning Monday the 21^st September we will be carrying out our autumn renovations. This includes hollow coring, scarifying, over seeding, topdressing and feeding the greens, tees, and aprons.
These operations are very disruptive but are essential in any good greens maintenance regime,  so please keep an eye out for us and give way where possible.
The hollow coring and scarifying remove soil and thatch and aid gaseous exchanges within the soil profile, whilst relieving compaction, aiding drainage, and (with the addition of sand top dressing) improving the soil structure and texture.
Overseeding will help improve sward composition and encourage the desired ‘finer’ grasses ‘festuca’ and ‘agrostis.’
Topdressing helps to alleviate the humps and bumps created during the coring process, whilst filling the core holes and keeping them open to aid drainage. It also creates an ideal seedbed for the seed to establish.
Fertiliser is then applied to encourage vigorous growth and aid recovery to provide good putting surfaces as soon as possible after renovations.

We will also be using our new Amazone machine to scarify the fairways throughout September and October, this will remove thatch to promote a healthier, firmer surface for play.

We are still looking for volunteers to help trim hedges and prune and raise the canopies on our trees, there is a notice on the greens notice board so please put your name down. We need to get as many names as possible so that we can give everyone a health and safety briefing all at once, this will save time and also ensure we comply with legislation regarding voluntary work.

Thankyou for reading.

June 2015

Finally we’re away!  With the warmer weather the greens have been growing well this month.  There have been a few comments about the greens and the ‘dry patch’, we are doing all we can to keep cover on these areas.

Dry patch is basically when soil particles become ‘hydrophobic’ (water repellent) due to a build-up of waxy residues left behind by fungal activity in the soil. This then means that the grasses cannot take in the moisture and so wilt and die off. This condition can be treated chemically with wetting agents that strip the soil particles of the waxy deposits.

We have been hand watering the dry areas so that we are using what water we have in the right areas, rather than blanket watering and watering areas that do not need it, this is particularly important because we are limited to 40 cubic metres of water per day.

Some of you may have noticed the small brown dots on some of the greens, which is where we have sprayed off the ‘toadrush’.  Toadrush established through the winter in wet conditions, and we have stepped up aeration to help combat these wet conditions and hopefully reduce the amount of toadrush that establishes through next winter.

The improved weather and growth have allowed us to top dress twice this month, helping to true up surfaces and dilute any thatch build up.

Our monthly aeration program has so far been a success, and this will continue in the week beginning Monday 27^th July.

We have been busy out on the course improving a few areas, an area to the right of the 3^rd hole that was previously G.U.R is now a level path and looks much tidier.

Also, we have trimmed back the hedge behind the 16^th tee to give extra swing space when playing from the back of the tee.

Other work in hand is the ongoing replacement of steps, removing stones in bunkers and we will shortly commence lifting the lower canopy on some trees to make locating the ball easier and so speed up play. These jobs are programmed in for when we have the capacity.

We have also taken delivery of a new machine in the last few weeks.
It is an Amazone smartcut flail cutter/collector. This is a multi-purpose machine that can be used for leaf collecting, fairway scarifying, and ecological rough management. It will allow us to collect leaves in the autumn far more efficiently than we have done before, freeing up pairs of hands for other jobs.

We will be able to start to scarify fairways again, reducing organic matter content and help promote firmer, healthier fairways. Ecological rough areas can be cut down, scarified, and the grass collected, reducing nutrient content in these areas and promoting a wispier, more playable rough. If we do not collect the grasses, then the more we cut and return the stronger it grows!

For more info please see this video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9A4Ja0LEQhM

Details of the ‘Greens forum’ will be circulated shortly and we look forward to seeing as many faces as possible.

May 2015

Another cold month! With temperatures staying 3-4 degrees below the average for this time of year, it has been very challenging trying to encourage growth on the greens, and this has been hugely publicised recently in the case of the PGA championship at Wentworth. Top Pro’s  were very critical of the greens on the West Course, showing that even with a huge budget it is very difficult to achieve good surfaces in these conditions!
Nonetheless, growth in other areas of the course has been good and we are busy cutting and strimming all areas to maintain good definition and presentation.
We have recently purchased some new flags, pins and cups and I’m sure you’ll all agree that they are certainly an improvement on what we had before as they now stand vertically from the green!
The steps on the ladies 18^th tee have been removed as they were deemed unsafe, and after inspection, unnecessary as the slope is quite small and there is flat access from the front of the tee. We have filled and seeded this area and it is establishing quickly.

Aeration of the greens is ongoing with the ‘pencil tines’ to a depth of 4-5 inches, and we are due to aerate again in the week beginning Monday 15^th June. This operation has so far been successful and has caused very little surface disruption, with many members commenting that you cannot even tell it has been done, which was our intention.
We are in the process of organising a greens forum/open evening for sometime in July where members can come to meet the greens staff and find out more about who we are, and what we do, so please keep an eye on the noticeboards and on here for dates and times etc.
You may see us out and about on a sprayer from time to time, but following a couple of worrying comments please be assured that we do not regularly use any hazardous chemicals. If we are using any chemicals that you need to be aware of then we will write any guidelines on the boards outside the clubhouse and by the 1^st tee.
On a disappointing note, we have found a few ‘divots’ taken out of some greens recently (pictured below). If anybody sees someone doing this then please report it to us so that we can deal with it. 

I’ll leave you with a few pictures of the course and also a ‘speckled wood’ butterfly that was recently spotted.

9th Green

7th Hole

'Speckled Wood' Butterfly

April 2015

Well, we’ve certainly had some finer weather this month, although night time temperatures are still low leading to steady growth on the greens.
Our spring renovations of the greens went well, and we have also been able to spike and top dress again this month, the smaller ‘pencil’ tines have done a good job of aerating to a depth of around 5 inches whilst leaving almost no disruption. This will be carried out again this month, weather depending we will do this in the week beginning Monday 11^th May.
The height of cut has been reduced down to our summer height, and we are regularly using the groomers and brushes on our mowers to encourage an upright growth pattern and to fine down the leaves on our Agrostis grasses which can be ‘bushy’ at this time of year. Hopefully, as the night time temperatures pick up, we’ll get more even surfaces as the meadow grass catches up with the Agrostis’ growth rate.
We have been busy topping up bunkers with sand, and picking any stones out that we come across.
A massive thank you to everyone that came to help us with the divotting, a group of around 20 members enabled us to get most of the fairways done and even a few tees. Many thanks again as this is a job that would otherwise not have been done as we just do not have the time.
We have recently carried out some repairs to the steps on the 18^th tee, and this will be finished in due course.
We are encouraged to see that more and more of our lovely Orchids are growing out on the course, correct me if I’m wrong but I believe they are ‘Early Purple’ Orchids, beautiful!

I hate to finish on a negative note but could we please encourage everyone to rake bunkers after they have been in them! Bunker raking is a very time consuming job for us, we find ourselves raking bunkers when we could be doing something far more productive, and so we need help to look after them and encourage everyone to leave the bunker as you would expect to find it.
This is how we found the 15^th greenside bunker one morning!

Thank you for reading,

All of the greens staff

March 2015

Welcome to the first Honiton Golf Club greens blog!
The aim of this blog is to create a better understanding of who the greens staff are, what we do, when we do it, and most importantly why we do it!

Having spent most of the winter picking up leaves and clearing ditches to ensure the course opens as soon as possible after heavy rainfall, the team are certainly looking forward to some finer weather.
Due to very low night time temperatures (5°C soil temperature), growth is still very slow despite mild daytime temperatures.
An application of fast acting Nitrogen and Iron has been applied to the greens and approaches to try to encourage some growth as well as trying to weaken areas of moss.
As you may have noticed, we have been busy renovating our tees, they have been hollow cored and scarified and will be seeded and topdressed in due course.
By the time you read this, hopefully (weather depending) we will have finished our spring renovations.
We will be carrying out aeration on the greens and approaches, followed by scarification, topdressing, over seeding, and another application of fertiliser to aid recovery.
These operations, although disruptive, are an essential part of our maintenance program.

The aeration will be carried out using 12mm solid tines and will help to:

• ·        Create air spaces in the soil profile for roots to grow into; increasing both root depth and density.
• ·        Reduce compaction
• ·        Improve drainage
• ·        Improve Nutrient availability
• ·        Increase the activity of soil biology, and so help to break down thatch and aid natural aeration.
• ·        Allow poisonous gases to be released from the soil profile and be replaced by oxygen.

Aeration is followed by scarification to physically remove some thatch that may have built up.
A mix of festuca/agrostis seed is then applied and covered with an application of topdressing, this is then matted into the surface to help:

• ·        Level up the surface
• ·        Dilute thatch
• ·        Create firmer, smoother putting surfaces
• ·        Encourage more disease resistant, desirable Agrostis and Festuca grass species.

We appreciate your patience whilst this work is being carried out, and can assure you that we take no pleasure in ‘hammering holes in the greens’, we just see it as ‘short term pain = long term gain!’.

Over the coming weeks we hope to see an increase in temperatures so that we can look to getting some grooming and brushing in on the greens to fine down the leaves of some of the ‘bushier’ agrostis grass plants.
We will also be levelling up the back tee on the 1^st, and we will be out and about on the course tidying areas where our delightful friend the mole has invaded!

Here is our apprentice Lewis scarifying the tees.

Tees hollow cored and scarified.

Many thanks
All of the greens staff.