september 2020 update

Greens renovations have been completed now and recovery is well underway. Firstly the greens were scarified -8mm, this brought out around 1 trailer load of debris. On the Wednesday we hollow tined using 12mm tines, going down 2″(50mm). We took 12 trailer loads out of the greens. Over 35 tonnes of sand has been brushed into the holes/ surface and 70kg of bents grass seed sown. You can see the new growth already. Because of the stress this causes to the grass plant we have raised the height of cut to 5mm, this will help combat some of that stress. We have put a feed on but will also be putting further soil conditioners on next week, this will aid the recovery, help keep the greens firm going into winter and also help keep disease away. We have had a couple of meetings regarding the winter programme, this is near to being finalised now. The aim is to level up 3 tees and sort out an area of the 6th tee that has sunk a little, we will also look at opening up the trees so we can use more of the left hand side of the 6th tee. Some more path work improvement will take place, mainly raising the 7th path to the fairway to stop it flooding. We are also enquiring about draining the left hand of the 12th fairway, this will depend on cost and ground conditions. There is also a lot of tree work that needs to be done, removing dead trees, low branches and a few trees that are not indigenous to the area. We have had a couple of complaints about the course recently mainly regarding as to what the greens staff actually do and how we have done less this year than previous. This has upset and annoyed all the greens lads, as we have worked as hard this year like we did in any previous season. Briefly, the greens get cut every day , usually 5;30am-8;30am. Tees/fways/surrounds all get cut minimum twice, like every year previous. The rough gets cut all week, because of how much of rough there is it takes all week, the only way around it is growing more long rough therefore making the area we have to cut smaller. The weather plays a big part of how the rough plays, usually the complaints about he rough start mid may, this is usually when we have the first decent amount of rainfall during the warmer temps. This season we had 23mm during the whole of April/may, no moisture for the grass to kick off, now we have had 100mm+ for the last 3 months with decent temps the rough does not stop growing. Because it takes us all week to cut it some areas at the weekend have had 3-4 days growth. We are looking into purchasing a new rough machine, keeping the old one, and maybe another machine to cut in between the trees, this should hopefully speed up the process. The greenstaff would also like to grow some areas longer, this would also speed up cutting. Another massive problem the greens staff see with people looking for their balls is that you have no idea how far the ball has gone. We see people looking for balls 30 yards further than where the ball actually landed. Please pay attention when on the tee so you have a better idea as to where your balls have gone. Unless you work outside you would not know how much an impact the weather/ rain has on your plans/work. The difference between a dry cut compared to a cut when it’s wet is like night and day. The summer of 2018, (June/July/Aug) it was dry 49% of the time, with Thurs/Fri being dry 62%/42% of the time. Compare this to 2020. It has been dry 29% of the time, Thurs/Fri dry 15%/23%. Why do these figures matter? Thurs/Fri are the main days we cut to present the course for the weekend. Not getting a dry cut makes a massive difference, absolutely out of our control. We have had 152mm more rainfall in the period than 2018, 58mm more than 2019. Wednesday/ Thursday when cutting rough have both been wet 85% of the time, 2018 was 62%,38% wet. Massive differences. Thanks for reading, please follow us on twitter @ashtonleagreens, this will give you daily reports on the state of the course and updates of what we are doing. We also have a facebook page, search for Ashton and Lea greens. Please like the page and ask your golfing friends to like the page, make them aware of the good things we are doing and producing. Any concerns or opinions on what we are doing please contact us directly on greens-ashtonlea@hotmail.com. Thanks for reading, Mark Shuttleworth ( Deputy Head Greenkeeper)