Greenkeeper's Report March 2020
The winter of 2019-20 will be remembered for all the wrong reasons - record breaking rain has affected golf courses up and down the country. We have had to close the course 40 times this Winter which has obviously hurt business very badly, but we remain positive and will push on for what will hopefully be a successful summer!
Greens
This week we have started our Spring greens maintenance and we have taken the decision to do two forms of aeration which is something we have never done before. As usual we are hollow coring the greens to aleviate thatch build up and surface compaction, and we are also doing a deep spike to a depth of 7 inches. Deep spiking helps gaseous exchange within the root bed encouraging a longer root and therefore a stronger plant. Oxygen plays a key role in root growth and deep spiking is a great way to encourage better root growth within the USGA substrate.
As part of the maintenance we have hired a top dressing machine to spread the sand evenly on the greens as we did last year, but this time we have also hired it for a second period and will be giving the green another light topdress in 2-3 weeks’ time to fill in any remaining holes ensuring a smoother surface going into the Summer season.
Competition Tees on 6 & 10
We had planned to have these done and dusted by now but due to the terribly wet winter we have only been able to get onto these tees in small doses. We are making progress though! Those who have played the course recently will have seen that we have now installed the sleepers between the tees, and scraped off the 6th tee bed so that it is ready to be topped off and levelled. We have also transported around 30 tonnes of soil to build up the 10th tee to its final level. Finally we will install irrigation on the tees and put new turf on them.
Ideally we would like these tees in play for the latter half of the summer however we are keen to get this right and not rush things.
New Machinery
We are now in the process of looking for some new machinery for the golf course which we aim to purchase within the next 6 to 12 months, with the aim of creating better playing surfaces. Various pieces of equipment are being considered including new greens and fairway mowers, aeration and topdressing equipment, pesticide applicators, greens rollers and utility vehicles.
This is not a quick process and we are determined to remain patient so that we acquire the right machinery for the tasks required. We have a good budget for the new machinery, but this can easily be swallowed up if the wrong purchases are made too quickly.
The priority of the new machinery is to improve the greens, including consistent speeds, true surfaces and better winter playability. One of the things we get comments about is that the greens are not a constant speed throughout the year and we are hoping that with better machinery we will be able to produce quicker greens on a more consistent basis.
Second Teaching Studio
As part of the ongoing improvement of the Matt Daley Golf Academy we are building a second golf studio for our newly recruited assistant professional Luke Bell who will be specialising in Custom Fitting, which we are going to take to the next level with Ping and Callaway. Matt will be investing in a second Trackman for the Golf Academy so we can give the highest quality of golf coaching and custom fitting that the East Riding area has to offer.
Driving Range Net & Shortened 18th Hole
The damage storm Ciara did to the Driving Range netting will be fixed as soon as possible, but due to the severity of the damage and the specialist equipment needed to remedy the situation, it may be a couple of months before this is solved. We will be going through our insurance in order to have the net reinstalled, as quotes have been in excess of £20,000 to do so. Just another challenge this winter had brought to us!
“The Greening of Burstwick”
As part of our ongoing quest to improve the golf course we have teamed up with Roos Woodland Group to form a plan on planting more trees at the club to create better aesthetics, reduce our carbon footprint and increase the local wildlife. With help from the Burton Pidsea Wind Farm and the Woodland Trust we are hoping to plant over a thousand trees and bushes on the golf course within the next few years.
The main area of focus will be the second field (holes 3 to 11) where the course is more open, but the bulk of the planting will be done off the playing line and should not change the way the holes are played, but give some nice backdrops and variations of colour and views around the course. The first area of focus is behind the 8th green in the rough ground, which we are going to call our “Wildlife Corner” and we hope to begin planting in autumn of this year.
Bunkers
In February we topped up 42 bunkers with around 40 tonnes of sand to get the correct depths for the 2020 season, but the weather since then has not helped us at all! We will give the bunkers another good going over to check levels and top up any that need it in the coming weeks.
Conclusion
We have an exciting year ahead for the club and we’re keen to keep improving the course and facilities, and we hope you are too. Despite the extremely challenging weather we have ploughed on when we could, with limited opportunities to take machinery on the golf course. We hope you have been able to appreciate the hard work we have put in and will continue to do so in the future.