Wet Wet Wet
Another week, another struggle in what is turning out to be another “Great British summer”. The last few weeks have proven to be very difficult in maintaining the golf course with the constant rainfall and flooding. In these conditions we have to change our approach and cutting schedule. In normal, dry conditions we can time our mowing to best prepare the course for the weekend. Ordinarily this will consist of cutting tee’s and fairways towards the end of the week to create the best surfaces possible come Saturday morning. When the weather is bad our strategy changes to maximise any dry conditions in which we can capitalise on and do the bulk of our mowing.
There are jobs we can do to try to prevent the flooding of greens and fairways. We try to verti-drain the greens as much as possible, this is a time consuming job during the growing season but is vital to allow the water to drain through the top surface. This will help the water to pass through the thatch layer and into the existing drains. All drain outlets and grids are cleared to aid drainage of other areas. We also move the flags to the higher parts of the green to give us the best chance of keeping the competitions playable.The fairways were verti-drained early this year and will be done again in October. Next week we hope to verti-drain the greens and spray them with fungicide to prevent any spread of fusarium, along with preparing the course for the club champs.
Lets hope that the weather improves!!!!!!!