Course Maintenance 2023 | 8th-10th November

Over the past three days, our dedicated staff have worked tirelessly on the annual maintenance of the course.

The rationale behind also scarifying the fairways at the same time really was predicated by the damage the floods caused to the fairways last year.

The key benefits to scarifying the fairways can be summed up as follows;

Thatch removal

This will aid in better drainage and creating better opportunities for air and nutrients reaching the roots. It also assists the roots reaching the subsurface soils creating a stronger plant that is healthier and ultimately greener. De-thatching also gives better controls with weeds, fungal issues and mosses.

The greens received their major renovation for the year with coring of 16mm tines being performed removing a significant amount of compressed organic matter and thatch. This process also aided the health of the greens by aerating the greens and changing the profile of compressed matter with fresh sand deposits and nutrients.

Staff and contractors have performed the following tasks over the last 3days;

Greens.

All greens have been cored and spoil removed
Greens have been sanded and in most cases 3-4 applications have been applied. We used 95 tones of sand on the greens
Greens have been swept each time a sand application has occurred
All greens have been verti cut

Fairways

All fairways have been scarified using a 25mm blade which removed approximately 800 cubic meter’s of material.
All fairways were vacuumed to remove the spoil
All fairways then received a cut to 8mm
All fairways were then blown clean of remaining matter
All fairways were fertilized and groomed

Bunkers

All bunkers were raked of scarified and cored turf matter, blown and re raked in preparation for play

Scarified clippings

All scarified clippings have been piled throughout the course and will be distributed into rough lines. Some of this work has already started such as the left hand side of the 5^th just past the Women’s tee. Not all the stolons will be utilized however the remaining piles not being utilized to promote growth in the rough lines will be removed throughout next week.

Course set up

The course has been reset with tee markers and pins as they were removed during the scarifying and coring process.

What to Expect:

The fairways will look baron (skinny) with minimal coverage and a bronze appearance however the work that has been performed will strengthen the plant creating a far superior surface over the next few weeks.

The greens will run slow due to the sand layer settling in and around the surface however there will not be as much borrow in the greens so a straighter and more aggressive putt may just see you sink a few more than usual.

Check out our Course Superintendent James Stewart’s explanation in the video.