Greens report

Dear all,

We are once again under pressure as we have lost one of the green staff which leaves us two men down from a full team. John Turner is taking three weeks annual leave which leaves us with only two green keepers and an apprentice for the next three weeks. They will continue to do their best but please try and bear with us while we advertise for more staff.

Any members who wish to do some voluntary work, or who wish to do paid part time work to help us out until we are back up to a full staff situation, then please let us know.

Over the next few days, you will see that some fairways where the grass has not re grown will have some heavy work done on them. This work is being recommended after the visit of Alister Beggs the agronomist from STRI, they will be vertidrained and have the surface scarified, they will then have a wetting agent put on them as the water we have had is not penetrating more than 25mm from the surface. They will then be re seeded at a cost of £2,000 worth of seed. We are not able to do every fairway due to the cost so will just do those areas most effected.

The winter programme will start shortly and there is a large program to get through, so it will all be dependent on the weather and manpower. We will start with the following;

• 7th Medal tee will be stripped, levelled and re turfed to be ready for next year.
  
• The 7th winter mat (to the same standard as the 11th) will be put in front of the yellow tee.
  
• The 5th Temp green will be turfed, but we will use the old fairway winter green until the new one can be in play.
  
• A path from the back of the 5th temp will be made to join up with the existing path leading to the 6th and 10th tees.
  
• The path from the back of the 9th winter green to the 10th path will be joined up and finished off.
  
• A path will be created from the first winter green to join up with the existing path by the side of the 2nd winter tee.
  
• A winter mat will be put at the front of the 2nd winter tee behind the ladies tee, the existing winter tee in front of the yellow tee will be removed.
  
• A winter mat will be put at the front of the 8th winter tee so you walk directly onto it from the steps at the front.
  

Winter greens have been vertidrained and seeded, so will hopefully improve and new permanent winter greens will be worked on over the next two to three years. So, we ask for your patience while we try and improve your course for winter golf.

There is an ongoing winter tree removal programme which is starting next week by the path from the 12th green up to the 13th. Then the silver birch and the fir trees by the 10th green will be removed on the recommendation of the STRI agronomist to increase the sunlight to help growth on the green. Further trees will be removed if time and manpower permit, all trees being removed now or in the future will be for the benefit of the course and to create better visibility when playing.

Regards,
Nick Damjanovic