Greens update

Following a greens meeting on Tuesday, we all felt it was really important to keep you up-to-date regarding where we feel we are at the very start of the season, and just explain one or two problems we've had the past few weeks. 

The last time I put a message on the newsletter, was basically to inform you of the work on the course that was to be carried out. I also mentioned that it was weather dependent. This is exactly how it turned out, as on the due dates for the jobs to be done, the heavens opened. It rained constantly for over a week and resulted in the course becoming saturated. Due to this, the work that we had planned was put back by a few weeks. If we hollow tined the greens when they are that wet, we'd cause more damage than good. Unfortunately, we were in the same situation with the tees.

The dilemma we had was this; we wanted desperately to give you the best green surfaces we could for the whole season ahead. We'd also planned some extensive tee work, which we thought would provide the best possible tees we could get, both visually and playability wise. The problem we had was a timing issue. We were three weeks behind where we wanted to be due to the weather. Now it was getting very close to the first competition of the season.

We decided we needed to get the work done. It was critical in giving you the best possible conditions for the season. However, this had a big impact on the first Midweek Medal and the Spring Fourball. We acknowledge that the course wasn't in the best shape possible for these competitions; we simply hope that you understand the position we were in and hope you agree that the decisions that were made were for the best reasons. We knew that it would be difficult for the greenstaff to get all this work done as well as prepare the course to an acceptable standard. We also recognise that we maybe should have moved the Spring Fourball to a later date. In hindsight, we believe this is what we should have done and apologise for not doing so.

We also discussed the timing of some of these competitions, with a few of us thinking that they may be too early in the season. Particularly when it’s a board competition. We are so reliant on the weather being kind to us early in the season, for us to provide you with the best possible playing surfaces this early in the season. We are looking towards next year’s fixture list, and discussing the possibility of pushing some of these dates back and extending the season more into October, when we feel the course is usually still in good shape. We will obviously keep you informed about any decisions made regarding this.

We are also very aware that some of the fairways are still somewhat lacking in growth in some areas. This is obviously the result of last summer's scorching weather. We have obviously been trying hard to rectify this by verti-draining some of the worst hit areas. We will also be over seeding parts of the fairways to encourage growth. This will be happening very shortly so we're hoping to see a lot of improvements in these areas.

Just a quick update on the sponsorship of the tee signs. Unfortunately, due to varying reasons, we've had a delay in getting them back from the manufacturers. However, I've been given a date of delivery on Friday, 26 April. We will be installing them as soon as we possibly can. In the meantime, I took the opportunity to get the new tee markers in time for the last weekend. I hope you agree that they look really good and improve the overall look of the tees.
Your greens committee are determined to keep you all updated in all things regarding the course. If you have any comments you wish us to consider, please feel free to contact the office who will pass them onto us.

Thank you for taking the time to read this.

Mark Shea
Greens chair