Course update!!!
A much more positive week in regards to productivity in comparison to last week as the 14th bunker sand installation cut well into our course preparation plans for the first medal.
As reported last week we knew we weren’t anywhere near as tidy as we would expect for the 1st medal.
But with the bunker projects finally being put to one side we really did make up for lost time this week.
Monday AM we cut Greens, tees, surrounds, bunker and tee banks for the first time this season.
In the afternoon we got stuck into blowing and collecting of debris, we all worked on late the Monday night to get as much done ahead of the Tuesday medal.
We had planned to cut & roll greens, cut fairways, approaches and a full bunker rake and tee set up on Tuesday morning ahead of the medal… We turned up at 6.00 am to an unexpected white frost!!! this meant we could get near any turf with any machinery until it thawed.
It was just a leaf frost so we were able to all team in and walk round to prepare the bunkers and do a tee set up until the frost finally lifted around 7.40, and we had Craig set up 2 greens mowers at 5mm so we could get straight out just in front of 8.00 tee time and create a gap.
We only cut 1st & 2nd and felt we had just made up enough time gap to bring the roller to the greens from the 3rd onwards.
We also managed to change holes and squeeze in a hand cut the aprons in that tight time frame as well as blowing debris etc…
That was some effort from the team given that we couldn’t get to the turf until 7.40, the only 2 things we couldn’t manage was cutting fairways and approaches, but we did squeeze in cutting aprons and blowing debris instead. That is all we can ever do, maximise the workload with the conditions presented to us. The team adapted brilliantly in ensure we maximised our resources to present a top class course set up.
We even managed to get into the new bunkers with a hoes working on the compaction, it will take a couple of weeks with us continuously watering and treading until we get the compaction we require so at least 90% of balls make their way into the middle of the bunker, it’s just a wee a bit of patience required to let them settle, but we are keen to hear any feedback as there could be certain areas on bunkers which may be posing problems.
Green maintenance
Wednesday we made a start of some light greens renovations as we scarified in 2x directions to remove some organic matter just down -5mm below surface, this will also create a seed bed as we are planning to overseed greens in next week with a light sand dressing to blanket the seed.
We have continued to work the blower and collect debris across the course so member should find the course much more tidy than recent weeks.
We are also burning in regular cutting routines and with temps slowly rising, we will just keep getting stronger with more definition week on week moving forward.
We could see a frost forecast for Friday morning and knew our course set up would be limited again so Thursday was spent cutting all surfaces, greens,tees,fairways, approaches and surrounds…
Fridays frost didn’t lift until 9.00. but we did manage to change holes and hand cut the greens, prepared the bunkers and a good tee set up.
We have now opened the new PG but it is quite weak at this point as it does still need a fair bit of work so members might find it out of play while we undertake maintenance to overseed, topdress as much as possible in the coming weeks.
We have uploaded a little video collage on our winter bunker construction out at 11 & 14. which shows the guys picking up some really neat construction skills. It is truly satisfying to see the team developing these skill sets on such projects, and for us all to look back with great pride on completion.
Kind Regards
Glasgow GC
Greens Team
