killermont course update

 Killermont course update!

It’s been a very productive week on the course.  The team worked tirelessly trialing a new maintenance procedure on Monday morning undertaking some essential greens maintenance, we also managed to install all new drainage and some irrigation pipe work repairs to the right and back of the 1st green. 

And somehow managed to keep up with all of our cutting routines, solid effort once again from this team!!! 

For Greens maintenance on Monday we decided we would try a new procedure as we now have the full team in place the intention was to try and undertake essential maintenance work with as little disruption to golf as possible. 

It was bound to be a long morning so we took our food out on the course to try and keep ahead of golf to job and finish. 

It was an early start for Craig who nominated himself to come in at 4.30 am to start the pencil aeration to the greens… 

The rest of us in at 5.00.

Martin 2x scarified the greens removing a full gator load of organic matter every 3 greens.

Gavin 2x verti cut removing 3 gator loads of undesirable lateral growth and broad leaf plants which will refine our growth and make a perfect bed for sand application.

Peter then 2x cut the greens to lift any excess and leave the greens tidy. 

Ryan then sand dressed the greens with approx 0.7 Tonnes of sand per green. 

Fraser,Andrew, & Olly would run the drag mat to level sand and blow any excess debris off the greens and surround.

Paul then hand watered in the sand to soak the sand down off the leaf into the soil. 

That for us has been a game changer, as Sand is a very essential element in any agronomy program but it is also very disruptive and abrasive to the plant when being brushed in and more so to the blades when it sits on the surface for days on end, but blasting it down with water had the greens playing the same morning with minimal disruption to golf… 

 We are delighted how well the process worked.

 The team worked from 5.00-11.30 without a break and got themselves home for a well earned rest. 

Drainage and irrigation 1st surrounds. 

This area to the right of 1st green in between the 2 tees has been a very problematic area for some time so we decided that as we have the full team in place we could do what ever was required to get this area up to standard all ahead of this weekends pros day and should be close to full recovery for club championships and members guest day. 

We didn’t manage to start lifting the turf until Wednesday afternoon as we caught up on our cutting routines Tuesday and Wednesday morning. 

We have since cut away all saturated turf, hand dug out 3-4” of thatch, hand dug out the old drainage profile, found some leaking irrigation pipe work and inadequate drainage for the area being situated in a low spot and under a lot of water pressure in high rainfall.

We repaired the irrigation leak, installed a good specification of drain pipe, gravel and  levelled and capped the area with rootzone and re-turfed it with some similar turf species from the surrounds of the practice green right of 2nd green, we will replace this early next week with the best quality turf we can find down on the practice field. 

That is now two really problematic areas at the back of the 13th & the 1st now marked as GUR only, now both are on the road to recovery, great effort from the team.

This week’s working 

Greens maintenance 

greens sprayed nutritional mix to aid recovery. 

Note: height of cut raised this week to 3.5mm until sand free so running a tad slower this week, averaging (9.5-10)

1st drainage & irrigation renovations 

Tees and approaches cut 3x 

fairways cut 2x 

surrounds 2x cut 

semi rough and plantations cut 

tee banks and signage fly mowed &  strimmed 

All practice range surfaces cut 

selective fairways divot 

tees set up daily

holes changed 2x 

Big oak limb from summer drop cut up and removed saturday morning. 

hedges cut around car park. 

Full course set up tomorrow for pros day

greens cut 

greens rolled 

full bunker preparation 

tees set up, fingers crossed the weather behaves. 

Killermont

 Course update 

Another productive week for the team with new team members settling in with the group. 

Gavin McDougall,  our new first  assistant has joined us from largs GC, he has already shown his experience this week in a verity of tasks. 

He leads the team now in golfing ability with a 4 handicap 🏌️‍♂️

Lots of rain now posing one or 2 drainage issues which we had been monitoring in the hope that the weather could turn and we might have been able to get through the season before taking action. 

unfortunately with over 120mm of rain in July already!!! and the forecast not set to improve much. We considered also having finally gotten our staffing levels in place we would undertake some much needed drainage works to the back of the 13th, We repaired a small area around 10m2 last month when irrigation was softening it up. 

That same area was the worst effected area but now with excessive rain it seemed fine but a larger area for around 70m2 had become really saturated around it. 

We decided based on the forecast it wouldn’t improve and would likely spread the decline so action should be taken asap. 

We cut out all saturated turf to one side and hand dug out the 4” of thatch built up across the area. We again, found the old drain running straight through the area, we scraped it clear of thatch and poured 40L of water to see if the drain was percolating, it wasn’t, as the fine sand backfill was so tight that even when we punched holes to aerate it still didn’t pull the water as it should. 

We hand dug out the old profile and replaced it with a 6-8mm drainage gravel and capped the levels back up in rootzone. 

We decided it was too risky to put the thatch turf back down here so nicked enough good quality turf from around the wee pitching green right of the laddies 3rd tee. We replaced that with the thatchy turf and will manage it back to standard in this less problematic area. 

The turf is all down on the area at the back of 13th and ropped off as GUR with drop zones in place until roots establish. 

There are one or two other “small” areas between the bunkers at 13 & 15 and if this method proves successful we will look to do similar jobs here, as the drain we have just repaired looks like it runs through these targets also. 

We have now targeted the next priority area at the back right off of the 1st green between 2nd tees. We will do a very similar job again here as we expect the same issues, (deep compaction in old drainage bringing excessive thatch levels) 

Work will start early next week but be complete like the 13th well ahead of pros day next Saturday. 

We see this and next week as small windows of opportunity to have this work done ahead of our major events to make sure they are at least close to being back in play for club championships and certainly for members guests day. 

It’s not the sort of work we want to be undertaking at this time of year but these ares will only decline and spread and be GUR anyway so why not be GUR but with a recovery process in place. 

This weeks workload. 

Some great work put into the original bunkers this week, all banks fly mowed, edged, weeded, sand distributed. 

very labour intensive,  it the new bunkers just fly mowed and raked. 

All bunker banks sprayed growth regulator 

greens cut daily, rolled for 9 hole medal

tees cut 4x 

approaches cut 4x 

fairways cut 2x 

surrounds cut 3x

All signage and distance marked strimmed. 

greens sprayed nutritional mix and growth regulator. 

All practice ranges cut 

selective fairways seed divot 

Machinery maintenance and set up. 

tee set ups daily 

Drainage works as explained 

Quick note: 

We are planning some light greens maintenance early next week (Monday) all ahead of golf (Weather permitting.)

Greens 2x scarification to remove organic matter tension 

2 x veri cut (refine & remove lateral growth) 

6mm pencil tine for aeration and improve root’s development. 

cut and blow clear. 

light Sand dressing in the evening. 

Granular Fert application Tuesday morning if rain forecast. 

All works will have settled before pros day. 

Glasgow Greens team🌱🏌️‍♂️⛳️😎

Gailes Course Update

 

The early part of June was extremely dry with only 4 mm of rain up until the last week of the month, then the heavens opened up giving 25 mm of rain in one night. This took our total rainfall for June to only 29 mm which was our 2^nd driest June for 19 years. During the dry weather we irrigated fairways every night and now they have almost fully recovered, this proves how valuable the new water connection has been.

We have now applied 136 tons of sand to our greens to help keep soil profiles open and free draining, this will also help to control the organic matter content within greens.

I plan to top dress fairways with sand throughout the winter months and the preparation for this has now started by changing to a 6mm mesh on our soil screen. The sand will be screened in the area we cleared to the right of the 5^th tee, we will stock pile approximately 500 tons of sand.

The greens have been disease free for a few months but unfortunately we now have some superficial fairy ring forming, this will be monitored very closely to determine the best treatment. This is caused mainly after heavy rain following a very dry period when moisture levels start to rise, temperature’s over 22 degrees and high humidity are also contributing factors.

The trees behind the 8^th, 9^th & 11^th tees have been over growing and causing some problems for tee selection, these trees have now been trimmed to help create more space for medal tee positions.

Our wetting agent and mild fertiliser programme will continue on tees, approaches and surrounds.

Fairways and rough areas will continue to receive applications of mild liquid fertiliser, seaweed and wetting agents.