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 2nd 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 5th 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 8th, 9th & 11th
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.
