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.

Killermont course update

 Killermont Course update 

Please excuse that we haven’t managed to get an update on the course over the past couple of weeks due to our busy working schedule of long days and nights during the dry spell,  desperately trying to maintain turf quality on all the key areas which we could just about manage with our limited irrigation and water source. 

We are in the process of having our water source and full Irrigation survey done from a certified architect and we shall report on all options and any course of action the board see fit moving forward. 

It would have been noticed we had prioritised water and moisture levels over basic things like strimming and regular raking bunkers during the heatwave period. 

That will have looked quite untidy around the course and that really is frustrating for us to put so much work in and have to drive past the basic things which  we would normally be well on top of, we could understand if some thought we had been neglecting some things but the truth is we work so hard to establish the more desirable “finer grasses” on all of our surfaces and we see it as imperative we try to maintain this coverage to all our reachable main playing surfaces. 

As much as the hours spent are challenging we are now certain that it has all been worth while. 

We had a relatively dry but cold May, straight into a 5 week blistering hot period late May and through June. 

With our irrigation running through the night to manage greens and approx 80% of our surrounds we got into a routine of hand watering the 20% of surrounds, full  approaches and all tees every day. 

In that soaring  heat we are having to apply much more water than we would if running through the night as the evaporation is as high as 6mm per day, night irrigation would only need around  2mm to maintain turf quality. 

We are also having to apply much more wetting agents as when it is so hot for so long some parts of the soils become hydrophobic meaning they repel water so wetting agents need to be applied directly to localised areas. 

It is a relentless challenge but we feel like we have not only maintained the turf quality but improved on all of the targeted surfaces. 

The approaches were the next target in line for improvement and we feel they are now in the best possible condition even coming through the dry hot spell.

The rain had come just on time as not only the turf but the team had become exhausted.

As we mentioned in previous reports we were certain that by taking the measures mentioned combined with raised height of cut we would not only maintain the turf quality but we would recover very quickly, I think it’s fair to say our recovery has been just that, quick and full….

Rest assured that without that input we know that rain alone would not have recovered the turf loss and we would by now be looking at an extensive  overseeding and fertiliser program.

As good as it is to see the rain come and replenish the course not to mention give the team some rest it has highlighted that we do have some recurring drainage issues in some key in play areas. 

The back left of the 13th we had already done some drainage relief to the worst spot which is now fine and dry only to find the surrounding area is now suffering. 

We found some old drainage here and the backfill material had solidified so we replaced the worst section given, in-season time restraints. 

We are now planning to extend that work soon after Tuesday’s medal.

Another area of concern which we are targeting next week is back right of 1st green in between 2nd tee, we are guessing its a similar problem but it will be tackled and repaired asap, out with main events with minimal disruption. 

This week as moisture levels are up we have started to reduce the heights of cut to our desired levels for better playability while not in danger of stressing the plant. 

This weeks workload…

Cut greens daily 3mm

Greens Rolled ahead of evening events i.e Final league team match to ensure home advantage with quicker greens as rain throughout the day had dropped speeds considerably. 

Fairways cut 4x 16mm 

Tees cut 4x 10mm 

Approaches cut 4x 10mm 

Surrounds cut 3x 25mm 

Fly mowing and strimming bunker banks etc.

All semi rough cut 

Practice ranges prepared 

Bunkers prepared daily

Greens spraying fungicide 

Fairways seed divot 

Looking forward to setting up for tomorrows medal, let’s hope the rain doesn’t hinder preparation, never happy us Greenkeepers.

We have attached a report on our tasks from turf keeper during the dry spell late May up to the 17th June. An overwhelming 32% of our time spent hand watering as the report refers to as “tees” but in-fact that is all surface targets mentioned in the update report. 

🌱🏌️‍♂️⛳️😎

Killermont course update

 Course update!!!

It’s been an very busy week for the team working long hours in extremely hot conditions preparing the course for the the Captains prize  and June medal medal tomorrow. 

We are fairly happy with the course considering our staffing levels have been low for some time.  

We have agreed terms with 2 new members of staff and we hope to  introduce them when all is confirmed. 

With very little rain fall through May and now scorching weather we are doing all we can to keep the grass coverage we worked so hard to recover last year. 

We are loosing 2 of our most experienced members of staff almost daily to hand watering surfaces  without irrigation Tees, approaches, hot spots and reachable drain lines. 

It is very labour intensive and exhausting work in the heat pulling hoses around the course.

But there is no doubt we have maintained good turf health to all the surfaces mentioned. 

We have also raised the height of cut on most surfaces that are without irrigation. 

As a demonstration of cutting height turf stress, we are cutting the left half of the 8th & 17th fairway at the low and desired height of cut 14mm, the right side of both 8& 17 and all other all other fairways are being cut at 17mm just until we get some moisture to relieve the cutting stress which will be compounded by the hot dry stress. 

If we continue to with these measures not only will we maintain best possible turf quality for longer but we will recover very quickly as soon as some natural rainfall comes. If we don’t put this work in now then coverage will undoubtedly be lost and rainfall alone won’t be enough to recover. 

It’s a big push to maintain the turf health in these conditions with limited irrigation as well as keep the course standards up. 

It’s always about priorities, some things have to give each week, this week we didn’t manage to cut all tee banks like at the 4th or strim bunker edges.

But all in all we did manage all of our usual routines, and ticked off some of our outstanding workload list but we have been working long hours to achieve this. 

We feel like we have good control of the greens having maintained consistent speeds averaging (11) now since the stewart cup week. 

We have developed a good balanced nutritional mix with low nitrogen and iron inputs but more carbohydrates, micro nutrients and growth regulators, also very low rates of application. 

This is how we are achieving this consistency with just a single cut in the morning, the roller hasn’t been out since the stewart cup. We are very satisfied with this control at the moment. 

This weeks workload 

Greens cut daily 3mm 

fairways cut 2x 17mm (tues & sat)

tees cut 2x at 12mm (16th white tee right side being cut at desired 10mm to demonstrate turf response)

Surrounds cut 2x at 25mm

approaches cut 3x at 12mm

semi rough cut 2” 

all bunker banks fly mowed 

Green, tees, approaches, and bunker faces been sprayed growth reg and nutritional mix.

bunker maintenance, redistribution and topping up sand levels. 

various strimming. 

Full fairway seed divot 

practice field and targets all cut (3x new targets) 

daily hand watering using 2 men each day

both manholes covers back in place at 3rd & 18th 

GUR white line 

drain lines aeration and wetting agent applied 

All distance markers trimmed and painted 

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Glasgow GC Greens Team🌱⛳️🏌️‍♂️😎

Tomorrow’s Captains prize and June medal course set up… 

greens cut, possibly rolled if speeds drop below 10.  (speeds being posted on club v1each morning)

holes changed 

bunkers prepared 

tee set up 

fairways cut 

approaches cut 

Killermont update!!!

 Course update!!!

It’s been a really challenging week for the team with continued low staffing levels and some guys on holiday, but the guys filling in stepped up brilliantly👏👏👏

There is now the added workload on the course which does take priority of hand water tees etc…. The course is really starting to dry out now and we are losing 2 men each morning to hand watering tees and various hot spots throughout the course, during these dry weeks hand watering takes priority and obviously that means something in our cutting routine has to give, this week it was the flymowing of bunkers and divot seeding fairways (both planned for next week).

We did so well to recover a large percentage of  lost coverage last year from the heat wave of summer of 2021, we have been out on top of watering the usual dry spots very early this year trying to build up the moisture levels to be able to maintain coverage…. 

We are confident we will keep the greens, surrounds, tees and approaches, but we will almost certainly struggle to keep full coverage the fairways bunker surrounds, and the old fairway drainage which is already on the turn. We have something up our sleeve to combat the drainage but it will still use man power that we just don’t have at present, we will report back on that. 

We have now raised the  heights of cut on almost all surface’s. The fairways up to 17mm from 15mm,  to help maintain coverage while dry. If we were blessed with fairway irrigation we would be down as low as 14mm or less, but without means of maintaining moisture the only measure of protection is the heights of cut. 

We will be cutting half of the 17th fairway at 15mm just as an example of the stress this  “desired” height of cut has in the prolonged dry conditions. 

Tees and approaches have been raised 1mm to 12mm for the same reason. 

Surrounds back up to 25mm from 23mm. 

Greens, 

We are in the peak season for poa annual meadow grass seeding, it is fairly wide spread so we have kept the greens lean and below our usual nutritional levels just to help maintain trueness and speeds which we have managed quite well, averaging (11.5 since) since the stewart cup with just a single cut at 3mm.

But we have since begun to bring the nutritional levels up with a spray mix application today. We should start to see the greens look a lot healthier but lose some natural speed, we will have other measures to try and and maintain our targets of  (10.5-11)

For this reason we think it is important we update the greens speeds on club 1 each morning just to prepare golf of average speeds, as opposed to the shock on the 1st green, especially for medals and events. 

We have put some extra work into the 18th green with light aeration and heavy sand dressings to the new drainage, just to try and level out some imperfections levels. We will be working the excess sand in over the next week or so, it will be good and clean before the captains prize and medal weekend. 

Killermont Greens Team 🌱⛳️😎

  Killermont Course update!

It’s been another busy week for the guys on the course as we are now juggling all of our cutting routines with hand watering tees and other areas like practice greens without irrigation as the moisture levels have dropped of considerably. This work takes priority during dry spells so some of our outstanding workload list won’t be getting ticked off for this reason. 

We did however take the hit on course works on Thursday with 4 members of staff filling pot holes on the drive out to the field, it was long overdue. That was 34 hrs the course lost but it was required. 

Ricky also did a great job with the main welcome sign beside the 17th medal tee. 

It had been knocked over and damaged from a vehicle, he took it apart, restored it with a coat of varnish, great job!!

This weeks workload 

Greens single cut at 3.5mm 6 days this week with one rest day on Thursday. 

We are maintaining good consistency with greens speeds now with an average reading of 10.8 on the stimp meter since the week of stewart cup. 

Sprayed greens foliar application growth regulator to suppress the seed heads.

Greens sprayed bio stimulant for improved soil and root development. 

weed kill spray around clubhouse and all path ways around the course. We hand pulled most of the 7th path and sprayed to tough part. 

We are on top of all of our weekly cutting routines across all surfaces… 

Greens 6x

Tees 3x 

Approaches 3x

surrounds 2x 

fairways 2x

semi rough and practice ranges 1x 

flymowing bunker faces & 

various strimming 

cut the main lawns at rose cottage 

tee set up and seed divot 4x 

fairway landing zones seed divot 

holes change  3x this week after tomorrow’s Munro kerr set up. 

Full bunker rake Monday & Friday, touched up every other day, we are planning to redistribute sand levels from next week (very labour intensive) 

it will be noticed that we have begun to process of seed and rootzone dressing all imperfections on and off surrounds now that the temps are favourable, we should see all of these areas fill out moving into June, we will continue this process throughout the season working our way out from surrounds, to fairways and walk offs, fairway bunker surrounds and then out semi rough weak spots until we achieve full coverage across the course. 

 Gailes Course Update

The green keeping team have worked well and have shown good commitment carrying out their tasks on a daily basis which I think showed for the April Medal & the Edward Trophy.

Mild liquid fertilisers will continue to be applied to greens, tees, surrounds, approaches, fairways & semi-rough, our wetting agent programme will continue to the same areas within the course excluding semi-rough. Semi – rough does not receive any irrigation therefore it would be a waste of product, time and money applying wetters to these areas, to install irrigation within the semi-rough would cost around 200k to 300k.

The greens, tees, approaches & surrounds will receive their first compound fertiliser which will be organic based low nitrogen fertiliser, the new 6^th tee will receive slightly more fertiliser than the other tees just to help the turf recovery on the tee. The 6^th tee will take another few months to grow in and establish good root growth,  we need to be patient and remember this tee was only completed 5 months ago most of which time were the cold dormant winter months.

Greens & approaches will continue to be top dressed lightly with sand every 3 to 4 weeks, due to how busy the course is where possible this might be carried out later in the day.