At the end of last month's blog we hoped for a balanced period of weather in April. We were looking for a increase in temperature and sufficient rainfall to get the grass growing.
Well we went from warmth to frost with minimal rainfall,which surprisingly produced some growth.
Throughout April we had some beautiful sky lines, the picture below shows the view from the back fifth tee, with the early morning sun cutting through the mist and taking the frost off the turf
Toro's on the course.
The Toro machines are out on the course giving a great cut and presentation, the pictures below show the 3250 cutting the green and the 3100 on the surround.
The picture on the right shows the 3100 cutting the tees.
Aeration / Fertiliser application and Top Dressing
The greens team have been busy with aeration, feeding, and applying top dressing to the greens, targets for applications of top dressing and aeration are on track . And as usual the weather conditions will control the overall results.
Repositioning the fountain in the 11th pond.
We recently called upon the diving skills of one of our members Mike Gildea, to re position the fountain.Mike is fully qualified to carry out the work and without his skill and knowledge it would of been difficult to site it in the appropriate part of the pond .
The fountain was kindly supplied by John Murphy.
Mike was ably assisted by Fred Buckley, and David Traynor from the greens team, they showed great skills in positioning the dingy in difficult conditions, well done.
. Work planned throughout May
In May we will continue with aeration work ,top dressing greens, spraying selective herbicide and applying wetting agent (Revolution) and Farmura Porthcawl (Liquid organic fertiliser) to the greens.
Divoting tees and fairways will continue more frequently . The greens will be groomed to aid smoothness,with this work being conducive to better ball roll and pace.
Lets hope for some good greenkeeping weather in May.
Terry Wharton Head Greenkeeper
