September

September Blog.

We continue to discuss the unpredictable weather patterns as we head in to Autumn.

Historically September was regarded as a dry month where fairways could be scarified and deep aeration could be carried out that would benefit the course moving in to the winter period.
Unfortunately the continuous rainfall restricts the work from being carried out,and we look for windows of opportunity. We overseeded the greens in the early part of the month and saw good germination after ten days.

The mounds on the 13th /15th/17th were cut short and raked up. Later in the month we aerated the greens with the procore.

Photographs below show the various works.

October work programme.

We have discussed various projects for the winter programme, drainage on problem areas will be carried out and we will look to thin out heavily planted areas of trees that restrict  sun light  air flow  

 and cause root damage to the drains. 

We aim to allow the specimen trees to flourish by giving them space to develop. Over a period of time we will look at these correctly managed areas and see the long term benefits with areas drying out and the ground  surfaces becoming more playable throughout the year. We will target bunker maintenance on all the bunkers on the 7th hole,reducing overhangs improving drainage and positioning bunker mat. The bunker mat will improve sand quality and reduce contamination from existing soils.  

August

Welcome to our August blog.

We continued with periods of rain throughout the month with a rainfall total of 77mm.

Course presentation was helped with blowers used across the course to disperse the wet grass from the rough and fairway cutting. Tillers were used in the bunkers to loosen up the sand after the heavy down pours.We used the procore on the greens to aid water movement and air progression in the soil structure.

We had our yearly visit from the STRI with their Agronomist  Mr Alistair Beggs reviewing the condition of the course.

Alistair first visited Haydock Park in May 1999 and we are so fortunate to have one of the country's leading Agronomists to visit us yearly The report was very positive with most aspects of the course conditioning being in place, however in these challenging climatic times we need to advance our regular aeration programme to control the organic matter levels in the soil profiles. The full report is available in the clubhouse.


 The picture below showing Alistair taking smoothness and trueness readings on the 18th green.  .

Aeration continued on the greens        

                                Tiller loosening compacted sand caused by the heavy rainfall  

September work programme

We hope to overseed the greens, strim the mounds and
start picking up areas with the soil reliever,and start putting together various projects for the winter programme!!!!