December update.


We continue to be discussing the periods of heavy rainfall, which totalled 127mm and made managing the course tricky, with damage limitation being the order of most days.

However we've managed to work on the 7th hole reshaping and changing the bunkering,removing the leaves around the course is coming to an end with most of them fallen and just needing blowing off the course or picking up

.Aeration on the greens has continued,and the tee's have been cleaned up with a cut to aid presentation.

In mid December we had a brief period of frost which whitened the grass for a short period and the flags were took off the main greens and put on the winter greens.


Below are photographs to show some of the work.

January work programme

We will finish off the bunkering on the 7th hole, the drainage work on various parts of the course will be completed.

Tree work will be tackled in the early part of the month were we aim to thin out copses to allow individual trees to flourish and in doing so will create better air flow and sun penetration to dry out areas around the course. The benefits of the work will be noticed in spring when the trees come into leaf and will give better definition to the landscape

Welcome to our November blog. 

We managed to complete numerous tasks throughout the month with the weather still hitting us with heavy rainfall, totalling 113mm. Aeration continued on the greens with weekly slitting, collecting leaves gathered momentum with plenty falling.

We started work on reshaping the 7th hole with bunker refurbishment on all of them,the fairway bunkers have been taken out due to health and safety issues with the adjacent busy road. 

We started to remove trees in various parts of the course that had been planted too close together causing numerous problem, some of these being heavy shade around the greens, root damage to the drainage systems and badly shaped trees with minimal growth on one side of the canopy.

The golf course needs all areas to receive good airflow and sunlight penetration to aid drying out which will enable better growing conditions.

The pictures below show some of our work throughout the month. 

December programme 

We will continue with greens aeration and removing leaves off the course, and continue with bunker work on the 7th hole. 

Welcome to our October blog. 


The weather played a large part in our work progress throughout the month with regular periods of rainfall,however we managed to complete various programs to move us along into the autumn/winter period with 129mm of rainfall.

The greens and tees were vertidrained with six greens receiving a heavy sanding to aid water percolation through the soil profile. We applied a conditioner through the sprayer on to the greens to harden the leaf blade and strengthen the sward. A preventative fungicide was sprayed on the greens to reduce disease outbreak

Drainage work was carried out in front of the 18th green to aid water movement in problem areas.

The pictures below show some of the work that was carried out throughout the month.

Vertidraining and heavy sanding.

                                                           Brushing in the sand.

                                     

                                            Preparing the area at the18th green surround for drainage.

November work programme

Aeration will continue on the greens,leaf collection will be continuous throughout the month,and we will start bunker work on the 7th hole.

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!!!! 

     

July update.  

We seen a mixed period of weather in july with more periods of rain compared to June, these conditions really got the grass growing.

 Aeration on the greens continued, the weather allowed us to spray a selective weed control on the tee and bunker banks, we followed up with a total weed control on paths and around the clubhouse.

I travelled over to Royal Birkdale to have a look at the course set up for the Open Championship, the course was stunning with fabulous surfaces and great definition. Excellent work by their greens team.


The Pictures below show some of the surfaces at Royal Birkdale.

August work programme.  

We hope to carry out deep aeration to the greens and spray a selective weed control to areas on some of the fairways. General cutting and course presentation will keep us busy.

June update.


We had some glorious weather in parts throughout june.
We applied a little irrigation on some areas on the greens to stop them from stressing out.

Most other parts of the course took the dry spell well with minimal drying out,showing the benifits of regular aeration developing good root structures. Aeration on the greens continued with the procore,and we topped up bunkers with sand. 

 Regular grooming and rolling has been carried out to aid smooth ball roll on the greens. We applied our monthly spray of conditioner and wetting agent on the greens to keep the plant healthy and to help to control moisture levels in the soil structure.

Below are some of the various works completed throughout the month.