Peter Fenton Greens:
The hollow coring late July left us with some small depressions in the greens for the start of August. However, these soon disappeared and the benefits from the relieve in compaction that this procedure offers was soon clear to see.
The greens continue to be cut at their minimum height for the year, which will be the case until the start of September. It will then be raised 0.5mm in an attempt to avoid stress related turf diseases such as Anthracnose. Increasing by another 0.5mm by the end of next month.
Due to the hot dry weather, it has been just liquid feeds, wetting agent and seaweed applied this month, supplying 14kg of what will likely be our last inputs of Nitrogen for the year. This brings our total Nitrogen usage to 97.5kg in 2022, over 8kg less than last year, and moves us nearer to our low input target. I would like to wean the greens down to a more sustainable 50-60kg of Nitrogen per annum, which we are hoping to achieve by 2025.
Water usage has been understandably high, however due to winds dropping through the evening, the coverage from sprinklers has been good, with only limited hand watering required – thank you to all involved here.
Fairways, Surrounds, Tees and Rough:
Our rough management program has arguably made the course a little easy in recent weeks due to the lack of growth in these areas since our last cut, brought about by the hot dry weather. Some rain will soon rectify this, and we will no doubt be chasing grass once again soon!
Our tees and chipping green have benefited from some recent irrigation repairs. These surfaces remain far from where we would want them, high wear and seasonal stress being the culprits, but with some kinder weather ahead combined with some timely inputs these surfaces should soon start to recover and improve.
Fairways are desperately crying out for some moisture, with some very weak, even bare, areas starting to appear. It is largely impractical and considerably expensive to treat and feed the fairways regularly, like we do other surfaces, so their reliance on water is high. To counteract the stress we have used the rotary mower the most often, which offers a higher and kinder cut than the cylinder/groomer attachments of our dedicated fairway mower. This machine also offers the added benefit of clipping the rye grass stalks, which become even more prominent during a drought.
Machinery:
The usual small breakages due to wear and tear have once again occurred this month. The Kubota Tractor needing a new starter motor fitted. One of our larger tractor mounted machines snapped a PTO shaft, thankfully this machine benefits from still being under warranty, so a new PTO is on the way.
Our ATV remains to be a fantastic addition to the fleet, making recent jobs like edging bunkers far more efficient, in transporting two people around the course whilst being able to dump all ourspoil on the back and tipping off when finished.
Looking towards next month…
A typically busy month ahead with final preparations for Scarborough Golf Week, followed by deep scarifying the greens mid September, then overseeding and top dressing them shortly after.
Towards the end of the month we will divert our attention to off season projects. Always a good place to start here is clearing and bottoming all of our ditches in anticipation of any heavy rain falling late Autumn. Our two ponds are also in need of some remedial work to make them presentable once more. Cutting and collecting of our longer rough back to the fences and walls will continue. We should also start putting plans together for all potential bigger projects for the months ahead and start to prepare turf nurseries where possible for use in finishing off and repair work.
Thank you to all our members helping out this past month, Curly doing a great job on securing the site with installation of new gates around the course, along with continued help and support from Ali, Amanda and the board, Sam and team and of course Jack and Gordon.
Wishing you all the best in the coming month. Peter, Jack and Gordon.
