Course Manager's Diary

February was another busy month for our team. While understaffed for most of the month due to the departure of our Deputy Course Manager, staff holidays, and Brian’s delegation trip to America, the team nevertheless progressed well with the winter programme and our ongoing course work and maintenance. The weather was more predictable which helped, with the only negative being the low temperatures slowing down recovery of the disease scars on our greens. We will continue to spike and overseed these marks on the assumption that temperatures will rise.

Brian’s delegation trip to Orlando was jam packed with education, world-class golf course site visits, and the largest golf trade show in the world. The networking and learning opportunities were fantastic, from discussing golf course developments with superintendents from Augusta, Sawgrass, Wentworth and Royal Melbourne to master’s level classes on soil science.

Thatch Management
Every year we collect data on the organic matter (“OM”) levels in the top 80cm of our green’s surfaces. More “OM” means softer greens that hold more moisture and hinder disease control while less “OM” corresponds to better free draining firmer surfaces but higher risk of drying out / becoming hydrophobic. When Brian joined Baberton our greens surfaces were too high at around 13%. Having managed the high “OM” levels down to an acceptable 6%, our October readings showed a slight increase to 7%. We have a plan to reduce this back down.

Verti-draining at various depths throughout winter has kept the greens free draining and reduced any anaerobic black layer. We have removed almost 1.5 tonnes of thatch from the greens by scarifying and hollow coring, and 45 tonnes of sand is being applied to fill the holes during February and March to firm the greens and aid thatch dilution. This process will be repeated in October. The key thing is to be aggressive in winter and autumn and gentler during the summer months. We apply 120 tonnes of sand to our greens on a yearly basis.

Bunkers at 8th & 11th
It has been extremely frustrating to wait every year for the completion of newly shaped bunkers. Shaping works, drainage and sub-base are complete at the start of November, but outside contractors have been required for the installation of the rubber resin and they typically don’t do this until March, with this year likely to be April. This uncertainty gives us no control and a concern that the bunkers won’t be in play for the start of the season.

However, this dependency has now been removed. From taking the whole team to visit the one other club in Scotland that does this in-house, we now also have the ability and materials to do this work in-house. We’re in the process of completing the bunkers at the 8th and 11th, and in future years bunkers will now be completed in November and back in play for January. This new capability will save Baberton thousands of pounds whilst reducing the time that the bunkers are out of play.

Machinery
After waiting almost 2 years for a new turf iron to arrive, we cancelled our order and opted for a Tru-Turf greens iron instead. Tru-Turf irons are the leading turf iron and have the sole rights of the PGA. Ironing surfaces is proven to aid the reduction of disease especially on microdochium patch (the disease that we mostly suffer from). The iron will arrive in the next 2 weeks.

Deputy Course Manager Appointment
Following Robert’s departure to Uphall GC we wrote to members on Friday 3rd March advising of the appointment of Craig Surgeon as our new Deputy Course Manager. We are delighted to welcome Craig to our team and he will be joining us from Monday 3rd April.

March Priorities
As we enter March we hope for warmer weather and more daylight to give us the best chance of completing our winter programme. You will see us start to shape the golf course. Initial lines will be laid on fairways, tees, and aprons. Feeds will go out on surfaces as we try and wake up the grass. Mid to late March the sward on our greens will start to thicken out and disease scars start to recover. Worn areas/walkways will be addressed with seed or new turf. Trees that failed to take after last year’s planting will be replaced. Perennial soft wildflower areas will be prepared for seeding. Bunkers at 8 and 11 will be complete and almost ready for play. It’s an extremely busy month for us but we are optimistic of achieving our goals.

Winter work project update

1st Hole
• Fill in low-lying areas on the mounding to the left-hand side of the fairway. This will help reduce the number of unfair lies. (Ready for seed)

2nd Hole
• Extend path at the 2nd tee forward 21m to raised area of ground. This will extend the path beyond the area that gets particularly wet and muddy. (Complete)

8th Hole
• Re-shape back right bunker. This bunker will be shaped in line with other bunkers creating a rolled grass face whilst reducing the size by a 1/3. The bunker will have new drains installed and finished with a hardcore/rubber resin base. (Ready for turf) (Resin installed)
• Re-shape front bunker. This bunker will be shaped in line with other bunkers creating a rolled grass face. The bunker will have new drains installed and finished off with a hardcore/rubber resin base. (Ready for turf) (Resin installed)

11th Hole
• Re-shape front right bunker. We will look to push this bunker away from the green creating more apron space. This bunker will be shaped in line with other bunkers creating a rolled grass face. The back right bunker will be filled in to create more of a runoff area. The bunker will have new drainage installed and finished with a hardcore/rubber resin base. (Ready for resin)
• Re-shape front left bunker. This bunker will be increased in size by a 1/3 with a rolled face in line with other bunkers. The back left bunker will be filled in to create more of a runoff area. The bunker will have new drainage installed and finished with a hardcore/rubber resin base. (Ready for resin)

14th Hole
• Strip the left-hand side of the tee, level area off and re-turf using better quality turf. This will create more surface area to reduce the wear issues we endure. (Complete)
• Strip the unsightly rear of the top tee at 14. We will look to extend this tee over a period of time. (Complete)

17th Hole
• Re-shape the front right bunker. Face will be rolled in line with other bunkers, taking away the dry/hard resin face. This will create a more fair/consistent bunker. (Complete)

Other work

• All paths will be tidied up/weeded and dressed with fresh whin-dust. (Paths now weeded)
• Continue to thin out and tidy up plantations around the golf course. The left side of the 11th and the continuation of the right-hand side of the 12th will be our first focus points. This will create more light and air space giving the healthier trees a better chance of survival. These areas will also become a safer environment to play from. (Gained 50m)
• Verti-drain, top-dress and increase better grasses on the weak 15th approach. This will help create a better growing loam with consistent uniformity and growth. (Feb/Mar)
• Strip the unsightly gorse area at the back left of 7th green. (Complete)
• Create dedicated space for new perennial flower bed areas around the course. This will create more colour, increasing aesthetics. (Feb/Mar)
• Create protective fence at the steep area surrounding the quarry at the 13th. This will be defined as Out of Bounds. (Feb/Mar)
• Scarify greens, tees and aprons and top-dress (Complete)
• Hollow core greens. (Complete)
• Verti-drain greens. (Complete)
• Turf worn areas around course. (Started on bunker faces)
• Slit-tine fairways/green (Complete)

After the festive break, the full team came back fresh and ready for the year ahead. January was an unsettled month weatherwise which saw the course closed for 6 days due to a layer of frozen snow. When we get this type of weather, we turn our focus to the tree plantation areas and do much needed work. Our team continued the work on the right-hand side of the 12th hole/left of the 10th green, cutting down dangerous trees, low hanging branches and rotten elders whilst collecting and burning old debris. This work provides more light and air movement, creating a safer more playable area. This work is ongoing as part of a 5-year plan and will always be done when the course is frozen.

After the cold snap the team’s focus turned to turf nutrition and aeration on greens, tees and aprons. We put the jumbo tines on our verti-drain and punched 6” depth holes in our tees & aprons. This relieves surface tension, increases root development and aids water percolation. We will repeat these tasks in February but add sand to the areas at the same time.

Our greens surfaces had both small sarrel roll and slit-tine aeration on them. The slit-tining is new to our surfaces as we reconditioned an old piece of kit lying in the yard. New tines, bearings and springs were put on it as part of our inhouse maintenance programme. This salvaged piece of equipment creates a small slit on the surface but a large tear-drop movement under it. In return this creates creating more surface area for root and water movement.

Our sprayer came back from its winter service and MOT which enabled us to catch up with our nutrition plan work. Sprays of headland 30-20-20, silicon and fulvic were applied.

R9 grass seed was spiked and seeded into unsightly disease scars. There is a risk this may fail due to cold temperatures however we are monitoring this and will do them again as temperatures rise.

Bunkers

Despite the cold weather we managed to complete the shaping of the problematic greenside bunker on the right-hand side of the 17th green. We dropped the upright face which struggled to hold sand. This will now make it easier for us to maintain sand levels whilst providing a softer look and increased playability for members.

We are still awaiting the rubber resin installation for our reconstructed bunkers at the 8th and 11th holes. Unfortunately, our usual contractor is in high demand, and we have found it difficult to tie down a date so have been researching other options. Following research and engagement with Williamwood Golf Club, who install the bunker resin themselves, my team are confident in their own ability of doing this work in-house. This will develop further skills within our team, add more control to our scheduling and cut costs. Pricing of materials is now underway.

STRI VISIT

We received our report back from the STRI and are happy to say once again we had a lot of favourable comments. One slight disappointment were the results of the organic matter readings, especially in the top 20mm. However, it is not serious and we will adjust our maintenance plan to be a little more aggressive at the start and end of the year doing thatch management.

BTME conference & USA delegation

Brian travelled to Harrogate for Britain’s biggest annual greenkeeping conference where he studied the newest technologies in golf course construction. As the Course Manager of our golf club it is vitally important that he keeps up to date with any industry changes or developments. Whilst at Harrogate he attended the reception for his upcoming delegation trip to the US, giving him the opportunity to meet his fellow delegates and learn more about the trip. This trip is packed with education with daily classes from 8am-6pm, including a visit to Bayhill Golf Club. We’re fortunate that Brian will be representing Baberton at the biggest golf conference in the world.

Buggies

Our new lithium powered buggies have now built and will be with us this coming Thursday 9th February.

December is always a quieter month for us on the golf course. A combination of low staff levels as we use up holiday entitlement and the fact that suppliers shut down for 2 weeks slows down the winter work progress. We experienced our first real cold snap this winter and even a little snow. On the positive side this was welcomed as it put stop to any fungal outbreak activity.

We completed our new bunker preparation work at the 8th and 11th in advance of the delivery and install of the rubber resin infill. This is pencilled in for February but will be dictated by weather and contractor progress. We will keep you informed when we have a more accurate date. Once the resin is installed, we will turf down the faces as the final part of the project. In addition, we have also now commenced works on the re-shaping of the front right hand bunker at the 17th green.

The 14th tee has now been made a little bigger as we stripped and re-turfed the left-hand side creating more surface area. This will benefit us for years to come as we have more ability to spread the wear.

Our tree management plan started earlier this month as we continued our work on the right-hand side of the 12th hole. We will continue to cut out dead wood, low hanging branches and thin out overpopulated areas during periods where the colder weather restricts our course work.

The cold weather also gives us a great opportunity to do some essential upkeep to our maintenance facilities and time to service the smaller equipment, i.e., blowers, strimmers, flymos.

Machinery
Our equipment has been away for their winter overhaul with most of our machines now returned. Our Kubota 3600 had a major engine repair but is now in full working order. Both our new turf iron and lithium powered buggies should arrive later this month.

Finally, congratulations to our Deputy Course Manager, Robert, who was successful in his application for the Course Manager role at Uphall Golf Club. We are sorry to lose him, but this is a great opportunity for him, and we wish him well. We have advertised for his replacement and will update members as the recruitment process continues.

What’s next
Our team is now fully focussed on the winter programme and the goals set for the next few months. As always, the weather will play a huge role on progress, but we remain confident of achieving our goals and should see completion of our programme by the end of late March. A full progress update will be included in the next report.

What a difficult month we had in November! Abnormally warm temperatures, leaves dropping from our trees, 65mm of extreme rain in 48 hours and the start of our winter programme all played their part in a challenging month for the team.

Abnormally warm temperatures produced both positive and negative results for us. Positives were that we gained more growth degree days (GDD) - this is where we subtract the base temperature from the average daily temperature to calculate the number of heat units that day (GDD). We use this to monitor when we move to full course mats and it helps us plan potential chemical or fertiliser applications. The negatives of having slightly cooler nights and warm daytimes have resulted in disease pressure remaining extremely high for the last 9 weeks. We have seen a huge reduction of fusarium outbreaks this season but unfortunately for us the aggressive nature in which they attack remains. However, our greens are on an advanced biological programme whilst also using products like fulvic, silicon, copper and phosphites to reduce the any potential outbreaks. Following our recent verti-draining and top-dressing work members will have seen scars on most greens but we will gain some recovery.

Autumn Maintenance Part 2
Despite aggravating an underlying fungal attack, part 2 of the autumn maintenance programme went to plan. 19mm tines pushed 10” depth channels into our greens. This is just a small part of our plan to create more sustainable greens. This action will help increase root development and density whilst at the same time aiding water movement. Two days after this task was complete, we endured 65mm of rain in 48 hours, our greens did not puddle. We can comfortably state our greens are some of the best draining surfaces in the region.

Leaves
October/November is a difficult time where we have to control the foliage dropping on our course on a daily basis. The cooler autumn evening temperatures produce a hormone called auxin which weakens the leaves which eventually disconnect from stem and fall from trees. We have 4 staff working half their shift on a daily basis dealing with this which is a time-consuming repetitive task that holds us back from other duties. We’re happy to say we have now gone through the worst of this which now frees up man hours.

Bunkers at 8 and 11
The new bunkers at 8 and 11 have now been shaped, new drainage installed, hardcore bases created, finished with topsoil and turfed. We have to wait until the rubber resin is installed before we can shape and turf the faces down. The Club have invested in installing rubber bases into our bunkers which we believe this is the best product on the market. Our greens committee have agreed on my advice that the best way to shape our bunkers is to create rolling parkland style bunkers, as close as possible to the original Braid design based on the new green designs. Creating this style of bunker enables the rubber resin to work better. The sand struggles to stay on the current steep faces and we suffer from wash down from rainfall. The new design gives us the ability to retain and manage sand levels whilst increasing the playability of the bunkers. We had an issue in the left-hand side bunker at the 11th as it was too low to connect to the main exit drain from the green. We have created a new drain and run it into an old rubble drain which works well. If we have any issues with this bunker in the future we now have the ability to create a new drain and tap our pipe into it.

Machinery
Our L3600 tractor had a major breakdown when a clutch seal popped. This tractor is now with Reesink to be repaired. Unfortunately, this is halting our ability to transport materials around the course.
Our turf iron has also broken down with some major issues, but our new state of the art turf iron will be with us within the next 8 weeks, ready for the start of the new season. In the meantime, we have borrowed a turf iron from Deer Park which we are very grateful for.

Our new lithium powered golf buggies will be with us shortly.

December
We will continue to push on with winter projects but will slow things down a little this month. The team all have some hard-earned annual leave planned and the ability to get materials becomes harder as quarries and turf nurseries shut for two weeks. We will concentrate on keeping the course tidy and playable.

Gary from STRI is in the final stages of his report for us. Organic matter samples were taken from greens 1, 3 and 10. We will compare these readings from previous year and adjust agronomy plan if required.

Winter work project update
1st Hole
• Fill in low-lying areas on the mounding to the left-hand side of the fairway. This will help reduce the number of unfair lies. (Not yet started)
2nd Hole
• Extend path at the 2nd tee forward 21m to raised area of ground. This will extend the path beyond the area that gets particularly wet and muddy. (Complete)
8th Hole
• Re-shape back right bunker. This bunker has been shaped in line with other bunkers creating a rolled grass face whilst reducing the size by a 1/3. The bunker has had new drains installed and will be finished with a hardcore/rubber resin base. (In progress)
• Re-shape front bunker. This bunker has been shaped in line with other bunkers creating a rolled grass face. The bunker has had new drains installed and will be finished off with a hardcore/rubber resin base. (In progress)
11th Hole
• Re-shape front right bunker. We have pushed this bunker away from the green creating more apron space. This bunker has been shaped in line with other bunkers creating a rolled grass face. The back right bunker has been filled in to create a runoff area. The bunker has had new drainage installed and will be finished with a hardcore/rubber resin base. (In progress)
• Re-shape front left bunker. This bunker has been increased in size by a 1/3 with a rolled face in line with other bunkers. The back left bunker has been filled in to create a runoff area. The bunker has had new drainage installed and will be finished with a hardcore/rubber resin base. (In progress)
14th Hole
• Strip the left-hand side of the tee, level area off and re-turf using better quality turf. This will create more surface area to reduce the wear issues we endure. (Complete)
• Strip the unsightly rear of the top tee at 14. We will look to extend this tee over a period of time. (Complete)
17th Hole
• Re-shape the front right bunker. Face will be rolled in line with other bunkers, taking away the dry/hard resin face. This will create a more fair/consistent bunker. (Not yet started)

Other
• All paths will be tidied up/weeded and dressed with fresh whin-dust.
• Continue to thin out and tidy up plantations around the golf course. The left side of the 11th and the continuation of the right-hand side of the 12th will be our first focus points. This will create more light and air space giving the healthier trees a better chance of survival. These areas will also become a safer environment to play from.
• Verti-drain, top-dress and increase better grasses on the weak 15th approach. This will help create a better growing loam with consistent uniformity and growth.
• Strip the unsightly gorse area at the back left of 7th green. (Complete)
• Create dedicated space for new perennial flower-bed areas around the course. This will create more colour, increasing aesthetics.
• Create protective fence at the steep area surrounding the quarry at the 13th. This will be defined as Out of Bounds.
• Scarify greens, tees and aprons and top-dress.
• Hollow core greens.
• Verti-drain greens. (Complete)
• Turf worn areas around the course.
• Slit-tine fairways/green.

Another month has flown by and it’s now November! October was a fruitful month as we completed part 1 of our Autumn maintenance programme. The weather has remained extremely mild for the time of year which has seen fusarium disease linger around from early September. Autumn is the least favourite month for all inland golf course greenkeepers as temperature’s drop, rainfall increases, leaves fall off trees and disease pressure is constantly high.

Coring of Greens
As detailed in last month’s report, we made the decision to start our autumn maintenance a week earlier this year as we added in overseeding to our plan. This decision has paid dividends as we are now seeing new R9 dwarf rye grasses popping up in ALL greens. This is the best germination strike we have seen in recent years. We will continue to get these better grasses into our greens which in turn will increase uniformity, sustainability and gain a better resistance against any disease outbreaks.

We have delayed part 2 of our Autumn maintenance due to the fact fusarium was lingering around on our greens. Part 2 will be done when weather suits and fusarium disappears. We will do this a green at a time causing minimum disruption to our course. Part 2 consists of verti-draining all greens using 18mm diameter tines at a depth of 10”, this will be finished off with another top-dressing. This part of the plan is specifically targeting root health, increasing percolation whilst aiding decompaction.

As we enter the colder months, we’re pleased to say all our surfaces have made great recovery from the harsh dry summer. We lost areas of our tees, fairways and aprons due the drought. Constant spiking and applying R140 seed have seen us gain fantastic progress in all these surfaces. We have isolated areas around the course that have failed to recover i.e., bunker faces and a plan is in place to re-turf these areas over the winter.

November *
The winter work programme has now been released and has commenced. Our new planned bunkers at the 8th and 11th holes have been pencilled in to start shaping works on Monday 7th. Weather will dictate all other works, but we will update daily on twitter and provide in-depth updates via the monthly reports.

Our plan to complete part 2 of our autumn maintenance agronomy tasks continue to be hampered due to our battle with fallen leaves, which is a daily, time consuming task at present. A bit of frost and some heavy winds wouldn’t go a miss!

Ropes are now placed around the course to control traffic and wear. A new rope has been ordered for the winter handrail up to the 3rd tee. The Huxley mats installed last winter on the par 3 tees to help with wear will be in play again this winter, but we are not ruling out play from the grass at weekends as we are still getting seed to grow. We will closely monitor any changes in the weather before we implement mats off fairways and tees.

Machinery*
Some good news arrived regarding our new lithium powered buggies. These buggies are now in a yard in Glasgow waiting to be built by Fairways plc. Unfortunately, no update regarding our new turf iron.

STRI Visit
Gary Smith visited on the 27th October for his second visit this season. He had very positive things to say and will be popping back over in the next 10 days to do some more performance testing. A full report from him to follow after that.