With competitions and society days coming thick and fast the green staff are working hard making sure the course looks its best. In this post I hope to paint a picture of what happens in an average week at this time of the year.
Monday
Aerate greens (star slit)
Brush greens
Cut greens
Cut tees, move tee markers
Rake bunkers
Cut tee banks
Spray selective weedkiller on fairway areas
Mole control
Weed granite dust paths
Pick up range balls
Tuesday
Cut greens
Top dress greens
Drag mat greens
Move hole positions, fill out pin sheet
Rake bunkers
Verti-cut green surrounds and approaches
Cut green surrounds and approaches
Cut semi-rough
Cut rough
Pick up balls from range
Wednesday
Iron greens
Rake bunkers, move tee markers
Cut rough
Cut semi-rough
Fill scars and pick up divots on fairways
Paint 150 yard markers
Cut hedges around clubhouse and car park
Rake and seed turf nursery areas
Fertilise previously seeded nursery areas
Pick up balls from range
Thursday
Cut greens
Flymo bunker faces, rake bunkers, move tee markers
Cut rough
Cut semi-rough
Cut fairways
Trim around sprinkler heads and distance markers
Check sprinkler head performance
Cut hedges at roadside
Move putting green hole positions
Strim around tee plates, steps, ball washers etc
Pick up balls from range
Friday
Brush greens
Cut greens
Iron greens
Rake bunkers
Divot tees, empty bins, fill ball washers and move tee markers
Mole control
Fill out pin sheet for Saturday
Cut tees
Cut green surrounds and approaches
Weed and top up granite dust paths
Pick up balls from range
Saturday
Cut greens
Move hole positions
Rake bunkers
Move tee markers
Pick up range balls
Sunday
Cut greens
Rake bunkers
Move tee markers
Pick up range balls
Of course, this is just a sample of the type of work we carry out in an average week in May. As you might expect we spend a large chunk of our time working on the greens. You might be surprised to learn we spend almost as much time maintaining bunkers. Many of the tasks mentioned above are repeated every week but others are only carried out periodically. In other weeks we may well carry out different types of aeration such as solid tining or deep slit tining and different areas will have fertiliser applied or be sprayed. Also countless one-off tasks arise which need to be addressed, sometimes these are the jobs that take the most time.
