Chemical Control Of Ryegrass in Greens Pt 2

 The Treated Collar On Hole 14

Following our initial application to the 4th and 6th greens last year, we have sprayed Pinoxadin on greens and collars on holes 1, 12, 14-18 and the putting green to control Ryegrass and Yorkshire Fog. We also re-treated the 4th and 6th to control the small amounts of Ryegrass re-growth that was evident. We expect to see significant die back of the target grasses in around the third week of September. Soon we will overseed the treated areas with bent grasses so hopefully the new grass will fill in the gaps left by the dying ryegrass. Top-dressing will take place to ensure surface smoothness is maintained but some brown patches will be evident for some time to come. This work has been timed to avoid major competitions but still get the benefit of the warm temperatures.

Golf Course Ecology Visit

We were recently visited by Bob Taylor, Head of Ecology and Environment at the Sports Turf Research Institute (STRI) to advise us on our on-going management of the out of play areas of the golf course. Bob is the official environmental consultant to The Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews and is responsible for managing ecological and environmental sensitivities on all of the of the Open Championship golf courses. He is recognised as one of the most experienced consultants dealing with all aspects of ecological and environmental management on golf courses.

 Bob Taylor & Andrew discuss bracken management

During the visit discussions took place regarding the management of the rough grasslands, fixed dune grasslands, gorse, various tree species and bracken. Most of the work discussed will be carried out in the winter months. Specific details will be published in the coming weeks.

Filling The Gaps With The Vredo

The recent wetter weather has provided us with ideal soil conditions for introducing grass seed into some of the thin turf around the course. Areas around the edges of some of the fairways and on walkways have lost some grass cover over the dry summer months so we have used the Vredo disc seeder to get seed into the soil to hasten recovery going into the winter months. Continued showery weather is required to allow germination as these areas are not covered by any of the 900 plus sprinkler heads. With favourable conditions the seed should be visible in less than 2 weeks. A light feed will then take place to strengthen the new grasses as much as possible before the soil cools in the autumn and grass growth slows. Any bare areas that remain will likely see moss invade. It will the then be next spring before we can improve the situation further.

Excessive Wear On Tees

Many people will have noticed the rather worn and tired appearance of some of the men’s teeing grounds. A concentration of wear through the centre of tees is evident in many cases, most notably on holes 1,2,3,11 and 12. Often these extremely worn central areas have virtually unused strips of tee at either side where nobody plays from. To address this issue, on some tees green staff will no longer position the markers at the full width of the tee. Instead, markers will be placed a minimum of five paces apart but in a way that directs all play to specific areas of the tee on any given day. This will allow the course team to manage wear better, reducing the overall impact on the tee. Of course this means that the markers will sometimes be positioned on the “wrong side” of the tee depending on the shape of shot a player wishes to hit. On hole 2 few people would choose to play from the right half of the tee as it offers less of an angle to get around the corner. The same is true for the left side of the 11^th tee. When tee markers are positioned to the full extent on the tees the effective width of the surface is approximately halved. More focused positioning of the markers will help get better use out of the whole area reducing the wear on the centre and improving the look of the tee.