Pitchmarks

The wetter weather today will make the greens slightly more receptive than they have been recently. Please be aware that pitch marks will once again require repair to ensure greens remain smooth.

Controlling Broad Leaved Grasses in Greens

An application of the selective graminicide Rescue has been made to all greens to control the spread of Ryegrass and Yorkshire Fog grasses. These are wholly inappropriate putting green grass types that we have been treating now for a number of years. Thankfully we have far less of these grass species now so the effects of the spray application will be less noticeable than in previous years. We may for a period have some thin areas of turf but the greens will be seeded and top-dressed repeatedly over the next two months to ensure the broadleaved grasses are replaced with finer fescue grass.

Four interseeding operations are planned. The first will start after the Dolphin Trophy on Monday 25^th August. Sanding of greens will take place thereafter to ensure surface levels are returned as quickly as possible.

Verti Cutting & Sanding

We have taken the opportunity to carry out some sward refinement using verti-cut units fitted to a Toro 3250. As the name suggests the blades on these units work vertically into the turf slicing through lateral growth and imparting stress into broader leaved grass species.

 

 

Following this procedure sand top dressing was applied to all greens. These tasks complement each other as the verti-cutting grooves enable the sand to be worked into the surface well while the sand helps smooth out any unevenness caused by the verti-cutting.

 

The sand is worked in to the surface of the green using a rubber dragmat. In this instance we attached some astroturf to the dragmat to achieve a superior brushing effect.