Course Walk

Recently club members were invited to participate in a course walk with Head Greenkeeper Andrew Ricketts. The aim of the walk is to communicate with the clubs membership the various types of works that are carried out by the greenkeeping team to maintain and develop the golf course and surrounding land. The topics covered on this particular walk included :- Winter program, bunker refurbishment, path/walkway renovations, irrigation upgrades, soil profile 10th fairway, Holm oak control and a demonstration on the repair of pitch marks. 

Newly installed grass and mat walkway at the 10th tee

Plug taken from 10th fairway

Rebuilt 13th bunker

Course Update

This update must of course start with an apology for the lack of posts since November! The greenkeeping team has undergone some major changes of personnel and roles in the past few months. First of all congratulations must go to both Richard Cutler on his new role on the Club's Management team and to Andrew Ricketts, our newly promoted Head Greenkeeper. Richard Le Moignan has also recieved a promotion along with myself to the position of Deputy Head Greenkeeper. With Richards' departure from the main greenkeeping team, he has passed on the updating of this blog to myself, (Matthew Amy) and Andrew. We hope to keep you informed about the ongoing maintenance and improvements at La Moye as diligently as Richard did. Now, I have a lot to cover since the last update so lets get started!

Winter Projects

As shown in the last post our major project this winter was the reconstruction of the 1st tee complex. This was completed in preparation for the captains drive in and we hope that the members are happy with the result. The old tee complex had been due for re-leveling for some time and so the opportunity was perfect to also increase teeing space on this short par 3. Members will notice that we have increased the surface area of the men's yellow tee by 50% which allows us to better spread the wear on the surface. 

Aesthetically the tee has been much improved by removing the old Elaeagnus hedge which had become aged and bare in places. The banking to the tee has been recreated using pure sand and replanted with Marram Grass (Ammophila). This native dune grass has been collected from other areas of the course and St Ouens sand pit, with the greenkeepers planting an estimated 2-3000 individual sprigs! The Marram Grass has been selected to give golfers an instant impact of the links character of La Moye on the first hole.

Newly turfed yellow tee on the 1st

Other winter work has included the rebuilding of some of the bunkers. Holes 10, 11, 12 and 18 have all seen renovation to their front left bunkers. The work completed on 11 and 12 saw a more extensive remodeling of the ground around the bunkers, which we believe has created a fairer obstacle for the golfers and made the bunkers look more natural in their positions.

Reconstructed bunker on 12th hole

Reconstructed bunker on 11th hole

Acorn Jersey Open 2015

After the completion of our winter program and the beginning of the main golfing season our preparations began for the arrival of the European Seniors Tour for the first time in five years. A program of regular verticutting and 'grooming' of the putting surfaces was put in place to refine the surface and remove the seeds of the Poa annua in the sward. This program is used every year for the benefit of the members and we saw especially good results this season with a prolonged period of dry weather. Two applications of top dressing were applied in the lead up to the tournament to improve surface levels and as part of our ongoing thatch dilution program. 

Greens were double cut and ironed every day of the tournament along with cutting the surround, approaches and tees. The greens performed brilliantly during the tournament with speeds beginning at 9.5 on day one and peaking at over 11 on the final round as the sun dried up the surfaces.

Perhaps the most marked improvement this year on the course has been the presentation of the fairways. The golf club invested in two John Deere 8000A Hybrid mowers and they began to pay dividends almost immediately. The fairways were cut regularly in different directions and the improvement in quality of cut from the new units has provided better ball roll and lies. For the tournament itself the fairways were cut every evening and we reverted to a 'block' pattern, which is more in keeping with the traditional links character of the course.

All of the greenstaff worked feverishly for the week before and during the tournament, putting in plenty of overtime to present the course to the highest standards. The comments we gratefully received from the professionals, spectators and members were fantastic and the whole team is very proud of their hard work. 

15th Green

Head Greenkeeper Andrew Ricketts changing holes on day 2

17th Green on final day

12th Green on final day

Next on our busy program for 2015 is the Natwest Island Games. Preparations for this tournament have already begun along with our day to day work maintaining the course for our members. 

Course Update

As we move towards the winter months the tasks being undertaken on the golf course become more varied and unusual. The post will discuss some tasks that have taken place recently.

Sub-Surface Aeration

All putting surfaces have been solid tined using a 9.5mm diameter tine to a depth of 75mm. This improves the movement of air and water through the rootzone. In the coming weeks we will solid tine greens again this time using a 12mm tine working to a depth of 250mm. Beyond greens we have also solid tined all tees, surrounds and green approaches. Work on fairways is ongoing with nine completed so far.

Turfing of Path Ends

Worn path ends are in the process of being stripped, rotovated and returfed. This year we are using the turf from the 1st tee complex as this matches well with the surrounding areas. Turfed areas are roped off to ensure they can establish properly. 

Bunker Construction

Every year we refurbish a number of bunkers across the course and this year we have selected one bunker on each of holes 10, 11, 12 and 18. Work on the 18th has been completed although the bunker will remain out of play until the end of the winter months.

1st Tee Renovation

We have started to renovate and re-shape the teeing areas on the 1^st hole to improve this tired looking area of the golf course. Within the scope of this project we aim to address a number long standing issues with this tee complex the most obvious of which is the consistently poor performance of the yellow tee box. This tee is too small to cope with normal levels of play so it will be extended into the area currently occupied by the back half of the red tee. The three tee surfaces will have surface levels restored to ensure all shots can be taken from an even stance. We will also replace and reposition all of the irrigation pipework and heads as this tee was not included in the irrigation system replacement project in 2007/8. While this work is going on we will take the opportunity to change the tee banks on the road side. The hedge is being removed as this has become rather unsightly with gaps and dips along its entire length. Marram grass will be used on the new banking which will provide a natural looking finish. The steps to the new ladies tee will be reduced in size and a new set of steps will be built to access the yellow tee. As this project progresses, the tee will eventually have to close to allow the work to be done. Arrangements have been made to move the red tees to the site of the green tees and to move the yellow/white tees to a temporary tee located on the hill beyond the bottom car park. When this work is complete we will remove the hedging located at the top of the slope to the bottom car park as shown in the image below. This will improve visibility when entering or leaving the bottom car park. Where the hedge has been removed we plan to create an attractive planted area with the bronze Mythical Fish currently located in the foyer of clubhouse relocated outside and used as a centrepiece of the newly planted area.

 

Clearing the hedge from the 1st tee

Rough Grassland Management

We have recently undertaken work in some of the roughs with the aim of thinning out the grass to improve playability. In selected areas on holes 2, 3 and 18 the grass has been cut short, arisings have been removed and the areas have been scarified. This process will be repeated annually which will enable these areas to become progressively less dense and thus easier to find a ball and then play out of. We hope to extend this operation to cover many more rough grass areas in future with the aim of creating well defined, wispy rough that frames each hole without it being overly penal from a playing perspective.

18th rough before

18th rough after

Winter Work Review - 15th Bunkers

Another task completed over the winter was the refurbishment of the two bunkers next to the 15th green. Over the years we have found that the faces in these bunkers degrade quicker than average due to the high levels of play they experience coupled with the fact they're in direct sunlight for most of the day. On this occassion we decided to use a bunker liner during construction to minimise sand contamination from beneath and to help maintain a good shape in the sand on the bunker floor.

 Bunkers before

Reshaping around bunkers

 

Liner fitted

Finished bunkers

Hole 10 Progress Update

The shaping of the green complex on the 10th hole is well underway. The new rootzone is being added to the green and the three new fairway bunkers are now in place, one of which has been revetted. This hole should be ready for turfing to commence around Monday 5th December.

Green complex with two bunkers left side

 Right side fairway bunker

 Left side fairway bunkers

Shaping Hole 11

Our earthworks team from MJ Abbott Ltd have now finished all the contouring and shaping work on the 11th hole. We now have seven new bunkers, a new green complex, adjustments to the left side of the fairway from 100 yards out all the way to the green and a new white and yellow teeing ground. Turf for these areas is due to be delivered on Tuesday with the work expected to be completed by the end of next week.

11th Hole Bunker Revetting

Six of the seven new bunkers on hole 11 have now been revetted. MJ Abbott shapers did the preparation work prior to the course team building the bunker faces.

Left side greenside

 Right side approach

Right hand approach

Right side fairway

11th Hole Bunker Shaping

Our earthworks contractor MJ Abbott have almost completed the rough shaping work around the bunkers on the 11th hole.

The course team are currently busy building the revetted face in each of the bunkers before top soiling around is carried out.

5th Green Bunkering - Pt 9 - Right Hand Side

Following the successful refurbishment of the three bunkers on the left side of the green it became clear that the two bunkers on the right would require the same treatment.

As usual, work started with an on-site discussion between some of the course team to establish our goals for the project. In this instance it was apparent that we needed to improve the ease of access into the first of the two bunkers. We also hoped to improve the visibility of the bunkers from the fairway but we realised that the contouring and flow of the bunkers and immediate surrounding areas could not be compromised along the way. We finally settled on improving player access and ensuring that the two new bunkers significantly improved the standard of presentation that is possible for the area. We agreed that making sure the new bunkers were consistent with the rest of the bunkers and green complex was fundamental to the success of the project.

5th Green Bunker Refurbishment

Starting next week,we plan to refurbish the five bunkers around the 5th green. The bunkers on the left side of the green will be subject to fairly major reshaping work with the aim of making the bunkers more visible from the fairway,  improving aesthetics and making access and egress easier. 

As can be seen in the above image, the current look of the bunkers is rather uninspiring. The bunkering around this green should have a far greater visual impact so to achieve this we will remove material from the back of the bunkers and reshape the faces. We will use a revetted style of bunker face in keeping with the style on other areas of the course.

The image below shows extensive soil erosion at the point of exit from the bunker. This is caused by the steep slope which leads to people slipping and skidding as they try to get out of the bunker. Access to the bunkers will be greatly improved by the reshaping of the land at the point of exit from each of the bunkers.

Work is scheduled to start here on the 1st of November. To enable the work to proceed in a safe and timely manner it will be necessary to use a temporary green on non-competition days during the project.