Project Contractor - MJ Abbott

Our project contractor - MJ Abbott Limited, have arrived on site along with a vast array of plant and equipment. MJ Abbott are one of the UK's leading sports and water engineering contractors. They operate throughout the UK and Europe with a client list featuring both Open Championship and Ryder Cup venues.

Some of the contractors machinery in the compound

They are responsible for carrying out all the earthworks on holes 10, 11 and 12 and for the realignment of the irrigation system. A team of up to 10 staff will be working on the project led by Site Manager Simon Peters. Weather permitting, the work is expected to be completed in 10 weeks.

Turf Stripping 12th Green

After months of planning we have finally begun the greens reconstruction project on holes 10, 11 & 12. Today we stripped the sod from the 12th green.

Before we starting we gave the surface one final mow. The sod was then cut before the course team began lifting the individual turf strips. The 12th green is 660m2 so we really had our work cut out!

The turf was loaded onto trailers and transported to areas in the valley where it was laid out onto plastic sheeting.

Greens Reconstruction

We are on schedule for the start of the project on October 3^rd. The new rootzone, which is to be used in place of the clay/silt material on holes 10-12 has already started to arrive and is being stored in the grassed area next to the JWGC building. Most of the new material will be here by the time the earth-works contractor arrives on site. Weather permitting; the contractor is scheduled to be on site for 10 weeks. They will be assigned most of the JWGC car park (to be fenced off) as a compound for machinery etc so there will be reduced car parking spaces available to members using the range from 30^th September until just before Christmas. Regular project updates will be communicated to members via email, this blog and on a dedicated notice board which will be situated in the main hall of the clubhouse. Just outside the ranger’s office on the opposite wall a whiteboard will be placed which will have daily details in respect of holes 10 to 13^th and their availability of play. Please note however that as from 3^rd October these four holes will be closed and members should refer to this whiteboard prior to play.   

 The first load of new rootzone arrrives!

Autumn Course Maintenance

Our second and final course maintenance week of 2011 commences on Monday 26th September. Micro solid tining, seeding and top dressing work will be carried out on the greens. To enable the course staff to carry out the work in a timely manner one tee starts will take place on Monday and Tuesday until 0930 each day. Beyond this time, a temporary green will be used on the hole being worked on to further minimise disruption. Whilst it is appreciated that this will cause a measure of inconvenience to members please be assured that this work is entirely necessary to ensure continued, long-term improvement in our putting surfaces.

New Range Sponsor - Brewin Dolphin

Brewin Dolphin  have kindly sponsored the new golf balls on the driving range. Pictured above are La Moye GC Secretary/Manager Alastair Mackenzie, La Moye GC Captain Mike Lotherington, Mark Miles and Nick Browning from Brewin Dolphin and La Moye GC Course and Competition Chairman Peter Garnier during the hand over of the new balls.

Fertiliser Spreading

If you have been on the course today or plan to visit tomorrow you may notice a rather "organic" smell coming from the turf. Today we have been spreading a poultry litter based fertiliser product on a number of areas around the course to help boost turf health and encourage growth in high wear spots. Thankfully the smell will fade quickly but spare a thought for Andrew and Phil who had the unenviable task of spreading the stuff all day today!

Bird Box Survey

We have 18 bird boxes situated in trees and on some of the buildings around the golf course complex. In a survey carried out last month we found that 10 of the 18 boxes showed signs of being inhabited. In those 10, chicks could be seen or heard in 5 of the boxes.

Irrigation Priorities

We are currently experiencing exceptionally dry weather conditions. Since 1st March our weather station has recorded only 32mm of rainfall, which represents less than 25% of the average for this period. These dry conditions have very often been accompanied by sunny and breezy weather, this has meant that we have been heavily reliant on our irrigation system to deliver the water required to keep the turf healthy.

We have been losing between 20 and 30mm of moisture from the turf each week from a process called evapo-transpiration. Although this does not sound too bad, to replace 25mm of water across the whole course means that we must apply around 1 million gallons of water. Consequently, we have been abstracting large quantities of water from our boreholes to replenish the water pumped from our reservoir.

In recent days it has been noted that the yield from the boreholes has decreased to the extent that we have been pumping water out of the reservoir and onto the golf course faster than we have been able to replace it. You may have noticed the low water levels in the reservoir recently whilst standing on the 14th tee. This is obviously an unsustainable situation and as we are still in the first half of the season with potentially a lot more dry weather ahead of us, we must now adjust our irrigation output to a sustainable level.

Currently two thirds of the water we apply is to fairways so clearly this is the area where the greatest savings can be made. It makes sense to prioritise the watering of greens, tees and approaches whilst reducing the amount of water the fairways receive. Instead of watering fairways every night, from now and until the next significant rainfall, we will water these areas on 2 or 3 occasions each week. This will ensure we will have enough water for the priority areas for the remainder of what could be an extraordinarily dry season.

More Gorse Clearance

 A few weeks ago we cleared more gorse from between the 4th and 5th holes. Degenerate, woody bushes were pulled out from around the trees to create a slightly more open feel to the right side of the 4th. A number of sharp rush plants can be found in this area but these were being severely compromised by the encroachment of gorse. During this process we tried to protect the sharp rush from damage.

Following the clearance work an excavator was used to scrape the brash from the ground to expose the natural seed bank beneath. This helps to accelerate the regeneration process.

Once recovery takes place we expect the area to contain a healthy balance of young gorse plants, sharp rush and open grasslands.

 In time we will tackle the rest of the gorse between the 4th and 5th as it is all becoming well past its best.

Hole 8 Gorse Clearance

The rather old and tired looking stand of gorse to the right side of the 8th hole was recently removed. This had become very unsightly in recent years and had encroached into to to such an extent that visibility of the road that crosses the fairway had become severely restricted.

An excavator fitted with an attachment specially adapted  for pulling gorse was selected to carry out the work. In only three hours a 40m x 8m stand of degenerate gorse mixed with bramble was removed and burned nearby.
As can be seen in the video below, the remaining material was mulched with a heavy duty flail fitted to a high powered tractor. This par of the job took a mere 30 minutes to complete.

Although this has left the area  fairly clean and tidy, we will need to go back to treat the bramble re-growth in a few weeks.