Greens News - July 2019
30 July 2019

It was a very busy start to the month with the green staff preparing the course for the Pro Am, Captains Weekend and East Riding Union to name but a few. As usual the mowing regime was maintained to keep up with play and when time allows peripheral areas were attended to. However with the low rainfall continuing from June and the increasing temperatures culminating in the recent 30⁰C enabled us to scale back some of the mowing. 

We have also experienced some heat stress on the greens creating ideal conditions for the development of Anthracnose. This has resulted in the yellowing of turf in some parts of the greens mainly affecting the annual meadow grass. The treatments began several weeks ago with the greens being aerated, liquid tonics sprayed and post events an increase in the height of cut to 4mm. More recently, an application of granular feed was made to aid recovery and boost the plant pre maintenance week. We shall also be spraying a fungicide preventatively during the week before maintenance to protect the plant from any further disease outbreak. The monthly aeration of micro tining with 8mm tines, verti cutting and top dressing with approximately 5 tons of sand was completed in good time. 

Earlier in the month the tees where sprayed with a tank mix of plant growth regulator (Primo Maxx), feed (Yarra 46:0:0), selective weed killer (Relay Turf) and iron (Xtra Fe 6:0:0). This has been moderately successful and may require a second application to kill the more stubborn weeds. This though is partially down to the sprinkler coverage and the dry conditions. The dryer tees are only now seeing some effect following the recent wet weather. The bunker surrounds and faces have also been sprayed with a selective herbicide. When time and weather permits I shall spot spray areas of the course for weeds. 

Thinking ahead to maintenance week, I have a number of tasks I would like to complete. Deep micro tining using 8mm tines to a depth of 200mm will start the process. Over seeding the greens with pure Bent (Agrostis) grass seed at a rate of 5grams m² is vital to ensure the greens go into the winter with a good dense sward. But this will also give us the opportunity to over seed with quality grass mix to improve the surfaces for the long term. To over seed the greens we shall use the pot seed method, this would require punching holes with the 12mm solid tines to a depth of 10mm. With the use of a drop seeder the seed will applied and brushed into the prepared holes. Following that a dusting of dressing would be spread and dragged into the holes smoothing the surface. There is also a number of greens that I would like to use the graden as I feel they are the wetter greens and require a bit more assistance in improving their playability. We do have a few tons of kiln dried sand stored away to use with this machine. 

Other tasks completed this month include the trimming of hedges along pathways, irrigation repair on the 8^th, mowing of pond banks and ditch banks. For those of you unaware we also had a swarm of Bees removed from behind the 4^th green. The Bees where taken and rehomed in York. 

Rainfall 24mm

Gareth Williams, Course Director

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