The Latest from BBC Golf News

Casey makes solid start in Miami

England's Paul Casey stands two shots behind leader Charl Schwartzel after the first round of the CA Championship in Miami.

WGC-CA Championship leaderboard (official site)

The world's leading players are in action at the World Golf Championship event at Doral in Florida.

Europeans eye further WGC success

A strong European contingent target another notable victory at the WGC-CA Championship at Doral starting on Thursday.

McIlroy buoyed by Nicklaus advice

Rory McIlroy has spoken of a 90-minute one-to-one talk with Jack Nicklaus which he hopes will help him achieve his golfing dreams.

Mickelson's Ping wedge is banned

Phil Mickelson will no longer be able to use his controversial 20-year-old wedge after an agreement between the PGA Tour and club manufacturer Ping.


Course news and information

Watch this space for upcoming course news

September/October Report

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Welcome to the Greenkeeping home page

John Brown SrTurn to this page to see current information about course availability, our development programme and day to day news about the work we are doing to keep our course in tip-top condition.


John Brown, 2nd May 2009

Course update June/July '09

Full Cutting Programme

Generally we aim to cut the banks, greens and tees once every 10 days. Over the period this amounted to:

Greens              5 times
Tees                   Twice
Aprons               Twice
Fairways            Twice
Semi-rough       Once

Fertilizing

Greens are treated with 35 grams /sq. m.
Tees are treated with 25 grams/sq.m.

Irrigation

In June, greens were treated once a day, and tees once every 3 days.

Divoting Fairways - R&R for the course

Important though this is, staffing restrictions mean that sometimes this is the cinderella of our maintenance programme. Members could help by REPAIRING pitch marks and REPLACING all divots carefully where possible - one divot a day replaced for every fairway shot by every member playing each day can amount to many, many man-hours of work saved for the greenkeeping team and money saved for the club, plus a better course for everyone.
We have divoted the course three times over the period, however, and the tees once a week. This is an area where club members can be a real help!

Practising

Now that we have a good short game practice area, there is little need for members to practise on the greens and in the bunkers on the course, and so we ask that members use the facilities provided. Where there is a need for long game practice on the course, may we ask that no more than two balls are used for this, for the reasons mentioned above.
The worst affected parts of the course are the 3rd fairway, the 1st and 4th fairways, and the 14th hole. Please help us all by minimising wear and tear on the course by practising thoughtfully!

Staff

M. Wilson and C. McFarlane took 7 days holidays over the period, and Craig Littlejohn 14 days.

Course update April/May '09

Forthcoming cutting program


Owing to the weather, we have been restricted in the height of cut on greens and fairways. Hopefully May weather will gradually heat the ground to allow us to start cutting at the appropriate height.


Fertilizing


Fertilizing was done week commencing 18th May; we now should see more beneficial grasses on the greens, covering any old scar marks you might have seen.


Rough


All rough areas in between trees are now being cut. we need to do that by pedestrian machinery, which is labour intensive, owing to current equipment faults.


BunkeringBunker & Mark


We are still working on bunkers, with seven left to be replenished. It's like the Forth Bridge and when those are done we will have to start again! A great deal of work has been done, and now the bunkers are more fair to the golfer, and we hope we will maintain this situation.


General course comments


I have noticed in the last few weeks many unrepaired pitch marks on the greens, and also many divots on the fairways and semi-rough which should have been dealt with by players and which if left untreated make the course look untidy. So please, please repair your pitch marks and divots!