July Green Keeper Update
June weather has been very dry with little rain fall and some high daily temperatures which makes for difficult grass management. Although we have irrigation on greens and Tees we have only five fairways with very limited irrigation.
The greens and tees have been progressing very well after fertilising and have had their first weed treatment. Although they are watered nightly it is still necessary to re water daily which is very labour intensive. The greens have been regularly spiked and rolled making them generally smooth and quick, last week a light dressing was applied to fill in some of the lower spots and smooth them out.
Panshanger is dominant with annual meadow grass and this is never more evident than on the fairways. AMG is a cool season species and gets very heat stressed with die back in drought conditions, also as a clumping grass it tends to flatten and die back into clumps leaving bare areas.
This season we increased the cutting height considerably compared to previous years and fertilised them to increase grass coverage but drought conditions have had the same effect of flattened clumps and bare areas. This is a problem many courses have without irrigation and is a condition we have to learn to live with without rainfall.
Over July we will be fertilising the greens and tees again and applying compost teas with biological additives. Most areas will have a rest and a lowered maintenance regime while we don’t have growth which will give us time to deal with other jobs and maintenance items. We have our new green keeper starting on the 4th which will allow us to get more of the little jobs done to improve the overall presentation of the course. There will be a big focus on improving the stones in the bunkers to get the course in the best shape possible for captains day and the club championship.