Making great sport happen BABERTON GOLF CLUB. Advisory Report on the Golf Course. Report Date: 23 rd November 2016 Consultant: Richard Windows

Transcription

1 Making great sport happen BABERTON GOLF CLUB Advisory Report on the Golf Course Report Date: 23 rd November 2016 Consultant: Richard Windows

2 Date of Visit: 22 nd November 2016 Visit Objective: Present: Weather: To review the early winter condition of the course and confirm ongoing maintenance requirements. Mr Gary McKenna Course Manager Mr Derek Smart Deputy Course Manager Mr Richard Windows STRI Ltd Cold and damp with occasional outbreaks of rain. Headlines Good feedback received from the Members with consistent performance and healthy turf surfaces. The maintenance approach is well considered and enthusiastically executed by the Greenstaff. Tree removal has worked well to reduce disease outbreaks to certain greens and should continue. Additional nutrient and refinement inputs are required to newer greens to improve the sward blend. More balanced nutrient inputs through the season are required to avoid growth flushes and wanes. Black layer symptoms have reduced but additional work to break up pan layer is required. Air2G2 worked well and shall be repeated again in the spring. Six applications of fungicide are too high and we need to look at reducing applications. The 1 st approach requires alteration to improve turf quality and reduce water collection. Turf cover and consistency of lie has improved to the new section of the 18 th fairway. Key Actions Focus tree removal this winter on the 2G & 9G to improve light and airflow and reduce disease. An immediate application of 3:0:3 granular fertiliser is required to the newer greens. The major change is to spoon feed the greens with water soluble feeds through the summer. Farmura Porthcawl along with water soluble feeds should provide superior natural vigour to the turf. Relax hollow coring in favour of solid tine aeration combined with sanding to create sand channels. Sustain browntop bent seeding in August with verticutting and solid tining. Invest in Poa Buster and replace existing Thatch Away machines with the new fine turf verticut units. Apply fungicides in accordance to growth, temperatures and disease activity. Increase tee fertiliser in combination with Primo-MAXX to accelerate recovery from divots. Consider extending sand top dressing inputs to aprons to improve surface firmness. Continue the positive process of deep aeration to the fairways. A sample of Ryflat sand used for top dressing and in the bunkers was submitted for lab analysis. Potential to introduce bunker liner system to improve consistency and reduce man-hour input. Consider maintenance mornings through the summer by delaying tee times for a couple of hours. Implement Air2G2 aeration to the new section of the 18 th and sustain nutrient inputs. Alter 1 st approach to provide more appropriate contouring.

3 Photo Observations and Comments Figure 1: The newer greens (e.g. 1G) were thinner with a mosaic of remaining bent and fescue with different biotypes of annual meadow-grass. To improve the blend, increased fertility and refinement is required. Figure 2: The older greens (e.g. 2) offer an even blend of meadow-grass with some bent. They are consistent between greens and are relatively sustainable surfaces. Figure 3: Tree removal remains essential to optimise light and airflow and reduce disease activity. Figure 4: The focus of tree removal should be on the 2 nd and 9 th green this winter. Figure 5: The soil profiles to the mature greens do support black layer but this has dissipated. But, more physical work is required to break the pan developed at the interface between turf and new rootzone illustrated by red arrow. Figure 6: The new greens offer a clean rootzone with no black layer and strong rooting.

4 Photo Observations and Comments (continued) Figure 7: The battle against fusarium patch is constant and six applications of fungicide is rather too high. Altered nutrition and accurate use of modern fungicides is the strategy. Figure 8: The 18 th green is dominated by bent but was thin and weak and requires an immediate application of fertiliser and additional nutrient input next year to retain better density. Figure 9: The tees were in decent shape but greater fertiliser inputs combined with Primo-MAXX will improve sward durability and recovery from play. Figure 10: The process of deep aeration to the fairways is a good one and should be sustained to help optimise surface water removal and general turf health. Figure 11: The new section of 18 th fairway has developed well in response to feeding and aeration and this process should continue but add Air2G2 aeration into the schedule for more effective compaction relief. Figure 12: The bunkers were nicely presented but many were wet following rain. The sand shall be tested to determine whether this is the source of the problem or, more likely, an underlying drainage issue.

5 Recommendations Greens An immediate application of granular fertiliser based on ammonium sulphate (to ensure release in cool conditions) is required to the newer greens (e.g. 1, 15 and 18). A product such as Rigby Taylor 3:0:3 Turf Hardener would be ideal. A further application may be required in early February. The key with these greens is to retain sward density therefore additional nutrient inputs will be required to achieve this objective. A slight change to the sanding and aeration programme is warranted in order to dilute organic matter and break up the pan that has developed at 75mm (i.e. at original turf/rootzone interface). The plan should be to omit coring and concentrate on 19mm solid tining combined with sand top dressing. The aim should be to complete these operations 3-4 times each year during the October to April period. Assuming a Sweep N Fill brush is used, the disruption to the surfaces is relatively minimal and the sand can be worked down the holes to create vertical channels through the pan layer. It also dilutes organic matter at the sward base. For this process to be effective, it is however important to use a Sweep N Fill brush. The other change to the programme should involve an alteration to the nutritional inputs. The annual input of kg/N/ha of nitrogen is probably about right but we should consider how this is applied rather than increasing or decreasing inputs. At present, predominately granular feeds are applied and the growth pattern tends to be flushes and wanes. In part, this could be contributing to disease outbreaks as well as compromising green performance (strong growth results in slow greens). So, the recommendation is to sustain the granular inputs at the start and end of the season but change the granular applications through May-September with liquid inputs. The liquid inputs should be based on water soluble straight forms of fertiliser to optimise the accuracy of what is applied and also be cognisant of the maintenance budget. A good mix to start with would be 50/50 ammonia/urea mix with iron sulphate and magnesium sulphate added if required. The Farmura Porthcawl would also be added to this mix to provide natural vigour to the turf but start at the 50 l/ha rate. Keeping the biologicals as separate applications would be advised. Start with 6 kg/ha ammonium sulphate and 6kg/ha urea and 5kg/ha magnesium sulphate if needed. Apply this every 2-4 weeks depending on growth, clipping production and visual quality. The newer greens should get increased inputs perhaps doubling up the frequency or rate on each application. In combination with sufficient nutrient inputs, it is essential more sward refinement is completed to optimise ball roll quality but also accelerate the sward blending process to the greens. The ideal combination would be the Poa Buster units for lighter operations and upgrading the ageing Thatch Away verticut units to the new Fine Turf units, which are more effective. The Air2G2 aeration unit was considered effective and should be used again in February and repeated twice per year. It is important to sustain browntop bent seeding but only in August and September when soil conditions are conducive to germination. Use verticutting and Sarel rolling to prepare the seedbed and apply the seed at 8-9 g/m 2. The level of disease activity and subsequent fungicide input is relatively high (six per year). Altering the fertiliser will help but it is also necessary to remove dew and keep the surfaces dry. In addition, utilise modern fungicides ensuring the sprayer is calibrated and label water volumes are adhered to. When choosing the fungicide, the choice is dependent upon soil temperatures, growth and presence of disease. The introduction of maintenance mornings during the season would be great benefit to allow the Greenstaff access to implement maintenance without interference from golf.

6 Green Collars, Surrounds and Approaches These surfaces require additional maintenance over the next few years with the aim of improving surface firmness and also the consistency and quality of lies. They essentially need to be extensions of the greens whereby the surfaces can be used with accuracy to play running shots into the greens. The work should involve extension of greens aeration and top dressing into the areas extending yards from the front of the green. The particularly soft sections extending 5 yards from the green front should receive at least a couple hollow coring operations each year. Fairways It is excellent to see deep aeration is being carried out to the fairways as this will help optimise turf health and surface drainage and this programme should continue. The new section of the 18 th fairway should continue to receive applications of fertiliser and aeration but extend Air2G2 aeration a couple of times a year to optimise compaction relief. Tees The tees are relatively small and require additional nutrient input to facilitate faster recovery and thereby ensure previously worn areas can receive play more rapidly. To achieve this, we discussed the application of a controlled release feed in May and again September. A product like ICL Proturf 12:5:10 or equivalent would work well. In addition to the above, apply a conventional release product in the early spring and water soluble products along with the Primo during the main season. Sustain overseeding with perennial ryegrass to optimise durability. Tree Removal Tree removal and thinning remains an essential operation to improve light and airflow around key surfaces such as greens and tees. The work should be focused on the 2 nd and 9 th greens this winter. Bunkers The bunker sand has been submitted to the laboratory for analysis. Once the results have been achieved, we will have a clearer picture on whether the sand is the reason for water retention or more likely due to problems with drainage in the bunker floor. The long-term solution to the problem will come from investment into one of the modern bunker lining systems, e.g. Capillary Concrete. The installation of this system on a trial basis would be useful to assess its performance on the course.

7 Signed Richard Windows BSc (Hons), MBPR Agronomy Service Manager Official Agronomist to the R&A Championship Committee t: +44 (0) e: STRI is completely independent and has no alliances to commercial products, services or contractors. This ensures that our design, project management and advisory services provide the best solutions for each individual client.