Cruden Bay Golf Club. Advisory Report on the Golf Course. Making great sport happen

Transcription

1 Making great sport happen Advisory Report on the Golf Course Report Date: Wednesday 27 th September 2017 Consultant: Richard Windows

2 Date of Visit: Wednesday 27 th September 2017 Visit Objective: Present: Weather: To review the condition of the course and confirm future maintenance operations. Bruce Milton Captain Les Durno General Manager Neil Murray Club Professional Alister Matheson Course Manager Paul Marshall Deputy Course Manager Richard Windows STRI Ltd Overcast and cool. Headlines The course was in excellent shape and has performed consistently well despite another wet summer. There is a great ethos between Club Officials and Greenstaff working together towards a common goal of improving the quality and performance of the course. Good progress has been made to the greens with stronger swards and better consistency. There is better consistency between the greens except for 8 & 14 which remain a challenge. The introduction of browntop bent into the seeding programme to greens has been excellent. The top dressing target (140 t) was achieved with two heavier applications after autumn aeration. Relaxed refinement and lower nutrient inputs concentrating on liquids have sustained performance. Fairways were well grassed but following another very wet summer could be firmer, tighter and crisper. Rough grassland was thick in places but a programme of cutting and collection has commenced. The holes to the southerly end of the course, 10 through to 15 should be the focus of any course development work. Key Actions Liquid nutrients have worked well with ammonia sulphate through the season. To boost vigour for the autumn, two applications of Terralift 3:0:6 are required. Potential to introduce grooming on the Toro 1000 hand mowers into the refinement programme. Create a consistent performing surface, regardless of composition, on 8G & 14G with more refinement. Employ a preventative fungicide programme (Heritage applied and iprodione later in autumn). Repeat two applications of J All Bent Nitro next year to the greens. Verti drain and sand local areas of fairways to firm the surfaces and accelerate surface drainage. Repeat spring application of graminicide to local areas of the rough. Consider introducing local sand scrapes and naturalised areas to the course. Implement gorse and rose management with aim of restoring links vegetation and open sand areas. Plans to upgrade greens and approach irrigation next winter and potentially tees.

3 Photo Observations and Comments Figure 1: The greens have performed well this year and support a much stronger sward in response to relaxed refinement and altered nutrient inputs. Figure 2: The 3 rd Green is much improved in response to the drainage at the rear of the green and is now more consistent with the other greens on the course. Figure 3: Overseeding has been successful this year with both fescue and browntop bent. A couple of applications of granular fertiliser can now be applied to give the greens greater body for the autumn/winter. Figure 4: There is far less anthracnose this season due to the relaxed refinement inputs and altered nutrient applications. Figure 5: The presence of leatherjackets and damage to certain greens 3, 10 & 14 is a concern and a programme of biological control is required to reduce the risk of further damage. Figure 6: The upper soil profile is in decent shape with mm of fresh sand (yellow arrow) at the sward base but richer and moisture retentive material at mm (red arrow). Ongoing sanding and aeration will dilute this and improve firmness.

4 Photo Observations and Comments (continued) Figure 7: The 8 th green is popular in terms of golfing strategy. It will however not be possible to sustain a fine grass surface so efforts to create similar playing performance regardless of grass composition is the objective. Figure 8: The 14 th green is compromised by its architecture and could benefit from raising and enlarging. Figure 9: The fairways are good and well grassed but a programme of clipping collection and sand top dressing will enhance their performance and deliver tighter and crisper lies in the future. Figure 10: A programme of rough grassland management has commenced to local thicker areas of rough. It is important to be sufficiently aggressive to these areas to achieve the desired thinning for next year. Figure 11: Local areas of naturalised sand should be introduced with one such area to the rear of 16G. Figure 12: Gorse and rose management is an important objective to restore and optimise the links character of the course, especially regarding the wonderful dune features.

5 Recommendations Greens To boost vigour for the autumn, winter and into next spring, make two applications of Terralift 3:0:6. Make the first as soon as possible and the next in early November. Repeat the same programme of liquid feeding next year using ammonium sulphate but there may be a requirement for another Terralift 3:0:6 mid-season. To refine the increasing amounts of bent in the swards and retain optimum ball roll qualities, it would be beneficial to introduce grooming on the Toro 1000 hand mowers into the refinement programme. Using groomers on hand mowers provides optimum accuracy of operation whereby the units can be disengaged easily on perimeters and selected greens. Employ a preventative fungicide programme (Heritage applied recently) with a subsequent application of iprodione later in autumn. A further application of Medallion maybe required around Christmas. Implement deep aeration to greens with 12 mm times and treat localised areas with the larger 18 mm tines to selected areas e.g. 10 & 12. For 8G & 14G the aim should be to create a consistent performing surface, regardless of composition, with increased refinement and nutrient input. The simple aim is to supply sufficient fertiliser to maintain sward density and vigour thereby facilitating more intensive and aggressive refinement to match playing qualities with the other greens on the course. Repeat two applications of J All Bent Nitro next year to the greens to further increase browntop bent populations within the sward Ensure full areas of greens are used for hole locations especially in the winter to spread the wear across the entire green platforms. Employ leatherjacket control on 3G, 10G & 14G using the Nemasys parasitic nematode or garlic oil. Fairways The fairways are good but could be better in terms of tightness of lie, firmness underfoot and ball release following impact. The key components of improving links fairways involves three main operations; sand top dressing, wetting agent and boxing off clippings. A programme of wetting agent would be very beneficial to the fairways to aid more even penetration or rain and irrigation thereby resulting in more even grass cover between slopes and swales and ultimately tighter and more consistent lies. A monthly programme through the spring and summer using a premium product such as Revolution or Hydrazone is the optimum programme but this does place significant pressure on the sprayer and resources. As an alternative, very positive results have been obtained from an autumn to mid-spring programme using Revolution or Hydrazone at other links courses. The aim being to apply 4-5 applications from October through to April. In addition to wetting agent, applying sand to the fairways will also have a significant positive impact in terms of firmness, ball run after impact and superior quality of lies. To achieve the desired results, it will be important to commit to this programme with at least 500 tonnes of sand per year for 5 years. The natural dune sand harvested from site would be ideal for use in this regard. Large scale boxing clippings may be a future objective but this in the short-term should be focussed to the grassier fairways on 9, 10 & 13. This process will also have a significant positive effect on reducing worm casts. Deep auger work should continue the low-lying sections of fairways to accelerate surface drainage.

6 Rough Repeat spring application of graminicide to local areas of the rough and continue the process of cutting and clipping collection. Consider introducing local sand scrapes and naturalised areas to the course, e.g. rear of 16. Implement gorse and rose management with aim of restoration of links vegetation and open sand areas. 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.