As I put together this blog I am looking out of my office window and witnessing something rare and of which we have not experienced in sometime. Glorious sunshine! All be it cold, nether the less dry and sunny!
Apologies for absent blog reports recently as myself and the staff have been taking full advantage of the hard ground conditions and concentrated on installing additional drainage to the 13th and 14th fairways.
The drop in temperatures mixed with the odd shower has obviously made ground conditions extremely slippery and dangerous over the past few weekends, therefore, my staff unfortunately made unpopular but necessary decisions to keep the course closed throughout these hazardous conditions. At present, the ground is thawing but due to the severity and prolonged frost the turf is still frozen approx 3" underneath the turf, this is called 'permafrost' which is extremely damaging to the plant if walked on or driven on, in addition the surface becomes extremely moist and soft caused by the barrier of frozen soil 3" bellow the surface. Unfortunately temporary greens will be in play until main greens have completely thawed.
7th/13th Drainage
To date we have now installed approx 170m of twinwall pipe drainage. I am confident the work the staff have put into this area we will see an significant improvement in the removal of surface water around this area. Additional secondary drainage may be required in places however we will monitor this throughout the winter period.
Staff are now concentrating on the last and final stage of the area's to be drained which is the l/h/s and rear of 7th green. As expected, this area requires extensive rock removal(there's a surprise!!) in order we can extend the pipe work as far as possible beyond the green, yhis is another area where we have seen surface flooding this summer hopefully not in 2013.
14th Drainage
We are currently upgrading the main drainage pipework from our septic tank located close to our maintenance building, from here pipework flows towards and down parallel with the course road and finally into a concrete chamber to the r/h/s 6th.
This work has become necessary due to the deterioration in the old pipe work and also we are preparing for the proposed additional lateral drainage that myself and recent drainage consultants have identified. On this note I have recently contacted Jim Westwood - Drainage Consultant for the S.T.R.I last week regarding our drainage appraisal report. He predicts this will be with us soon after the festive period now. On it's arrival myself and the C.O.M will discuss the way forward and inform the membership as to what our intentions are for improving the current and additional drainage issues.
On behalf of the green staff and myself may I take this opportunity to wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year and good luck in 2013 golf season.
Yours in golf,
Douglas
