February has been another challenging month regarding the conditions, even though the weather has been a little kinder than in January. The latter half of the month did see some cold but settled weather though and this has seen all holes return to play.
The following were the areas of focus for our work in February:
1) Maintenance of the playing surfaces, which this month has been predominantly mowing.
2) Clearance work on Clark’s Brook, involving the removal of Crack Willow scrub and opening up a small pool at the end of the tree line. The Willow had been smothering several native trees and a stream as well as obscuring line of sight from the tee.
3) Additional targets installed on the driving range, with hard standing targets for short pitching and a H target to hit under and over. These make up most of the targets for a new game which will be available this summer, to be completed with target greens installed in the coming months.
4) Gorse has been cut back to promote regeneration. Many areas of gorse have become overgrown and leggy and cutting them back hard encourages the plant to form a stronger healthier shrub in 2 – 3 years. It has to be managed carefully as although it offers important habitat for wildlife, it can spread quickly so needs to be kept in check.
5) More bunker alterations, this time on the hole Warsett. This bunker was another that suffered badly with sand washing out after rain and also to a lesser extent from wind blow. The new pot bunkers are unlikely to suffer too much trouble from the wind and have also been constructed so water is diverted away from them.
The film below shows how some of the work is carried out along with an explanation as to the reasons for it being undertaken.