So far this winter has been very harsh, with the course closing itself on several occasions as conditions have been too severe for any play, be it too wet, covered in snow or frozen over.
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Unfortunately for the greens staff though, we have still been out in it, working hard to ensure the course continues to improve. It certainly makes the job considerably more difficult, however the guys deserve a lot of credit as progress has still been steady.
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So far we have completed the renovation of 7 bunkers and cleared several areas of scrub and gorse. All the machinery has been serviced with only the fairway mower units left to sharpen.
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This week with drier weather forecast, we’re going to be looking to tidy up some of the surfaces by carrying out some mowing. This will be mainly greens but if ground conditions are good enough we may also do some approaches and tees. Bunkers are all going to be mown too and sand redistributed to return them to their normal playing condition.
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Last week we revetted the 2 pot bunkers by Warsett green and this week we are reconstructing the larger bunker by the back left of the same green. We are making it wider, as the previous bunker was very narrow and affected by the same issues as all the others that have been altered in recent years. Each of the green side bunkers that have been revetted, have also had the ground graded surrounding the bunker as well. This is to allow us to mow the turf at approach height, which raises the standard of these areas significantly (see Trillo’s Torment below that was completed last year).
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As many of you are now aware, since my arrival we have been taking each area of the course in order of priority and improving them one by one. Greens, aprons and fairways have really come on, as have many of the bunkers and now we want to see the turf immeadiately around the greens brought up to a much higher standard.
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A big help in that regard, is having the option to use turf from the fairway on Doves. With this we are already seeing the benefits of the resources available to us on the extra holes of Clark’s Brook and Doves, which will no longer be part of the courses early in the new year.
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With a bit of luck the weather will be kind over the Christmas week and we’ll see some golf played at long last.
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Thanks for reading and have a fabulous Christmas!
Greg