Although in a lockdown, it might be of some consolation that there would have been very little opportunity for golf to be played even if restrictions didn’t prohibit it.
After 212 mm of rainfall in December, January brought 130 mm more. To put that into perspective, the last 2 months combined is almost half of the average annual rainfall for us. Also of those 62 days, only 11 didn’t come with any rain and 7 of those saw sub zero temperatures leading to frozen ground or snowfall.
So hopefully now you’re feeling a little better knowing you’ve missed very little and here’s a short video giving details of the challenges this brings and what we as a team are doing to combat them.
Projects Continue
Drainage has again been on the agenda with storm drains going in on Trillo’s Torment and Wetlands.
Natural spring water coming up at the surface and running across the fairways at these holes required us to take action. Pipe will be installed to keep the water moving to the nearest outlet underground, thus preventing current flooding issues.
700 meters of fine fescue turf was laid on the surrounds of Morgan’s Mound, Wetlands and Redding’s Apron as well as the recently levelled tee on Fox Covert.
All of these areas were capped with sand prior to returfing and will see a huge improvement to both the playing conditions and visual appeal of these areas going forwards.
New Addition
1 very positive piece of news comes with a new addition to our team. Callum Richardson started at the beginning of January and has made a significant difference already.
Callum is a local lad from Guisborough and has brought great energy and enthusiasm with him. It’s not been a great time to start, with some awful conditions to contend with, but he has made an excellent contribution so far and we look forward to him enjoying a positive career beginning with us.
Spring Preparation
Machinery servicing and mower sharpening has begun and mostly completed in January.
The remaining tee information signs have been installed, distance markers in the fairways have been edged and new tee markers are being painted ready for spring.
With lockdown being in place we decided to verti drain all the greens ahead of schedule. This is quite disruptive to the surface and completing this work earlier will mean less disruption when golf is permitted to resume.
February
We will continue our preparations for winter in February but depending on weather conditions we have several options available to us.
If things dry up sufficiently we intend to begin mowing to all surfaces, which will put us in an excellent position should golf return earlier than expected.
If things remain wet, we are going to look at a couple of smaller issues with drainage and rectify those.
If we experience a prolonged cold spell then we will turn our attention to woodland management. This will involve clearing out non native and invasive Poplar species that are beginning to spread into areas with significant and sensitive ecological value.
We hope to receive some positive news regarding reopening during February and it would be nice if that were to coincide with an improvement in the weather!
Thanks for reading and we hope to see you all soon!
Thank you for the update. We all know the one thing you can’t control is the weather. 🙂