The River Brent.......Wow!

On Wednesday the river burst its banks and it was some sight. The club estimates that 50% (yes 50%) was under water on Wednesday afternoon as a thunderstorm hit West London. This could not have happened at a worse time as it was halfway through Golf Week, with the am-am and scratch open this coming weekend. Not to worry though as the greenstaff went straight to work and by Saturday morning everything will be back to normal with just a few spots treated as G.U.R. Who said it was all about cutting grass!

6th Fairway

4th Fairway

7th Fairway

3rd Hole

11th Fairway

Summer Renovations

Last week was the major renovations week at Ealing Golf Club. Greens were deep spiked and heavily sanded. Fairways were scarified and tees overseeded. It was a big week and long hours completed to get the work done but turn around has been quick. One week and the surfaces are back to normal!

One of the great benefits of doing these heavy works during the early August period is that the weather is good so recovery quick. If you also take in to consideration that majority of members are away on holiday, it starts to make a lot of sense. 

During the week all greens were given a 20mm tine and 80 tonnes of sand applied. They were then tinned twice again but with a smaller 8mm tine to help close the 20mm's up and 'shake' the sand in to the holes. It worked well and here is a picture of the 11th green 6 days later!

All in all a good week and any short term pain is far outweighed by the long term benefits in the continued performance of these areas!

Little bit too much sand on this one!

Fairways getting scarified

Tournament Set Up!

This morning we had one of our full on mornings where all major playing surfaces get cut. The greenstaff were in at 5am preparing the course for the London Irish Charity day. This work mostly goes unseen but anyone who witnesses it will see some sight. Greens were cut and rolled, with fairways,tees and collars all cut. It is an intense 4 hour period as by 9am the staff were all off the golf course. Quite some buzz we can assure you!

Spring Renovations at EGC - Part 2: Fairway Hollow Coring!

The second part of the spring operations was hollow coring the fairways. It was an intense operation and the greenkeeping team were on 12hour days to allow us to achieve our aim. The reason for this was to physically remove high organic content (thatch) from our fairways.


With minimal work done to the fairways in 120 years, as you can image thatch will build up and in big numbers! For the last 3 years we have been adding drainage to our fairways and now halfway through the plan. This consists of installing pipe in the ground and then connecting the system with secondary drainage. The next stage is to improve the top soil and reduce the carpet which sits on top. The program consisted of the following:

• Hollow cored at 50mm spacings with a 12mm tine going 75mm deep
• All cores then collected with our Wessex scarifier set at ground level (to reduce scalping)
• In the afternoons the team would drag mat the debris and blow any remaining to the side
• Once finished any damaged areas would be repaired and GUR added

The fairways are 10 hectares in total and by our estimations we removed 40million cores. The next stage will be to scarify three times per year and finish with a verti-drain in the autumn. We have taken some organic matter cores and have had them tested. It will be interesting to see how these numbers fair over the next few years!

Below is a slideshow of the operation:

Spring Renovations at EGC - Part 1: Greens,Approaches and Collars!

This week the greenstaff have been busy punching holes and applying sand. It's been quite a week. Over 80tonnes of sand was applied to the greens, approaches, collars and all the fairways were hollow cored. We believe it's the first time that the fairways have been hollow cored and it took a lot of effort!

When you have two major projects going on at the same time it requires a lot of organisation and commitment from all parties. From the clubs side we have hole closures, disruption and only allow members to play. On the agronomy side the greenkeeping team work long hard hours and of course there is an expense to everything. We hope its worth it!

As it was two projects we have split this weeks blog in to two parts. Part 1 is below about the greens operation. Part 2 will follow in another blog and contain the fairway operation. We hope you enjoy the read!

Greens, Approaches and Collars 

Two Operations in One!

Our usual spring renovations took place on these areas. They were deep verti-drained at a 200mm depth on a 40mm spacing with a 12mm tine. 80tonnes of sand was applied first and after they had been spiked, the remainder of the week was about brushing the sand in to the holes. It finished with a few vibro-rolls to smooth the surfaces and 'shake' the sand in further. Conditions were ideal and below is a slideshow of the operation complete with captions.

Hay Cutting

This week we have cut and collected the vast majority of 'hay' around the golf course. These areas generally sit out of play and we try and make them look as natural as possible. The big challenge on a parkland course such as ourselves is that the hay can get a bit wild at times and out of control. Finding golf balls at certain times of year becomes an issue. The best and most natural way to deal with this is to remove all the nutrients on a yearly cycle. Hopefully in time the plant will fine down and scrub, coarser plants and weeds will reduce.


The operation is very time consuming. To cut the majority of grass we have a big 'flail' machine which will cut and collect as it goes along. We aim to cut it right down to the base of the plant, but have to do this in stages as the hay is quite tough and matted. To add to the workload there are many areas where a machine can't get in to or it is to dangerous to do so. These areas have to be done with strimmers, with the grass being collected by hand. It is quite labour intense and may take a number of weeks to complete. Hopefully in the long run it will be worth it!

Tricky areas need to be strimmed and hand collected

New Tee added to the front of the 11th

Over the last two weeks we have added a small front tee to the 11th teeing area. Installing a new tee always seems like a simple task, but it is time comsuming and implementing it correctly is a must. The new tee has been added to provide the laides with a slightly forward teeing position and to help wear in this area. A suitable teeing area on a short par 4 should be between 300 and 400m2. Before this tee went in we only had 170m2 and in the winter the tee used to look very tidied. This addtional tee wont get us up to the required size, but it will help to relieve the pressure.

When you are installing any new feature in to a golf course the number one priority is to make sure that it fits in to the landscape. If it doesn't it will look out of place and silly. As we wanted to achieve this we went down in to the ground so it fits the eye nicely. We installed drainage and irrigation systems to make sure it is suitable for both winter and summer. Another thing that we did was that instead of buying turf from outside for the teeing ground, we took the turf from an area on the golf course. This means that the rooting will take immediately and the turf has been maintained to tee standards for many years. It will speed up the process of getting it in play very quickly.


Some of the trees to the right will have to be felled but we will do this at a later date. As you can see from the pictures below, the roots of these trees go all over that area and in to the drainage channels. If we don't remove certain ones, then the condition of this tee will deteriorate very quickly. The ones further up will be 'root pruned'.

Below are a few pictures of the process that went in to installing a new tee.

Tee getting graded

Drainage added

Roots in drainage channels

Rootzone being installed

Roots over teeing area

Wes checking levels

Area levelled

Teeing area turf taken from an area on the golf course

The finished product. 7 days in total!