Along with our drainage project this autumn the Greenstaff have been busy with end of season renovations this October. All the main playing areas have been renovated, with fairways the last to be finished today. It's certainly been a busy month!
A2G2 in action |
We decided to tweak our greens programme this year. Instead of going with the usual deep tine and heavy sand dressing in the autumn, we pushed that forward to mid-summer and this autumn went less aggressive. We tried a new machine called the A2G2 which puts compressed air down to a depth of around 300mm and then followed that up with an 8mm micro tine on the top.
No sand was applied as over 150tonnes had already been applied by the end of the summer. The theory is to work on both shallow and deep aeration at certain stages throughout the year setting them up for the winter ahead.
8mm Micro tine following behind |
The work went well and greens have recovered very well. We will use our comprehensive data programme to analyse results to see if this is a new path for us to take.
Along with the greens the tees were deep aerated, sanded, seeded and then fertilised. The approaches have been deep aerated and fairways scarified and deep aerated. Walkways and stress areas too have been worked on. Combined with our drainage improvements, the aim is to provide top quality golf in the off season to go along with the already excellent playing surfaces in the main season.
Fairways getting deep aerated |