Well another good year on the Links
We were really lucky with the weather through the summer, that's until we got to the Dunhill Links Championship when it really chucked it down.
I have not really been great with keeping the blog up to date this year and i have been trying to the last month but couldn't upload photos for some reason.
I am back on track...hopefully!
Winter works this year started in the last week of October, when we were able to take a bit of height off of a mound to the right of the 2nd walkway. As well as saving sand for other jobs, it will help with spectator movement during tournaments, freeing up a bit more space.
Main job this Winter was to lower the back of the 13th green.
This will help create more of an area for pin positions, not just for tournaments but for everyday play.
A job well done.
Next job on the list was lowering the mounds on the 3rd fairway. This fairway has always been a problem for us (extreme divot wear) and lowering the mounds would help spread the wear a bit more.
The sand excavated from this job (75 tonnes) was then taken to the 8th Hogan tee.
At the 8th Hogan tee, we were only going to extend the tee back by 2 yards and also add 2 yards to the side (to free up a little more room for all the extras that come with a tournament clock,bins, fridge etc) but once we got started adding sand we ended up going back another 8 yards and 6 yards to the side.
The tee now measures at 191 yards from the back. We re-turfed the tee with turf from the 9th Hogan tee, another tee that we are adjusting this Winter. We normally have a few jobs open during Winter Works as this is because we are "robbing Peter to pay Paul" in the way of using the best of the turf from a few jobs to complete one/two jobs. Example: turf from 9th Hogan tee used at the 8th Hogan tee and to be used around the 10th green-side bunkers. 9th Hogan tee to be replaced with commercial turf. Confusing? Yes!! This also is the case for soil and sand where we try to get the most use out of it.
So, the rest of the turf that was left from the 9th Hogan tee was used here at the 10th green.
The plan was to slightly lower the bunkers in height but we will compensate this by making the bunkers deeper. We always cut round these bunkers with a flymo but it just looked out of place.
The bunkers now fit in with the tight turf round about. More on the 9th Hogan tee the next time.
Another job to tick off the list was raising the bunker run ins at the 12th fairway.
We haven't done a lot of gorse work yet this Winter and the 15th is the only place we have been.
Removal of gorse on top of the mounds to the left hand side of the fairway giving a more linksy feel.
Blog up to date for now anyway.
All the best for 2015!!
