Friday 15th November 2013

 

Well another few weeks have past since my last blog entry. We were lucky enough to get a few patches on bunkers revetted just before the end of October, without upsetting play.

We started an extension to the Yellow and Red tee at the 9th. Most of the good turf was salvaged from the tee bank.

Top soil scraped away, sand put in and top soil back on the top.

Turfed with turf from 10th Hogan tee.

At the 10th Hogan tee we are extending the tee forward and making it wider. This tee is used at tournament times and is a bit on the small side the time you get sponsorship boards, drinks fridges, litter bins etc.

I had to call in the big gun to cut a tree down for me.

Sandy in action,

tttiiiiiimmmmbbbbbbbeeeerrrr

a few guys will be happy for the firewood.

Saw this little fella on my travels round the course. A young stoat nibbling on a frog, i would prefer if he would stick to going for rabbits!

So after the tree was down we started work on the 10th Hogan tee. Ready for turf now.

We love when Bonfire night comes round, a chance to get rid of some pallets.

So on to our Winter closure, the first two weeks in November. Turf cut at the 2nd tee, here we will be extending the height of the tee forward. More on this later.

11th fairway turf cut and ready to lift.

Just about all clear for the next process.

Coring work on a few greens. Here we are on the 10th green.

 

After it was cored we put the graden sand injection machine over it. The same process happened at the 1st and 5th greens.

 

Apart from the 10th, 1st and 5th all the rest of the greens were verti-drained with 13mm tines about 9 inches deep.

We were quite lucky with the weather and only had a few mornings of frost.

These greens were rolled after this process and top dressed to fill up the holes as we had golf during the weekend of our winter closure.

Last green being verti drained. 

All turf lifted at the 11th.

A new addition to the Links, little tym.

Top soil removed and taken to the sheds where we will mix it with sand before putting back. Poorer soil taken away and ground rotovated.

More sand driven in. This sand has come from other jobs we are doing just now, a way of saving money plus re using indigenous sand,

at the left hand side of the 4th green.

At the 4th we are lowering the mounding as it is a really poor area round the green for foot traffic. By lowering the mound it will gain more area for golfers to exit the green to the next tee. 

Sand also taken from the left hand side of the 1st green.

The mounding here is just being softened.

Job done.

Cant get a good picture of this but there is movement still at the 4th.

More top dressing on the greens to fill up the holes, this light dusting takes us over the 200 tonnes of sand applied on the greens this year.

You would hardly know that they have been verti drained.

The last of the graden work at the right hand side of the 9th surround.

And breathe!!

Next week we will hope to crack on adding the top soil back to the 11th fairway so we can get ready for turf.

Friday 18th October 2013

After a sabbatical break, the blog is back!

So lets rewind and go back to where we left off.

 

Eric retired and was replaced by new Head Maintenance Engineer Sandy McCubbin.

The new tee head starters hut was finally built.

Guess who is back..............Dangerous Jimmy. The retirement never lasted too long and Jim was back after a two week holiday. He is now classed as a seasonal, working three days a week (maybe working more than he ever did a week).

Wildflowers enjoyed the dry summer with plenty on show.

Sea Pea planting for the second year took place at the right of the Buddon 18th hole.

 

http://www.carnoustiegolflinks.co.uk/environmental-news/sea-pea-planting-2013

Talking of the Buddon, the new holes are growing in really well and things are looking good for an April opening.

Might have to total the bunker bases mind you!!

In July, The Open at Muirfield provided us with traditional links playing surfaces (hard and fast). The course was in excellent condition.

At Carnoustie we let things dry up too, old school style.

Jean Van De Velde was back at the course doing more filming.

Then we had the Tassie and Dunhill tournaments.

Everything went well, photos look a bit green though!

Last week a few of us went over to Kingsbarns for a game.

The course was superb.

An early start to some winter works, with a few parts of bunkers getting rebuilt.

Overseeding of the greens took place.

Rolled behind causing no disruption.

Before and after the roll.

Graden sand injection on some softer tees.

Certain roughs were cut back prior to "Rescue" work.

A bit short and sweet but i didn't want to bore you with all the details.

Saturday 22nd June 2013

LINKS SUPERINTENDENT REPORT FOR MAY 2013

WEATHER

After another cold 2-3 weeks at the start of the month the warmer weather eventually blessed us with its presence in the latter half of May. Despite the cold start to the month growth was quite even and a good shower of rain every few days supplemented the sunlight that occurred on the dry but cold days. The last 2 weeks of the month have seen temperatures increase considerably and again with some welcome rain has seen the growth become more vigorous on all surfaces.

WORK ON THE LINKS

Prior to the onset of proper growth it is our aim to encourage growth where necessary to cope with the increased traffic and allow us to produce consistent surfaces of good standard. This is achieved by bespoke feeding, brushing, top dressing, careful water management and by ensuring our cutting and rolling regimes are adjusted to suit.

In May month we give careful consideration to the playability of the roughs throughout the 3 courses as it starts to grow properly. It is standard practice for us to cut some intermediate rough and leave it thereafter so that it can still produce seed heads, this is what gives a links course its definition. There are some areas of rough though that we need to cut more regularly, these are areas where the quality of the grasses is not so fine or where growth is just very thick. We are very conscious of finding the correct balance of ensuring that the pace of play is acceptable without compromising the challenge the golfer expects and the definition of each hole. 

 

CHAMPIONSHIP COURSE

Greens

The turf conditioner programmes continued as normal on the greens and they were also top dressed and hydro-jected. Cutting frequency increased with hand cutting and/or rolling being fitted in as much as practical to help produce good surfaces whilst keeping heights up which is good for the health of the sward.

Other work

Tees: Hydro-jected and top dressed with the Hogan tees being mini cored and over-sown also. Selective weed killing commenced.

Surrounds/Approaches: Traffic routes and walk-offs fed; wetting agent applied

Fairways: Bumps and weak areas sprayed with mix of fertiliser, seaweed and wetting agent, one fairway per week top dressed.

General: Removing weeds from burn, shaping sand in bunkers.

 

BURNSIDE

Greens

The greens along with the walk-offs were hydro-jected and were lightly fed and top-dressed whilst the monthly conditioner programmes continued.

Other work

Tees, fairway bumps and walkways fed. Areas of new turf were mini-tined and top-dressed. Timbrel applied to control growth young broom.

The 15^th, 17^th and 18^th fairways were widened slightly in odd areas so that areas of thicker rough can be encompassed during routine rough cutting.

 

BUDDON LINKS

Greens

Greens were fed, top-dressed and sprayed with wetting agent, seaweed and sulphate of iron. The purchase of new hand mowers has allowed more frequent hand cutting on the Buddon Links where suitable and possible.

General work

·        Walk-offs and weak tees were cored, over-sown, top-dressed and fed as was the practice green.

·        New tees were top-dressed

·        Weed killing commenced on tees, approaches and fairways.

New holes

The re-located 12^th green opened for play at the start of the month and is performing very well.

The two new holes have been receiving intense treatments including feeding, over-seeding, rolling and top-dressing. Greens, tees, approaches/surrounds, fairways and semi-roughs are now all being cut regularly with heights decreasing as and when suitable and now look proper, well defined golf holes.

In general the new seed is doing very well, at this stage the greens still need to thicken a little but we are confident that this will be achieved by end of the summer.

OTHER INFORMATION

·        The work to restore the burn wall and bridge at the Burnside Car Park commenced and is near completion.

·        We built 3 small bunkers on the entrances to the town at the request of the Carnoustie Community Council.

 

STRI Reports

The Championship Course received its spring agronomy visit on behalf of the R&A and the Burnside received its spring visit as part of our subscription with the STRI both from the agronomist Richard Windows. Both courses received very favourable reports, it is a great credit to the input from all concerned and it is something both the greenstaff and the organisation can take great pride in knowing that the work we are carrying out is producing good results. There are areas we still need to improve on however and we will be looking to make further gains going forward.

 

Training

Six men completed training and testing in various forms of Pesticide Application (Spraying) whilst 10 of the greenstaff completed a refresher in defibrillator training.

 

Retirements and Appointment

Eric Watson, our Maintenance Engineer of 25 years retired at the end of May with his replacement, Sandy McCubbin previously of Monifieth Golf Links, now in position.

James Riddell retired after 36 years service on the Links; he is however staying on as a seasonal through the rest of the season.

 

 

Sandy Reid

Links Superintendent

7^th June 2013