Course news
As we move into the heart of the golfing season, this is naturally a particularly busy period for the Club, with a consistent programme of competitions and events filling the calendar.
Longer working hours are par for the course at this time of year. While the overtime does make Phil wince, it is a necessary investment. It enables the team to keep on top of both the essential day-to-day maintenance, the more peripheral areas of the course and tasks like strimming and various other upkeep jobs.
The weather of late has been lovely, though the prolonged dry spell has brought its own set of challenges. While many of us are enjoying the sunshine, the course is feeling the lack of rain. Recovery in some areas has been difficult—particularly on the 4th and 6th fairways, where we've recently carried out seeding and repair work. Unfortunately, without adequate rainfall, the newly seeded areas have struggled to establish properly.
During these hot conditions, we are experiencing moisture loss at a rate of up to 5mm per day through evaporation and transpiration, which means that plant health suffers. While we are able to irrigate the greens, tees, and approaches, there is simply no substitute for good, old-fashioned rainfall. We will continue our efforts to improve grass coverage and kindly ask for your patience as we work through these testing conditions.
On the equipment front, the Grillo continues to pose issues. While our engineer managed to get the machine running again, we’re now facing electrical faults affecting the PTO, which drives the cutting unit. This will require further specialist investigation. In the meantime, we’ve hired in an alternative machine to manage the worst areas. However, it’s worth noting that no other machine quite matches the Grillo’s cutting height, which makes it so effective at topping off weeds. Using the substitute machine creates a risk that this may reduce heather flowering, so we are being selective about which areas are cut, and supplementing this with manual cutting or weed removal where possible.
We had been making good headway tackling exceptionally invasive growth earlier in the year, but as always, nature has its own ideas. The recent heat has encouraged a surge in weed growth, and while we continue to do our utmost, we appreciate your understanding and patience.
Next week we welcome Tom Clarke, our newest member of the team. He joins at a demanding time and will be thrown straight into preparations for Club Day and Club Championship.
The robot mower is currently working very effectively on the driving range. We’re now discussing the infrastructure required to support this technology more widely. One member recently asked a staff member if the robot would replace them—rest assured, this is not the case. While the robot can support our efforts and free up staff during quieter maintenance periods, it cannot yet deliver the same standard of presentation. Instead, it will allow us to redirect staff to tackle jobs we often struggle to complete in the winter months.
Finally, with Sunday and Monday forecast to be particularly hot, may I gently remind everyone to take appropriate precautions—please bring hats, sunscreen, and plenty of water when out on the course.
Matt
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