Greenkeeper Newsletter

Dear members,

Driving Range
Well, it has been a fantastic first part of the season, we have renovated the end of the Driving Range where the red barn used to stand, this area will now be seeded and will be an extension of the Driving Range. I would expect the robot to be mowing this area in mid-August. Whilst I appreciate that hitting driver with the wind behind you can make you feel like John Daly/Laura Davies, please do not hit balls into this area as we will not be able to walk into the area once it has been seeded.

Pump to Nybogaard and stream
We had some technical issues with the pump to Nybogaard which powers the water to the stream running through the course from A1 to B9. Unfortunately, it took Grundfos many weeks to repair the damaged parts and return the pump. During the downtime my team were able to renovate the waterfalls and other damaged areas of the stream which is now fully operational once more.

Greens aeration
During the month of July, we will carry out aeration on greens. In the previous 5 years we have used our VGR to inject sand into the greens. We feel as though we have the correct amount of sand in the greens and now we just need to manage the thatch in the greens surface so we will repeat the same procedure as in Spring aeration where we use a 4mm core diameter. Aeration helps to keep our greens performing optimally, they are living areas, and we need to ensure they can breathe and drain freely.

Usually we can core 10 greens (1 hectare) a day. We aim to open the 9-hole course by 3pm each day if not sooner. However, breakdowns and weather can delay that. Of course, the 18-hole course is available on all days during aeration, as always it is best to book in advance to be certain of a time.

The information below shows the aeration process and explains the importance of this task:
Simon’s aeration April 2023
USGA – Answers about aeration
USGA – Why do golf courses aerate so much?

Course Maintenance
Simon’s is an incredibly busy course, with play starting from 04:00 Monday to Friday for morning golf and 7:00 on weekends until sundown each day, there are also many company days, club tournaments, gun starts and hotels guests, all of which factor into the time we have available on the course as greens staff. We always pride ourselves on carrying out as much course maintenance as possible without disturbing play, sometimes this can lead to questions such “why is the 9-hole course opening later today?” and “why are we playing CA?” We try to vary the course, again dependent on company days, this allows extra time for us to work on the 9-hole course before we open at 13:00. During this time, we can fly mow, strim and weed bunkers, maintain the stream, divot fairways and strim around trees. We start our day at 06:00 on weekdays and 05:30 on weekends to ensure that when golfers turn up to play we are well ahead and everything is in pristine condition. I have started to create videos to help enlighten members as to how much work takes place behind the scenes before you turn up at the golf course, especially if you play in the afternoons, if you keep an eye on the website and social media pages we should be publishing these shortly.

Robots
The robots continue to perform as predicted and we have raised the cutting height a little to improve play during drought periods. Once more I would like to remind you all DO NOT press stop on the robots, this causes them to stop working until a member of staff physically tells them to work again.

Mid-summer
We are now entering the second half of the season and as with many of you, in July/August many of my team will be taking a well earned break, we will continue to provide the best playing surface possible throughout this period and upon their return we will be focusing on the many company days, events, and Club Championships that are upcoming.

Kind regards,

Reamonn O’Neill
Golf Course Superintendent