South Winchester – General Course Report

Rainfall figures for the year to date is currently at 658mm (26”), 185mm (7”) of that has fallen in the last 3 weeks. This has been good in some ways for growth with drought recovering areas but has also given us other issues to deal with, such as turf diseases and worm castes.

Disease pressure has been very high recently with high rainfall and high humidity. The greens seem to be recovering well from the summer disease and irrigation issues. The only 2 greens which seem to be a little behind is the 10^th for anthracnose scarring (left hand side) and the 17^th from dollar spot scarring and moss. The moss has been treated with a high iron granular feed to try and scorch it and has already started to turn black which is great.

The rain has been fairly relentless over the last few weeks so bunker raking has been an issue. You may have noticed that we have introduced a new style of raking where the steep edges are flat raked (using the back of the rakes) and the middles of the bunkers are normal raked. I am trying this for a number of reasons;

1) golfers are much more likely to have a level playing shot as the ball runs into the middle.

2) We should see a decrease in the amount of chalk and stones being pulled up, as this mainly occurs when the banks are tooth raked.

3) After heavy torrential downpours the sand washouts should not be as severe.

Completed Work this October

All greens have received a granular fertiliser application.
The 17^th and 10^th green have received extra applications of fertiliser to reduce the disease scarring and scorch the moss.
All greens have had a preventative fungicide applied.
All bunker edges trimmed and herbicide sprayed.
All greens and approaches sprinkler heads have been trimmed.
All fairway marker discs have been trimmed.
All tees have received a granular fertiliser application.
New Orange short course tee marker plates have been installed.
All pond edges are being strimmed regularly and red hazard line painting introduced.
New cutting shapes and changes to certain fairways and semi-rough.
New blue trolley lines and signage in place. (This will be on-going and more introduced as we head into the winter months).
All course strimming areas such as posts, bins, signs are being strimmed more regularly.
New style bunker raking has been introduced.
New tee blocks onto the golf course.
Certain fairways and weak areas have been granular fed to try and aid recovery after the chafer grub and crow damage.
9^th stream has been cleaned out .