Dear Members,
Since my last update a week or so ago we have now been approved by English Nature to engage the services of a professional pest controller in regard to the rook damage on the course. This will mean that we will close the course for a few hours on Monday 4th March to allow him to do his work. If successful we intend to use the carcasses the best way possible to discourage further damage.
As you see we are progressing with the re-turfing of fairway damage which has taken well. The next step is to address the affected banks. We will do this by lowering the blades on our mowers to break down the damaged turf, add to it a top dressing along with a fast growing seed that should work well even at this time of year. The top dressing and seed has been ordered and this work on the banks will commence next week.
Working closely with other green keepers locally and within the group we continue to investigate best practices into combating this issue which includes keeping a close eye on the effectiveness and best use of Acelepryn which is a new insecticide (soil pest controller) alternative to the previously banned products.
Clearly the banning of these pesticides in the UK over the past few years has led to an increase in the grub population which feast on grass roots and last summers extreme heat restricted our feeding programme, this has left our grass weakened and easier for the birds to rip up the turf. Lesson learnt! We will increase our feeding programme for all our playing areas and utilise available pesticides we feel will work.
Other planned winter works on the Course:
5th green’s irrigation has now been completed.
14th Greenside bank, 6th Tee re-shaping & the bushes above and around the putting green are all planned to be completed by the end of March.
Kind Regards
Richard Adams
General Manager
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