Planned work on the track in October:
Week 40 Monday to Thursday: Fairways are aerated, reseeded and fertilized. Expect major disruption to play. Check the golf box and notices in the clubhouse.
Week 40: Teeing ground at driving range closed for renovation. Practice continues from mats outside the teeing ground.
Week 41: Green surroundings are pricked, reseeded and topdressed. Expect disruption while the work is being carried out.
Week 43: Top dressing of paths, areas around tees and greens begins. Minimal disruption to play.
The first week of October will be a busy one with lots of activity on the course and on the driving range. The greenkeepers, in collaboration with an equipment rental company, will aerate, seed and fertilize the fairways and subsequently renovate our large teeing ground on the driving range.
A sunny and warm September changes here in the last days of the month to more persistent rain. Even a lot of rain. We have been spared rain for large parts of September and it has been good for the presentation and playability of the course. Now we have to fight with wormwood and fallen leaves, but that is also part of the golf season.
After a tough start to the season, this year we have been able to see the results of the intensive care we have had on our fairways for a number of years. Our top dressing, reseeding and fertilizing program has started to pay off. We will continue our program of dressing and reseeding, but this year there will be the addition that the fairways will also be aerated with a quick-drip aerator (actually two), which penetrates the top 5 cm so that plenty of air can get down to the top of the turf to ensure a good turnover of accumulated organic material – colloquially called felt. In addition to the aeration, we are spreading a fertilizer that is designed to give us a faster start to the season next spring. All of this work will take place over the first 4 working days of next week, so there will be a lot of traffic on the course. The machines are slow and do not give way to golfers. Play around or pick up the ball and move on to the next hole.
In the same week we are renovating our large teeing ground on the driving range. It has simply become too uneven after intensive use over the 4 or 5 seasons it has existed despite the fact that it is repaired daily. The entire surface is planed to a depth of about 3 cm so that it becomes a completely flat surface again. The grass will sprout from the roots again, but will be supported by reseeding and fertilizer. The entire area is fenced in to protect it from deer. It is not planned to reopen until the start of the 2022 season. Instead, training will be possible outside the teeing ground from the small mats.
In week 41 we continue on our greens surroundings by dotting, reseeding and top dressing. This maintains firm and even surfaces with the right type of grass on them. We are betting on good weather so that we don't run into the problems with rain, wet sand and bad fore greens we caused when we carried out the same routine on them at the end of September. It was a practice experience we would have liked to have avoided.
In week 43 we will resume the work from last year of top dressing the paths and areas around the tees and greens. These are the traffic areas that get the most worn and muddy in the off-season. Fairways have been dressed for almost 5-6 seasons and they are now "running away" from the other areas between the tees and greens. We are trying to lift these areas with this top dressing. Last year we reached 300 tons of sand thanks to fine weather conditions, so we are trying to achieve that again this year.
There are busy weeks ahead, but there will still be plenty of room for lots of great golf experiences on the course. Autumn and rain herald the time of soft greens, so remember your pitchfork so you can straighten your teeing ground. Unstraightened teeing ground creates uneven greens and provides space and breeding ground for diseases and weeds. Straighten them and help protect your golf course.
Enjoy.