Abbey Hill Member News - October

MEMBER

A Message from Russell, General Manager

Hello everyone, welcome to the October 2022 edition of our monthly newsletter! I hope you are all well and have been enjoying your golf!

As we head into the Autumn months, I'm really pleased that the course is holding up well. I played last week (badly!) but was very impressed that the greens are still in great condition, even with all the recent coring, aeration and sand dressing that has been done on them. It was also great to see that the fairways were green again and on the whole recovering well from the summer drought.

I think it's fantastic that despite the economic uncertainty currently our owners are committing significant money before the end of the year to course improvements with the bunker improvements coming to the 4th, 7th, 11th, 14th and 15th holes and the improved drainage of the 14th green. The new bunkers should be ready and in play for the new season in Spring and the 14th green much improved throughout the Winter. We have used this drainage technology on our worst draining greens, so far, the 1st, 8th 13th,15th and 16th with great success.

Other course improvements you will have noticed are the cut back of the trees on the 7th carry and extra out of bounds posts on some holes such as the back of the 18th green to give more clarity on whether you are in play or not.

We have a busy October of functions ahead at the centre before a relatively quiet November leads us into another busy Christmas season with the Marquee going up and giving us extra capacity for our Christmas parties.

On Monday we launched a new menu in the coffee bar with your old favourites, but also some new options to try. It's been great to see so many of you eating and drinking before and after your golf. This year so far we have sold more casual food than ever before. Unfortunately, with the ongoing increases in costs, especially electricity and gas, we have had to increase the prices a little.

Enjoy the rest of the newsletter and I will hopefully see you all soon around the centre!

Best regards

Course Report from Ross, Course Manager

Hello everyone. September has been a productive month and the weather in general has been kind to us, although there have still been low precipitation levels. We have been able to complete our end of summer maintenance to the greens which I mentioned in last month’s newsletter. All greens have been cored, deep aerated and sanded, followed by over seeding, and again more sanding.

We have also been over seeding fairways and areas that we have lost grass coverage to during the heatwaves from this summer. Going into the autumn and what is historically the time of year that the sward is under the biggest threat from turf pathogens, the surfaces are firm and healthy despite the high levels of crane fly that are currently laying eggs that unfortunately will give us some issues later on in the autumn when the leather jackets hatch.

October will see our annual battle with leaves hit full speed, although due to this year’s dry weather it actually started back in July as trees went into dormancy due to a lack of moisture and leaves began to fall. We are well equipped with our out front rotary mower that can collect and mulch leaves as well as grass, plus 2 mid range tractors and rear mounted blowers. Please be patient with us, we seldom have less than 2 guys on blowing and collecting leaves every day. Unfortunately, this is one of the downsides of having such a great number and variety of tree species meaning that our leaf season is busy and prolonged.

Our winter work plan is already underway, beginning with the removal of the willow and beach trees by the ladies’ tee on the 7th hole that made tee shots from the competition tee on 7th unfair.

Contractors will be on site in the first week of October trimming overhanging branches on the boundaries of the course that have grown in over the years. This will help define the boundaries and out of bounds markers particularly on the 11th hole.

Last week we finalised our plans for continued bunker improvements for this winter that we will all see the benefits from next spring.

Hole 4 will see the removal of the left green side bunker and reshaping of this area, this will significantly reduce the pinch point between the 4th green and 5th tee particularly during the winter months in an area that historically lays wet. The right green side bunker edges will also be re turfed and tidied as they have deteriorated during the summer.

Hole 7, both green side bunkers will be rebuilt, drained and rubber crumb lined.

Hole 11, the fairway bunker will be removed and next spring the fairway will be moved 5 metres right in an attempt to push play away from the houses to the left of the hole.

Hole 14 will see the first fairway bunker at 185 yards from the tee removed and the second fairway bunker behind enlarged, rebuilt, drained and rubber crumb lined.

Finally hole 15 will see the fairway bunker rebuilt, drained, and again relined with rubber crumb.

These works are all part of our 5–6-year plan that we began last winter to improve the bunkering on the course that will ultimately improve the general playability of the golf course all year round.

As mentioned in previous newsletters we are also continuing with our drainage plan on greens. This year, week commencing 28th November to be precise, we will be installing further rope drainage, this time to the 14th green. Slowly but surely, we are working our way around all the old push up soil greens to improve playability, particularly during the winter months. This will leave us with greens 2,3,9,10 to complete this programme over the next few years.

A look back at September’s weather saw us record 39.4 mm of rain, just below the average of 46mm for the month, with average temperatures of 10.9c low and 20.7c high. Interestingly September is traditionally a dry month but has, particularly over the past few years, been the unofficial start of the rainy season. With our yearly rain totals still only 242 mm, I would be very surprised if we will enjoy another dry winter like last year.

As we move into the wetter months of the year, please can I ask you all for your support in helping to repair all pitch marks on the greens and furthermore abide by our traffic control measure and use of mats on the par 3 tees. These are all in use to ultimately give you a better golf course the following spring.

Have a good month Regards

Ross and all the Greenkeeping Team

Red Flags

We will be reverting back to the red flag and ball indicator on the pins from the first week in October, as we have done for a number of years. The ball position on the pin indicating the region of the hole placement on the green. This gives us greater flexibility on hole placement on the greens during the winter months as we will undoubtedly have days of inclement weather when we always do our upmost to continue to use the main greens. This system also reduces confusion on days when we will operate our forward hole during frosty conditions, then revert back during the day to main hole use. It also means the holes can revert back quicker without the need of additional staff time changing flag colours over, this is particularly important on weekend days.

Head Professional John Scheu

John's Tip of The Month!

Pro’s Tip – Pick a specific target.

Don't just aim for the fairway or for the green, pick a specific target to help with your accuracy, be it the left side of the green away from the right sided bunker or the right side of the green as the flag is to the left and if you miss right it will be an easier chip. Which side of the fairway gives you the best angle in or which side avoids the trouble and reduces risk. Too many times I just see a golfer aim towards the fairway or green.

Pace of Play

Our starters and marshals have been timing your first 10 holes all this year and it's been good to see that the average time taken has improved. Our tee sheets are very busy, often with no gaps all morning. Here's some tips to keep up a good pace of play:

Keep up with the pace of the group ahead.

Plan your next shot whilst walking to your ball.

Take no more than 2 practice swings. If you’re ready and it’s safe, play your shot.

When approaching the green leave bags, buggies and trolleys on the side of the green closest to the next tee.

You can leave the flag in when putting.

Read and line up putts whilst others are putting.

Leave the green promptly.

Record your scores for that hole on the next tee.

Maximum 3 minutes to look for a lost ball.

IF YOU ARE UNABLE TO KEEP UP WITH THE PACE OF THE GROUP BEHIND, PLEASE LET THEM PLAY THROUGH.

Reciprocal Golf

Don't forget one of your benefits of the full membership is to play 1 x reciprocal round per month at one of the other 9 BGL courses within the group. In order to book a tee time this must be done via ourselves in the office 7 days or less prior to the date you wish to play. Please see a link to all the courses included here: https://www.bglcompany.co.uk/golf/

In order to book feel free to drop us a call or pop into the office and we can help get your booked in for an away day, you are also more than welcome to take visitors with you who will benefit from member guest rate at the club.

Burhill Golf Club in Walton on Thames in Surrey, pictured below, is our flagship golf site and headquarters. It has 2 fantastic courses, The Old and New courses. It has recently hosted The Open qualifiers which is a mark of how highly regarded the courses are.

Sustainability Update - Saving on Electricity and Gas!

A lot has been written recently about the rising cost of electricity and gas. We have been looking at ways to save on these increased costs. You will see that we have installed LED lights in most areas, from the pro shop to the greenkeepers' shed top the toilets. These use a lot less energy. On Wednesday the driving range lights above all the bays will also be converted to LEDs. We also turn off the bar fridges overnight which saves quite a bit of

Christmas at Abbey Hill!