COURSE UPDATE

Ross Course Manager

The weather continues to keep throwing curve balls at us, from 22 days rain in one month, to the driest for nearly 100 years the next. It certainly makes the job more challenging, particularly when trying to set out a plan.

January continued the theme of the end of 2022, with lots of rain falling on what was already a pretty wet golf course. Then on 26th January, the taps turned off and that’s pretty much how it’s stayed through all of February – the total precipitation was less than 4mm for the whole month. It’s been the driest February since 1932 and by some way since I started recording rain fall back in 2001.

Despite the wet start in January, we were busy out on the course. Many will have seen the AIR2G2 out in action during that horrible second week in January. It’s a great machine that breaks up the soil pan that forms below the surface from foot traffic and machinery use over the greens, thus helping the soil/sands to drain and perform better.

We were also able to get the deep tine Verti Drain out on the greens, tees, and aprons. Again, this aids drainage, root development, and the breakdown of organic matter.

We took advantage of the dry weather in February and moved our spring coring and sanding forward a month which will hopefully see the benefits of going into the spring. It certainly helps to aid the recovery and settling down of the surface on the 14th green following the rope drainage that was installed in November last year.

March and April will see us again Verti Drain all fine turf areas, followed with sanding. Although this time it’ll be fairly heavy, with the aim to apply around 60 tonnes of sand. The more sand we can get into our greens, the better – it will help battle against organic matter build up and improve the speed in which the greens can dry down during wet conditions. Overseeding will also be on the list of tasks to perform, then fingers crossed the greens will be good to go.

The works on the 5th and 7th bunkers, 8th tee, and first path will continue, with the contractors set to be on-site by 6th March. Should the weather remain dry, this should all be complete within 2-3 weeks. Lots of other works are also planned leading into spring. Topping up of bunkers, paths, spraying fairways, tidying tree bases, and fertilising all areas are just a few examples. We’ll be busy, but it’s great to see the course changes as we come out of the winter months.

We have also had some really exciting news within the team. Each year, two apprentice greenkeepers are selected in the UK to be given the opportunity to join the greenkeeping team for a week at the The Open Championship – this year held at Royal Liverpool.

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Sam Norman, one of our greenkeepers has been awarded that opportunity! Sam will travel up to The Open the week before and help with preparing the course, then he’ll join the bunker raking squad who are assigned to each group daily. He may even get the chance to walk up the last hole on Sunday afternoon with the eventual winner. We are thrilled for Sam (and a little jealous). I have asked Sam to complete a diary of his ‘week at The Open’, including pictures, which I will be sharing with you all later in the year.

GOLF UPDATE Reciprocal Golf

Don’t forget, a fantastic benefit of membership at Abbey Hill is 1 free round per month at one of the other nine BGL Golf sites around England. The options are:

• Aldwickbury Park – Harpenden

• Burhill – Surrey

• Birchwood Park – Kent

• Hoebridge – Woking, Surrey

• Redbourn – Redbourn

• Ramsdale Park – Nottingham

• The Shropshire – Telford

• Thornbury – Bristol

• Wycombe Heights – High Wycombe

You can book your round up to seven days in advance by speaking to our sales office, or calling them on 01908 562566 (option 2). You can also take guests at members’ guest rates!

Keep up the good work with repairing pitch marks! Whilst it’s not perfect out there, there’s definitely been an improvement in the past couple of years. Also, please refrain from pulling fown our post and rope around the greens. I know it can be a pain, but it really is the best way to protect important areas of the course.

All the best, Ross and the team

“Wycombe Heights Golf Centre, only an hour’s drive from Milton Keynes via Aylesbury!”