July / August Essential Greens Maintenance Work...

A quick heads up on priority work carried out by golf clubs on their greens during the July / August Summer months...

The core to the programme recommended by our consultants is to stick to the 6 basics:

Reduce the stress on the greens by not cutting too low for long periods
Avoiding 'dry patch' by ensuring that water gets to the root system;
1. Avoiding water 'running off' by removing the summer wax deposits within the soil (aquasorb)
2. Avoiding greens turning into 'sponge' through a combination of scarification, verticutting and grooming - in short reducing the 'thatch' layer (surface organic matter) on the greens
Aerating / improving drainage to the root system through a combination of tining and sarol rolling - in short, punching thin holes through the thatch into the root system
Reducing compaction through a combination of tining, vertidraining and hollow coring (plus top dressing)
Feeding the greens with state of the art fertilisers to maintain their vitality
Disease avoidance through regular testing and a combination of 'prevention and cure' applications

Why now? our recovery time is circa 1 to 2 weeks for this essential work during the summer and circa 6 weeks if we wait until September.

We apologise in advance for the small inconvenience now but hope that you will both understand the necessity of the work and enjoy the rewards across the whole season.

Please note that we have hollow cored and top dressed greens 2, 3 (partially) and 5 (fully) after first successfully testing on the practice green.

Gary Tubb