Last blog post....

This will be the last post for Greenkeeper diary. I hope you have enjoyed it and it has given you a good insight into the work that we do and the work that goes into keeping the courses in a great condition.

The glorious warm weather faded towards the end of last week which was unfortunate, but it actually was good for the course as it was badly needing a good dose of water.

Here is what I have been up to in the last two weeks.

I have continued to sand the tee signs on both courses. So, if you have seen a young guy being attacked by midges sanding tee signs, that’s me. Once I had finished sanding all the signs I then started to paint them with a dark gloss. This ensures they are looking their best but it also helps to protect the wood against the elements.


                        Before                                                                                            After

        

This sunny, dry weather is obviously great for the course in general and makes it very pleasant to work and play golf in, but it can cause the course to dry out very quickly. You may have noticed that we have been watering the greens and some tees in an effort to prevent the grass from drying out and burning in the heat. The lines on some of the fairways and greens lie above where the drains are. The drains are obviously very important in winter and long period of rain to ensure the course stays playable, but in summer it causes water and nutrients to drain freely and water is therefore not retained resulting in the burning of the grass. This will repair over time as we will surely get some rain soon. 

Another job that I started last week with Bobby was to edge the bunkers. This is a job that gets done throughout the summer. All that is needed is the edging shears, a bucket and a rake. You edge the whole way round, then picking up the grass clippings, ensuring that any stones and other weeds and grasses are taken out. Then the bunker is raked. It makes such a big difference visually once the bunkers have been edged. (see pictures below)

                       Before                                                                                                After

                                                                                           

Edging Process

                                                                  Left of 2nd fairway

          Bluebells 16th May                                                                               Ferns 16th June

Foxgloves beside the 2nd on the Hilton

Once again thank you for reading the blog and giving me feedback, it is much appreciated. I hope you all enjoy the courses over the summer. 

Week commencing 30th May.

This week was a very varied one. Monday's job was to add sand into the bunkers on the Allander course. I did this with Heather and Gordon. Over time, some sand will inevitably leave the bunkers from hitting shots, sand on shoes, sand being blown out and some sand being washed away through rain. The process of adding sand is as follows: we loaded up the tractor trailer with a few tonnes of sand and then emptied the appropriate amount into the bunkers. We then shovelled the sand evenly throughout the bunker. We then smooth out the sand using the rake to ensure areas are not deeper than others. Then we do a funny looking shuffle dance and heel in the sand to compact it and make sure it beds well ensuring that it’s not too loose. Once we have done that it is raked again and then we keel again and do a final rake.

On Tuesday I was raking the bunkers on both courses in the morning and then filling in divots on the Hilton in the afternoon. At this time of year, the divot mixture is a mixture of divot sand which is greyer in colour than bunker sand and grass seeds. You drop about a handful of the mixture into the divot and then drag the sole of your shoe over it to smooth it out. Lastly, once all the divots have been filled you would use the switching pole to switch over the divots, this ensures that the divot sand is level with the ground and so when we cut the tees the sand won't blunt the blades.

I had a different task to do for Wednesday afternoon and Thursday. One job that gets done every year is to touch up the tee signs. These get weather beaten over the year with the constant rain and sun (mostly rain). This week I have been sanding the wooden surroundings on the signs with sand paper to get any loose paint and marks off which will give a good base for varnish to be applied. ( see picture below).

On Friday morning I changed the bins and raked the bunkers, then in the afternoon I changed the holes on the Allander and the putting greens beside the clubhouse. I could feel a notable difference to previous weeks doing this job in that the ground was a lot harder due to the dry weather. You may have noticed that we are having to water the greens in this dry weather to ensure that they do not dry up and start to burn.

Both courses are looking great just now as is the clubhouse surroundings with the hanging baskets and flower beds being filled thanks to a few of the members giving of their time. 

Week commencing 23rd May- The art of raking a bunker.

My Monday mainly consisted of raking the bunkers on both of the courses. Something that I have not mentioned yet is the art of raking the bunkers. There is more to it than you might think. Over time sand will shift throughout a bunker. There are a few factors that shift the sand such as: areas that have higher footfall/ shots, lower sections of the bunker and areas that might end up with more sand due to the way it gets raked.

The bunkers should be as lump free as possible making it fair for golfers hitting out of them. My job is not only to rake the footprints and other marks out of the sand but to make sure the sand is evenly distributed throughout the bunkers. Often the bunkers just get raked backwards which over time will result in sand shifting toward the edges and as a result we rake forward and back and ensure they are raked evenly. 

Below is a panorama from the 9th tee on the Hilton. 

On Tuesday and Wednesday, I flymoed the areas around the burns and the areas around the bunkers. The reason that we have to flymo around these areas and not use the usual sit on mowers is because of the steep and inaccessible slopes. If anyone would like a work-out I can recommend flymoing the banking on the 12^th on the Allander! You will come away with very long arms, calves of steel and likely crushed toes from the steep slope! Who needs the gym….

On Thursday and Friday, I raked the bunkers then helped Tish and Heather to empty the bins at the clubhouse, strim, clean the shoe cleaners and blow debris from around the club house. 

Let this great weather continue!

Week commencing 16th May- The grass is starting to grow.... fast!!

The rain at the weekend, mixed with the sun we had last week, was a welcome mix for the course. This ensured that the grass really started to grow. I could see this clearly throughout the week.

My week started with changing holes on the Allander with Scott and Gordon along with raking the bunkers.

Now is a good chance to explain how you change a hole. Firstly, you need to decide where you are going to put the new hole. You look for a flat piece of the green, a spot of healthy grass, somewhere that hasn't had a hole recently and  somewhere not too close to the edge of the green. A hole changer is used which is a metal cylinder with a handle at the top. Two half circle shaped cylinders are hammered down into the ground then you twist the handle, pull up on the handle and a cylinder shaped tube of ground is brought up and a new hole formed. A board is used to stand on which prevents the new hole crowning and making it raised which would make it harder to putt the ball in.
( see picture below of equipment used excluding the mallet)

Next you go to the old hole and take the hole cup out using a tool that locks onto the bottom of the cup and then you are able to lift it out of the ground. Following this you would put in the tube of turf/soil you have lifted out the new hole into the old one and you ensure that it is level with the ground and within a few days the hole will be very hard to detect as it blends into the rest of the green.

Finally, you put the hole cup into the new hole and lower it down using a tool, with a heavy metal end (seen in the picture above) until the cup is roughly an inch from the top of the hole and that's it.

There are a couple of reasons for moving holes, firstly it makes the course more interesting to golfers by varying the pin positions and it also gives the ground around the hole time to recover from the increased activity over it.

On Wednesday, I, along with Gordon and Tish flymoed the grass around the burns, bunkers and tees. This is a task that generally happens once a week in the summer. Normally two people will flymo the areas while the third person will use a blower to direct the grass cuttings into certain areas. When cutting around the burns the grass clippings will be directed into the water which then gets washed away.

When we are cutting around the bunkers grass ends up in the sand, so the blower is used to get this out  and generally dispersed or blown into the out of bounds areas. The theory is to blow the grass out of the bunkers but in reality this is not always easy. If there is a slight wind, then the grass and some sand will inevitably end up on you! In your hair, face and eyes. It is a technique I have not mastered yet.

On Thursday I went around both courses changing the bins and filling up the divot boxes with a mixture of divot sand and grass seeds. Then in the afternoon I went around the Hilton picking up piles of branches that I had made earlier in the week.

Lastly, Friday was the day that I had to have my skates on. Graeme and Gordon were on a couple of cutting machines cutting the strip of grass around the green and the grass leading up to the green along with the grass on the tees. My job was to switch behind them dispersing any clumps of grass left there (see picture below). Usually one person will trim a tee while the other does the area around a green then leapfrog each other around the course (not literally) and I would follow behind. This way I know which tees and greens have been done. It becomes a bit more frantic when they decide to split up and I have to rush around the whole of the Allander switching but I managed to cover all the holes and caught them up on the Hilton. 

Here are a couple of nice pictures of the Bluebells that have sprung up in the last couple of week on a banking beside the second on the Hilton, if you hook your ball this way (which I would definitely do) go and have a look, it's very impressive. 

Week commencing 9th May- The sun has arrived!

I am so happy that the good weather has arrived! It makes those cold snowy days all worth it. It’s great to see so many golfers out enjoying the weather as well. We were also happy down at the sheds due to the return of our colleague Bobby who has been off for a few months, nice to have him back!

My week started off dewing the greens on both courses and raking the bunkers. I managed to get ahead of the majority of early rising golfers. I would recommend to anyone playing in the early morning due to the wildlife you can see and hear. The cuckoos, woodpeckers, pheasant (which make the oddest noise), the geese they also make very strange noises, the odd hare and a few deer. My afternoon was mainly spent raking up branches on the Hilton.

                                                                          A Pheasant

Looks like the animals have been having a great time messing up our bunkers overnight!

Tuesday was a very varied day. I started by raking the bunkers on the Hilton taking out any debris and stones. Once I had done this I then returned to the sheds and collected a few buckets and filled them with divot sand mix and water. I then went around both courses filling the divot boxes, filling the ball washers and picking up any tee pegs. Thankfully I had the buggy otherwise someone might have had to scrape me off one of the fairways from the heat!

My job in the afternoon was to find the lost rhododendrons. Yes they had not been seen for a number of years.  Up at the medal tee for the 13^th there is an area of broom shrubs that had overgrown over time and taken over some of the rhododendrons, so I had to lop back most of the broom to expose the rhododendrons. It is now looking much better and hopefully they will come into bloom soon, go and have a look!

                                       Before                                                               After

Wednesday was an exciting day as I was shown how to drive one of the tractors, ( New Holland TN55 for any tractor geeks out there, which is unlikely). It’s easy enough but trying to reverse it with a trailer is a bit of a skill that I have not mastered yet. So if you see someone driving a blue tractor, I would suggest keeping your distance just in case! I had divot sand on the trailer and mixed it in with grass seed and filled in divots on both courses along with picking up tee pegs.

Thursday and Friday I finished divoting, raking the bunkers and changing the bins on both courses. On Friday afternoon, Tish and I were up at the clubhouse tidying up the area around it including the shoe cleaners, blowing leaves and other debris, strimming and flymoing the grass around the car park.

 Sad to see the warm weather end but I’m sure we will have a lot more sun in the summer……. Trying to be optimistic. 

If you look closely enough on the course you might see some of these tiny violets. 

Week commencing 2nd May- The midgy has returned

This week started with very heavy rain which was not welcomed with open arms down at the sheds. The only positive being that this would ensure the grass was well watered before the forecast warm weather the following week.

On the Tuesday, Heather and I had the task of raking the bunkers on both courses. Due to the rain the previous day a lot of the sand had been washed elsewhere in the bunker and so we had to rake some of it back to fill in the gaps that had appeared.  (see pictures below)

On Thursday I helped to repair part of the fairway on one of the holes on the Hilton where drainage pipes had been repaired. The process of this is similar to repairing damaged ground. Turf shaped grass is taken out and sand put in to give a solid foundation for the new turf to be laid. The turf is put into place and made to fit tight with the surrounding grass. (see picture below) I can officially report that every golfers best friend is back…. The midge!

The last task of the day was to take sand up to the new path on the 10^th hole on the Allander and put it down beside the path in preparation for grass to be laid. (see picture below)

Often on a Friday is when the bins are emptied on the courses in preparation for a busy weekend (who is it that drinks the cans of Tennents!?, promise it’s not me). This was my job to do for both courses as well as raking the bunkers.

Weather update…… abundant sunshine next week J

Week commencing 25th April- Snow in April

I didn’t think I would see snow at the end of April but it is Scotland after all!

My Monday started off by dewing the greens. I did this with Greame and Tish along with raking bunkers on the Allander.

In the late morning and afternoon we had the task of completing the two new bunkers at the new green at the 10^th on the Allander. This was exciting not only seeing the process of building a bunker but also seeing the new green coming together.

The process started with taking out some of the current gravel that was covering the drainage channels. This means that fresh gravel can be put in to enhance the drainage. We then made sure the area was as tidy as possible and then we started to fill the bunker with sand.

Once the sand had been shovelled in we had to make sure it was evenly spread and then we trampled on the sand to compact it as much as possible.

That’s it, two bunkers filled in.

Tuesday started out with going around the Hilton with Scott raking bunkers and moving pin positions before the medal started. We then went around the Allander taking out any large stones that were in the bunkers and gave them a general tidy up. Lastly I helped with filling in divots on tees. This consists of a mixture of sand and grass seed placed into the divot holes.

Thursday was the day that saw snow return to Glasgow which was a surprise to everyone! We mainly continued to fill in divots that day and did as much as possible despite the weather.

Friday morning I went around both courses with Greame and Gordon changing bins, moving tee markers, changing hole positions and raking bunkers. The afternoon was spent raking up branches and then burning them back at the sheds.

Photo of the week-