2023 Greenkeepers Report

Monthly Updates

Early March saw the continued works to our mature trees on the 3rd hole. There are several trees on our golf course that are in a poor state and heavily diseased. An application was made and we were able to have the Tree Preservation Orders revoked which allowed us to have tree surgeons remove all limbs from the trees.

Currently, the trunks of the trees are still present from this, and the previous year’s works, which I understand do look unsightly, however there are plans in place for full removal of the trunks in due course. Late March saw us start our spring green renovations. The renovations consisted of a deep verti-cut to reduce the thatch layer and remove any stolons and lateral growth on the surface. This was followed by a solid tining with our Verti-Drain equipment to relieve compaction in the soil and allow root growth as we made our way into the spring. A sand top dressing was then applied with our top dresser.

The start of April saw no let-up with the rainfall, with fairway mats still in use during April and buggies restricted on the course until late April. Work continued with the 4th tee when the weather permitted and a rotavator was hired in to de-compact and mix the previous sand/soil-based tee with some new soil.

Turf for the 4th tee was laid during May along with turfing the walk-off area from the 9th hole to the Clubhouse. Over the past few years, this has been worn down so far that it was just sand and soil.

Late May and into June saw the temperatures rise and the rainfall stop. We recorded a consistent day time temperature of 28 degrees Celsius and no rainfall for 36 consecutive days. This resulted in us relying heavily on our irrigation system. Unfortunately, due to the age of the system, we had three bursts in two weeks during the peak of the dry period. An irrigation specialist repaired one for us whilst the other two were repaired in-house. Some greenside pop-up sprinklers were also replaced due to broken arc settings.

In July, a large limb came down from the Copper Beech on the right of the 6th fairway. This was caused by excessive rot inside the limb. When the limb came down it unfortunately took a large section of the tree trunk with it meaning that the tree would need to be removed - work that needed to be carried out by tree surgeons.

Due to the TPO in place, we had to wait for approval from the TPO officer to carry out these works. Therefore, the tree and limb were roped off and marked out as Ground Under Repair for nearly 3 weeks, as we waited for the TPO to be revoked. Once this happened, we then scheduled a suitable day which was both convenient for the tree surgeons and scheduled as to not affect competitions.

Due to the consistent rainfall throughout September our end-of-season renovations had to be altered. We had planned for hollow-tining the greens, along with verti-cutting and top dressing, but with the weather causing flooding to the greens for three out of the five days of the renovations week, we were reduced to a deep verti -cut to open up the surface into the disease scars. This was then followed by a full overseed of bent grass seed on all ten greens, a top dress and a granular fertiliser.

For a number of years there has been an issue with the winter teeing position on the 3rd with golfers being unable to see where the ball lands as the fairway was not visible. A new winter tee box was therefore constructed during October. The new tee box is higher than the previous and the position of the tee box repositioned further forwards. We plan for a similar solution to be put in place on the 8th hole in due course.

Throughout December and into January we saw 10 storms named by the Met Office. Storms are named when they are likely to cause medium or high impacts and each one resulted in us having either large trees or limbs come down, causing damage as well as blockages to the surrounding area on Coach Road. The trees that came down have since been removed and works to repair the damage are in progress. With damage becoming more frequent we have marked out the trees that we have concern over and had a site visit from Calderdale Council’s TPO Officer. We have since been granted permission to carry out work to the trees where necessary.

Other issues on the course

Weather and course closures
The winter just finished as you will know, has been one of the wettest ever known, with record rainfall for weeks at a time. Like many golf courses around the country, we have had to make the decision to close the course on many days as well as restricting to carry-only for most of the last few months. We really understand how frustrating this has been to members who play throughout winter and also to those members who find it too difficult to carry their clubs. When deciding on course closure we always try to strike the right balance on course damage, safety and the fact that people want to play golf and we hope that you will understand this.

The wet weather has also caused challenges and issues with course maintenance, particularly with cutting some of the fairways and rough when we would have often ideally liked to in the worst-affected parts of the course but also with several of the bunkers. The best examples are the bunkers on the 3rd and the 6th, which due to how they are constructed, receive higher amounts of run-off water than other bunkers on the course. This has the effect of washing away the sand but also washes high levels of silt into the bunkers. We have tried on several occasions recently to make these bunkers playable but on each occasion, heavy rainfall immediately afterwards has rendered our work of no effect. The decision was therefore taken to wait until the weather relents a little before bringing these particular bunkers back into play.

In the next few weeks as part of our follow-on 2024 Course Maintenance plan bulletin we will be letting you know more about our plans for bunker maintenance this coming season as well as other important things on the course.

7th hole – Trevor’s pond
Over the years, the pond to the front of the 7th tee filled with leaves from the plantation behind the 8th green and the silt content in the pond built up to a point to where it was unsightly. A plan was made to dredge the pond, clear all the silt and refill with clean water along with repairs to the pond liner, all of which was carried out. Unfortunately, we discovered that the liner was in a poor state and could not hold water and it became apparent that the high volume of silt is what actually retained the water. It was thought that if the silt was holding in the water before, then why isn’t the clay construction below the liner retaining the water? The liner was removed and we found an open- top culvert, part of the culvert system running throughout the course. This explained why water levels couldn’t hold in the pond following the works. Plans are however now in place to repair and re configure the pond and we will give more detail on this as soon as possible

The bridge was unfortunately also vandalised during October resulting in many of the rounded coping stones being broken off from the top of the bridge. Arrangements have been made and we are currently waiting for the repairs to be carried out.

Oil leak – 6th Hole
As I am sure you will all have seen, there is a long burnt off section of the rough to the right of the 6th fairway. The oil leak was caused from a burst hydraulic hose on the Toro rough mower. The hose connects directly into the PTO (power take off) housing and has a high flow rate, which is why such an amount of the rough has been burnt from the hot oil. The leak was from the front centre deck situated underneath the machine and is not visible from the operators’ seat, meaning that the oil leak wasn’t spotted until coming to turn the machine around.

As we edge nearer to spring and the average temperature rises enough for seed germination, we will reseed the burnt area with rye seed and establish a quick recovery.

Damage caused by fox (s)
As you will all have seen (but might now know the cause) we have an ongoing issue with damaged areas on the 1st and 6th greens, which is the result of fox or foxes, repeatedly digging up these areas.

Sometimes we have been able to repair the damage by replacing the turf in the affected area, which is taken from the edge of the practice green normally, which you will probably have noticed but not known why the areas with missing turf have appeared. In some places though the fox (s) will not leave an area alone, which is why we have resorted on occasion to leaving wire mesh in place. We appreciate that this is less than ideal and the problem will hopefully reduce in due course but please bear with us in the meantime.

Thinning of plantations
As you will have seen, we have continued with the thinning out of the plantations on the course. As the course develops year on year so do the trees.

Trees on the golf course are planted in rows to form into a plantation. A high volume of trees are planted to ensure that the area becomes established quickly and to provide definition to the course. An area of the course could be planted with 10 trees, but if you were to plant 20 instead, then the site would fill out and establish twice as quickly. But, as the trees grow larger, they become closer together, resulting in less light being available for the leaf and no light means no leaf. This is now the position that we find ourselves in, in various parts of the course.

One of the attractions of our golf course is the vast number of established trees, with the best of them ranging from oak, beech, chestnut and ash. These trees were planted individually and far apart from each other to allow room for them to grow and develop and allowing them to form a full crown. It is because of this that we are fortunate enough to have these established trees. Allowing the trees to form a full crown is important for both the aesthetical look and the natural method of photosynthesis.

Some plantations on the course are at the point where light blockage from the crown of the adjacent trees is causing problems - before much longer this will stunt the growth of the trees. Once the trees are growing into one another and the daylight is lost, the trees will stop producing leaves on their branches and focus growth towards where the light source is. When a tree competes for light, it needs a high amount of energy to grow height as quickly as it can. In this process, trees stop providing nutrition to their lower limbs and focus its resources to the top of the tree. This results in the lower limbs dying off and debris falling from the trees all year round, particularly in high winds, because the limbs no longer have strength.
It is important to reduce the number of trees in the plantations now so that they become more resilient, more established, and to provide them with space to grow and develop into the future trees of the golf course.

Message to Members

Along with the rest of the greenkeeping team I am looking forward to seeing some better weather soon and hope that everyone has a great golfing year.

Kind regards

Ryan Jackson
Head Greenkeeper