The Duke’s Green Keeping

Hi All, Its been a very busy few weeks getting lots of small jobs tied up before we get properly into the daily summer maintenance routine. The drainage on the range has now been installed, the whole process was reasonably without drama! but did create a mess on some very wet areas where it was [...]

The past few weeks we have been carrying out some sand-banding work. This is basically installing a secondary drainage system which links into the existing drains, So far the approaches on 1,2,11,12 and 16 have been done. Sand-Banding involves the Blec sand-master machine making a slit in the ground then installing sand into the slit. [...]

As greenstaff around the world know, winter is a busy time of year. Not so long ago summer seemed a long way off but there is still lots to do to prepare for the golfing season.  We may not be mowing much grass but its all hands on deck. We took advantage of the recent snow to [...]

Today’s blog come courtesy of Jon who’s currently  working in New Zealand for 6 months. Kia Ora (Hello) from Queenstown Golf Course in Central Otago, New Zealand. I arrived here in New Zealand in mid October and after a few days sightseeing in Auckland I made my way down to Queenstown. I had secured a [...]

Recently at The Duke’s we have been carrying out some aeration work by vertidraining the greens with 10mm solid tines down to a depth of 200mm before swapping the tines to do the fairways with 25mm solid tines to the same depth. Before the fairways get tined we have also applied a top dressing which [...]

Although the nighttime temperatures have dropped and we are moving towards autumn, we have been experiencing a welcome dry spell and the course is looking great. The past few weeks we have been getting the course fertilised. Due to the large amount of rainfall we have been experiencing, additional granular fertiliser applications have been required [...]

This week we have addressed a problem area to the right side of the 9th green. The area had become waterlogged and in very poor condition so we took the decision to repair the area. Upon inspection we discovered that the drains were not working correctly as during initial installation the  fall in the drain had been comprimised [...]

Its been an interesting couple of weeks for a few of us with myself, Craig and David all volunteering as tournament support at various venues.  David Dukelow was out handmowing greens morning and night for the Open de France at Golf National in Paris.  Craig Parry spent his time up at Castle Stuart, hand mowing [...]

Hi All, We have had the pleasure of welcoming a couple of new additions  to our team this week, a new Toro 5610 fairway mower and a Trimax Merlin rough mower.They have both been put to work already and are great additions to our team!. Our seasonal staff are settling in well and are getting through the increased [...]

Hello again. Not quite the summer sunshine we had just before the Easter holidays at the moment. After ensuring the irrigation system is working correctly it has barely stopped raining! In between heavy rain showers we have been hollow coring tees. Its been a staggered approach over the past couple of weeks, mainly to attack moss [...]