The Duke’s Green Keeping

Hi all,

With Christmas behind us we are back to a full compliment of staff this week after the holiday season. A few more fallen trees to remove after more high winds last week before we start a project near the 7th and 17th greens where we are planting some trees and gorse which should take a few weeks to complete.

GREENS:

The greens are confused with this mild weather, are still growing so are requiring to be mown once a week. This is pretty unusual for December/January where the past 2 years we have been covered in snow and ice. The greens are running well for the time of year.  There is a planned solid tining with 10mm tines on the greens this month and depending on the weather forecast a light top dressing as well as an application of  granular lime to adjust the PH slightly.

TEES AND APPROACHES:

The tees and approaches have been mown when needed but the growth on these areas in minimal. some solid tining will also be carried out to help keep water moving as well as getting some air into the soil profile.

FAIRWAYS

There has been a few drainage issues on some fairways where we have had to repair some collapsed/broken pipework but this is just ongoing maintenance. The fairways have been a bit wet after heavy rain but are drying up now and top dressing on the fairways will recommence in January as well as vertidraining.

In December we held our annual members prizegiving dinner which I attended and was given some extremely favourable feedback on the course for the 2011 season from our members. We love what we do but is always nice to hear such positive feedback from the people that play the course the most, which in turn lays down the marker for us to continue to improve in 2012, I do enjoy a challenge!

Our Head Golf Pro Ayden has posted his first golf lesson of 2012 – dont forget to check it out along with all of his golf lessons at http://www.youtube.com/user/OldCourseHotel.  This week Ayden shares his practice drill, feet together lesson – perfect to help body rotation and show the true tempo of your swing, to get you right in to the swing of it for 2012!

Till next time,

Derek

It can be a common theme that the first thing I do each day is check the weather forecast to see if it changed since I last checked it before I went to bed!.

The weather can be a constant challenge and can change our planned work very quickly. In the summer its usually the rain which keeps us on our toes but in winter it can be rain, frost, snow and wind or in the case of  last week all four.  Last weeks wind could have been worse for us but we escaped with only a few trees down which was lucky compared to some parts of the country.

These photos show the damage caused when a large tree came down behind our 12th tee. Luckily it is not in play or over a road so we can deal with it when it suits us rather than need to drop everything to clear it up. This tree was rather large and took out another tree on the way down.

The two photos below illustrate what we can have to deal with when the weather turns cold. These pictures are taken nearly a year apart but show how even when some parts of the course are open for play and ‘green’, other areas like our 5th green retains snow/frost for longer.

By the time I speak to you again Santa Claus will have been and gone (hopefully, otherwise I will have a couple of very disappointed children in my house). So have a great Christmas and I will continue to keep you all updated on The Duke’s in 2012.

Derek

Hi Again.

The past few weeks have continued to be unseasonably mild which has been good for various tasks around the course as well as any disease scars on the greens that we briefly had are now growing in nicely.

The heavy rain recently has put an emphasis on the drainage systems on the course. We installed a lot of drainage on the course around 5 years ago which has helped ensure better playing surfaces around the course but as my college lecurer told me ‘any drainage system is only as good as its outlet’. Bearing this in mind we have been clearing ditches and drainage outlets to ensure the drains are working correctly. The two pictures below are some of the ditch clearing thats been done to keep the water moving.

We have also been continuing with the mowing of long rough. This ensures the rough doesnt get too rough and knarly year on year. The new growth in the spring will give us the natural look without being too penal for the golfers.The Pictures below show an area after its been cut with the flail mower and also a bunker after its been strimmed .

This along with the general maintenance work of course presentation has pretty much kept us going with the grass continuing to grow.

Till next time.

Derek

Hi everyone

I have stated in previous posts that autumn is here and grass growth is slowing down. I think someone needs to tell the grass! Due to the really mild weather we are experiencing at the moment the growth seems to have picked up and doesn’t show many signs of slowing down again. For us grass geeks this can be a real problem as mild and damp conditions at this time of year can lead to disease. If the disease was to occur and the temperature was to suddenly drop we would experience scarring. These scars would last through out the winter months until the grass begins to grow again next year.  But don’t worry, I have a few tricks up my sleeve to stop this from happening…all part of managing the course!

The past few weeks we have been mowing down some of our long rough. The long rough is part of the look and design of The Duke’s however we must continue to mow the rough in the winter or there will be many lost balls! This task is not carried out during the summer as it would potentially damage the ecosystem of wildlife and wild flowers that thrive in these areas.  Some of our golfers have been following behind our mower hunting for lost balls just like seagulls following a trawler!

As we are now down to our winter staff, jobs such as bunker raking become much larger and tend to take up more time. Still, we keep on smiling…as Craig demonstrates below.

If you are picking up your clubs this week then have a look at Ayden’s latest golf lesson on YouTube. Always really handy to have a quick review of your set up, you never know you it might just help to get your handicap down!

I’d also like to say a big congratulations to the team at Kingsbarns for picking up the Golf Course of the Year award at the Golf Tourism Scotland awards last week. You can see all the winners at the Golf Tourism Scotland site. Well done boys!

‘Till next time.

Derek

Hi all,

With October now behind us we are looking towards our winter preparation. Our daily tasks have change slightly as we raise the cutting heights and mow less, due to the slower growth of the grass. We are also beginning to prepare our winter greens and ensure the regular greens have the correct nutrients in them to withstand the harshness of the winter months.

GREENS:

We have hollow-tined the greens with micro-tines, over-seeded with bent grass seed and top dressed to fill in what we have taken out with the tines. We use smaller tines in the winter because it will allow for quicker recovery with the grass growth slowing down. The sand in the greens will still be warm enough to encourage germination from the seed.

We also applied some slow release 12 nitrogen – 0 phosphorous- 44 potasium(12-0-44) fertilizer. In winter high rates of potassium will keep the grass plant strong and healthy and the low amount of nitrogen released will help the greens grow a little in any mild spells that may occur. This should also help the seeds we have just sown onto the greens.

Slow release fertilizer (12-0-44)

We also apply a fungicide and an iron feed just to prevent any attacks of disease that may occur at this time of the year.  

TEES AND APPROACHES:

We are planning to hollow-tine some of our tees and approaches over the next few weeks. Again, this is a yearly maintenance that relieves compaction and gives us a chance to continue improving the surface and grass coverage.

The tees will also need fertilizing, we plan to use some 4-0-4 with a high content of iron. Iron, again, keeps the grass plant strong and knocks back any moss on the surface. 

WINTER GREENS:

Every year we mark out our winter greens, hollow-tine them, seed and top dress them. We do this to provide an excellent surface to putt on when the regular greens are covered in frost.  Playing on regular greens through out periods of frost can damage the grass. Playing on winter greens will ensure that the regular greens will be in top notch condition when the spring comes round again.

Other activities on the golf course -

We have started to flail mow and strim the long rough around the golf course- this is to help thin out the rough and should promote the growth of whispy grass next year. When the next frosty day comes along, we will concentrate on tree and gorse work….luckily there haven’t been many frosty days just yet!

Remember to check out Ayden’s golf lessons on YouTube. This week he shows us how a small thing such as the position of your hands on the club can make a big difference to your swing. I think this is a really useful lesson as I find it’s so easy to slip into bad habits.

Finally, a huge thank you to our seasonal team of green keepers who have now finished for the year. As always, they have been a great help and I wish them good luck for the future!

That’s all for now, look forward to catching up next time.

Derek

Hi there!

We can’t deny it….Autumn is certainly upon us now. The leaves have turned some fantastic colours!         

It might look pretty but when the leaves start to fall it does create a bit of extra work for the team. Our course set up in the morning takes a little longer than normal as we  clear all the leaves from the paths, tees, greens and bunkers to ensure The Duke’s is in excellent play condition. The golf course is looking in top form and we have had many great compliments both from members and guests that have played over the past few weeks.

This week, on top of the general course maintenance we’ve been busy preparing as we look forward to hosting the SGU Junior Championship on Sunday the 23^rd October. The kids have been working really hard throughout the year to qualify and hope to be crowned Champion of Champions 2011. It’s a great event to follow as you can catch a first glimpse of the future Montgomeries and Coltarts! For more information on the event visit http://www.scottishgolf.org/

Talking of awards…I am really pleased to be able to share some of our own great news with you! My First Assistant Craig Parry has been awarded the BIGGA Patron’s Award for his support of the educational seminars provided by the British and International Golf Greenkeepers Association. For our non – greenkeeper readers BIGGA provide education and training to its members around the UK to develop the Greenkeeping profession. This is the third year running that a member of our team has won this award…well done Craig!

On a final note, I thought I would share this picture of the fantastic views we enjoy every day at The Duke’s….

As always, if you would like any information on the work that we do here at The Duke’s or if you would like book a tee time on The Duke’s then please do get in touch.

Over and out,

Derek

Hello again.

The eagle eyed amongst you have already pointed out my little typo in the last post, rest assured that we do not mow our grass at 4mm but at 14mm!

 The recent rainfall and high winds have played havoc with our bunkers, washing them out and blowing sand around. Repairing the damage has been a big task! Generally bunker maintenance is an ongoing job but when the wind picks up, like it did last week, life becomes a little more interesting for us. The sand on the bunker face is usually the first to get blown around so we shovel it back to where it came from. At the same time we would usually strim the edges of the bunker so we can complete two tasks in one operation. As our bunkers are so large maintenance can be very time consuming however we do have a machine to assist us. The clever machine pushes the sand in our desired direction and rakes the base at the same time.

The autumn colours are starting to appear on the trees which is always a fantastic sight here at The Duke’s. The course looks great at the moment so if you were thinking of paying us a visit then don’t put it off too long.

Next time Jon will fill us in on how he got on while assisting with the preparation for the Dunhill Links Championship at Kingsbarns, so good luck to all concerned for a successful tournament next week.

All the best

Derek

With August now behind us we are looking forward to September. The Alfred Dunhill Links Championship will be held on the Old Course, Kingsbarns and Carnoustie and always creates a great buzz around the town. This year two of our team will assist at Kingsbarns for the week, hopefully Jon and Steven will have more luck than Craig and I had at Castle Stuart this year!
August started as a pretty wet month for us with 3 times the average monthly rainfall falling in the first 10 days and a total of 162mm falling in the month. Not great for us but I am sure the pro shop must be doing a roaring trade on umbrellas and waterproofs!

Further to the visit from the group of German course managers earlier in the month we also had a visit from Vanje Drasler, course manager from Diners Golf and Country Club in Ljubljana. Vanje was part of a team visiting from Slovenia with Elmwood College, an interesting tour and chat around the course. I discovered that while her course in Slovenia closes for two months in the winter Vanje will work at both the Olympic Club and Pebble Beach in California!  Good luck to her and her team preparing her course for the European Ladies Amateur Championship next year!

Last Sunday The Duke’s hosted a breast cancer charity day with our members, for a bit of fun we attached our Saltire flags to bright pink flagsticks for the day. They looked pretty outrageous and our members loved them!

Pink Flagsticks

GREENS:
We continued our summer aeration program, greens 1 to 8 were hollow cored. We core half the green at a time which allows us to leave the pin so the golfers still have a good surface to putt on while we have a chance to carry out essential maintenance on the other half. After 2 weeks the greens are now back in full play with the new seed coming through well.
Daily mowing and rolling can create a seal over the surface making it difficult for air and water to penetrate. To address this issue we needle tined the greens twice in August with 5mm tines, this process causes next to no disruption to the surface but allows air and water in through the surface.With the wet weather and colder temperatures we will be raising the cutting height slightly to protect the grass which will ensure that it is healthy going into winter.

Needle Tining

 TEES/APPROACHES:
As I have mentioned before we tend to leave The Duke’s with a natural, rugged look however we have spot treated some areas of unsightly rye grass in the approaches by seeding with a more desirable grass. The rye grass grows very long and leggy which does not cut very well and does not look as particularly attractive, especially so close to the green surface. 

Rye Grass on the 10th Approach

FAIRWAYS:
The fairways have now received a granular fertiliser which will allow the fairways to develop a wonderful green colour and encourage good grass coverage heading into winter. If the fairways are weak and thin in winter they can appear very wet and poor to play from. We still mow the fairways at 4mm; next month we will start top dressing them again with sand to assist with drainage, provide a better playing surface and improve the soil to allow more desirable grasses to flourish.

THE MONTH AHEAD:
This month we will be concentrating on presentation even more than normal as there can be more grass clippings and leaves lying around due to colder wet weather, we have to make sure playing surfaces are kept clear. We will also begin to prepare our winter greens in anticipation for the frosty months ahead. These areas are in the fairways near the greens so they be hollow cored, top dressed, over seeded and fertilised to ensure they are a good surface.

Just a wee reminder to check out Ayden’s golf lessons over on our YouTube page. This week Ayden moves away from posture and explains how to position the ball for a desirable flight.

It’s been great speaking to you, as always please do let me know if you have any questions regarding our green keeping activities.

best regards

Derek

Hello everyone thanks for joining me on The Duke’s green keeping blog.

After 3 times the average monthly rainfall for August fell in the first 10 days of the month we are getting back to normal again and the waterproofs have finally dried off!

Last week we hosted a group of German green keepers and club managers for a visit arranged by the Royal and Ancient. The purpose of the visit was to discuss and compare maintenance techniques and environmental attitudes. One of the most notable differences between the German courses and The Duke’s was our approach to long rough management, here at The Duke’s we allow the course to develop a more rugged look showcasing the beautiful, natural Scottish terrain while the golf courses in Germany opt for a much more polished look, trimming the rough much more frequently. Another key difference is the variety of grass species used, with a different climate to Scotland, German course use alternative grasses with different maintenance techniques.

My German is a little rusty but Carolyn Hedley from The Scottish Golf Environment Group produced some pretty impressive foreign language skills when welcoming the group. We hope they had a worthwhile trip, I certainly found the visit to be very interesting. Thank you to Steve Isaac from the R&A for arranging the visit.

As I mentioned in my previous post we have now started our hollow coring/over seeding of greens 1 to 8. As you can see from the pictures below we are working on half a green at a time which allows the golfers to play on the other half with minimal disruption to their game. We are solid tinning to a depth of 200mm with 10mm tines then following behind with 12mm hollow tines at a depth of 50mm. The sand is then spread and brushed in by hand with large brooms. So far we have found this method to be successful as we can achieve not only the core aeration, over seeding and top dressing but also some deep tinning in the same operation. As you can see from the images this operation can be rather disruptive to the surface so combining the tasks in one process allows for minimal scarring and disruption to play.

As you can see from all the little lush green dots in the photo below the greens that we cored four weeks ago are now back in play with good germination of the seed.

This week we lose one of our seasonal staff, Scott Wells who will return to New Zealand after spending the summer with us. His home golf club Queenstown Golf Club will need him as they prepare for their summer season. I am sure we will hear from him again when the rugby world cup starts in a few weeks time if Scotland take on and defeat the All Blacks!

If you would like any more information on the work we do at The Duke’s or if you would like to enquire about tee times and golf lessons then please do leave me a comment.

Best wishes

Derek