Course Update - October 21st 2011

Autumn Greens Maintenance Program – Despite difficult weather conditions, I am pleased to report that we have now completed greens hollow coring operations and that 40 tonnes of top dressing sand has now been applied to the putting surfaces.

Another 20 tonnes will be spread over the next two weeks to infill the remaining core holes and smooth putting surfaces.

Course Improvements - The 2^nd phase of the 9^th green surrounds improvements are now almost complete.

We have removed the thatch-contaminated turf and re-contoured the left-hand side of the green with fresh root zone.

Re-grading left-hand surround of 9th green

The area will be re-turfed at the beginning of November when we expect deliver of our next consignment of turf.


12^th Tee – The turf that was causing surface drainage problems has now been removed from the teeing surface.

We are at present importing additional root zone to ensure that when levelling and re-grading work has been completed, surface water drains freely from the tee top. 

Clearing turf from the 12th tee

Additional root zone for the 12th tee

New Greenkeeping Facilities – The site is now ready for the steel support columns, which have now been delivered and weather permitting should be erected next week.  

The first steel work being delivered

Autumn Maintenance Program 2011 - Update

Update – October 5^th

This week we commenced our Autumn Greens Maintenance Program at Murrayfield and despite the changeable weather the greens have now been hollow cored with 12mm diameter tines to a depth of 90mm. 

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Hollow coring commences

Hollow coring - Murrayfield 1st Green

We have already applied 20 tonnes of top dressing sand to the putting surfaces and to ensure that all the aeration holes are backfilled, we will apply another 20 tonnes of sand at the beginning of next week.

We have also aerated the 5^th & 13^th greens to a depth of 225mm with 12mm diameter solid tines.

This operation helps to alleviate soil compaction in the greens and will improve the movement of water through the soil profile, later this month (weather permitting), we intend to deep aerate the remaining greens.

Normally, we top-dress the green with sand after aeration but when aerating to relieve deep-rooted compaction we apply the sand to the putting surface beforehand. 

Aerating the 5th green to a depth of 225mm

This avoids the necessity of operating heavy machinery on the newly aerated putting surface, the sand is then brushed into the tine holes with yard brushes. 

Working the sand into the aeration holes