Wednesday 20 June 2012

Course Update


Unfortunately, heavy and persistent rain at the weekend caused extensive flooding and resulted in the closure of both courses.

On Monday, the greens-staff did a tremendous job in reinstating the washed out bunkers and pathways, ensuring that both courses were back in play by mid morning.

The path at the 18th that we use to access the topside, again washed out and required reinstatement.

As an experiment, we have installed safety matting over a section of the pathway.
The matting has been dressed and covered with drainage grit, primarily to see if this helps prevent or reduce washout of the pathway.

Although the product was not designed for this propose, we thought it was a worthwhile exercise and if successful, could be used on other areas of the course.

Washed out path at 18th
Safety matting installed
Working in drainage grit
Reinstatement complete

Monday 11 June 2012

Greens

Like many other parkland courses throughout the UK, the greens at Murrayfield are dominated by Poa annua grass.

Poa annua is a very adaptable species and many different varieties have been recognised, some of these are perennial and others annual.

At this time of the year the over-winter plants are coming into flower. While plants seeding at the moment will flower between July and September. 



A close up of seeding Poa annua  (white seed heads)

Poa annua seeding on the 17th Green

To control and remove the unwanted seed heads the greens are being mown daily at a height of cut of 4mm and regularly verti-cut.

It’s vital to remove as much seed as possible over the next few weeks, as it will reduce future contamination of the greens and lead to smoother putting surfaces this summer.

Friday 8 June 2012

Greens Update


Earlier this week the greens on both courses were lightly verti-cut. In addition to this cultural practice, a number of greens were also scarified.

Remember, verti-cutting lightly grooms and conditions the grass plant leaf and scarifying is more aggressive and primarily for thatch removal.

At Murrayfield, we always wait until the grass is growing strongly before scarifying, this ensures that recovery to putting surfaces can be measured in days, rather than in weeks.


Green 17 - Following scarification
Monday June 4th
Some of the debris removed from the 17th Green
17th Green - Recovery
Friday 8th June


Next week, (weather permitting) we hope to complete greens scarification operations. 

Wednesday 6 June 2012


16th Hole Update

Last month, we reinstated and seeded the area of rough on the right-hand side of the 16th fairway, which was the route of the new drainage outlet.

Member will have noticed that despite extremely poor weather conditions through April, we have some seed germination.

Seeding in the month of April is notoriously unpredictable but we still would still expect approximately 60/70% of the seed to germinate

Unfortunately, the combination of low soil temperatures and excessive rainfall has resulted in only a 30/40% success rate.

Seed Germination 

So to improve grass cover we have decided to over-seed the area again later this month, when (hopefully) weather conditions will be more favourable.