Woodland & Gorse Management

This week we have been busy working on a number of areas of woodland on the course and cutting back and trimming gorse on hole 6.
In the woodland areas we have been removing some of the invasive self seeding Sycamore trees and scrub Elderberry trees.

Chipping scrub trees on access road to quarry practice ground

Access road after scrub removal

On hole 6 we have been coppicing some of the woody and degenerate gorse on the right-hand of the temporary green and lightly trimming the gorse on the right-hand side of the main green.

Gorse on right-hand side of 6th temp green

Some of the gorse in this area is over three metres in height and in extremely poor condition

Extension to Irrigation System

Now that the Irrigation system has been drained down for the winter we have been busy extending the mains pipe-work and electric control cable down to the quarry practice ground.

The 90mm diameter mains pipe in front of the 9th tee has been cut and a tee coupling installed. To ensure the long-term reliability of this connection the coupling has been butt fusion welded.
Fusion welding or hot plate welding is just a process used to join polyethylene pipe together and avoids the use of compression joints, which tend to fail and be unreliable when used on  pressurised pipe-work.
At this stage 50 meters of 63mm diameter MDPE pipe and 3 core electric control cable have been installed.

When the installation and connections have been completed it will mean that the new practice chipping green and its surrounds can either be irrigated using our automatic irrigation system controller or by manual control.

The new 63mm pipe installed

Pipe-work connected

Fusion welding completed

Gorse Management 2014/15

We have recently coppiced another section of gorse between the 5th & 6th fairways. As in previous years, to encourage re-growth of healthy and robust plants the gorse has been coppiced to a height of 150 mm.

Early in the new year will tackle another area of degenerate gorse on the right-hand side of the 6th temporary green.

Gorse Management Plan - Phase II

Cutting back gorse

Chipping gorse

After coppicing and removal of debris

Looking down the 6th fairway

Remedial Work On 17th Green

To help improve the surface drainage and reduce grass plant dieback through the central section of the 17^th green we have been carrying out additional aeration operations.

The area has aerated with 12mm diameter solid tines and instead of backfilling with sand we have used a product call Bio-Sorb. 

Biosorb is a naturally occurring mineral containing thousands of microscopic diatoms (pores), which when added to the soil helps to increase percolation rates by introducing non-compacting pore spaces into the soil profile. 

Plant dieback on 17th green

Aerating centre section of 17th green

Spread and back filling Biosorb

Biosorb brushed in