Festive Season 2012

Adverse weather, has brought us new challenges and provided us different tasks recently. We have set the golf course up in the mornings, cleaning greens, moving tee markers and shaping sand in the bunkers. Followed by some DIY work within the work sheds. The team has been busy, painting the sheds and floors, adding more work benches, and general tidying up. Keeping the work sheds respectable and organized!

First week in January, we will kick off with the remainder of winter projects - 12th tee complex, one bunker re build on hole 4, level and turf path ends, drainage works.

Thank you for you all your coorperation in 2012, and wish you a Merry Christmas.

Looking forward to report back in 2013!

Tom and Pops on the 6th this morning!?!

Wet wet wet

Another busy week out on the golf course! Our aim was to complete the bunker construction on holes 4 and 11, however the weather made it difficult for us! We managed to get some turf down in places as it was starting to turn colour, which will determine the grow in process. We managed to apply a 'wet feed' on Thursday morning, this included mainly 1-0-15, seaweed and iron. Once the bunkers are completed we are set to start work in the 12th tee area, plans have been approved to raise the back of the tee to gain more floor space, creating a nice straight tier complex all the way to the ladies teeing area. The pathway will be evaluated to weather it needs moving or can stay in its original place, all appropriate drainage/irrigation will be installed. I'm looking forward to get this project started, with the hope of improving more tee complexes over the next few years.

Other assignments this week included; changing holes, brushing greens daily, cut greens on Thursday, raked bunkers and moving tee markers daily.

Bunkers on the fourth ready for turf 

We couldn't mow fairways or surrounds this week due to the soft grounds, luckily growth has slowed down! Forecast looks to be dry for the next few days now which is just what the course needs! Enjoy your weekend and mind the cows!

Your team

Mooove that cow!

Was a surprise to find 7 cows roaming the golf course this morning! Some damage was made to the 17th green, which was repaired straight away. The third is now complete, the newly turfed area to the right of the green will be cut with the surrounds mower at height of 12mm, this creating a nice swail off area. We will commence turfing the bunkers on hole 4 tomorrow and plan for this project to be finished by Friday. We had to move a couple of irrigation heads this morning around where the new bunkers are on holes 4 and 11, and adjust there heights, to go with the new contours. The bunkers on 11 are shaping up nicely and are in line once the 4th is complete. I can honestly say it looks daunting from the tee now, which is for you to decide weather you want to improve your golf or not!

Walking the cows away from the course

 Mikey moving sprinklers

The 4th LHS fairway bunker

4th RHS fairway bunker

We set the south side up for play this morning as the north side is closed, and looks to be for a couple of days. No trolleys are allowed on the course at this time. 

Other jobs I intend to be completed before March -

-Strip path ends and turf

-Aerify greens

-Trim trees along the 11th lake banks

-Fill in 'out technoed' bunkers

-Improve drainage on 5th approach and 4th approach

All new bunkers will be edged, sanded and in play 1st of March 2013.

One last mention we have noticed ball blemishes on the greens. Pitch marks obviously take alot more time to heal in the winter months, please make sure you repair your ball marks, if you want us to produce good surfaces, please play your part and help us out!

Enjoy

More changes... for the better!

It clearly never stops at Les Mielles...

The remainder of the third is shaped and will be turfed/completed tomorrow, personally I don't like to leave jobs before they're completed but in this case it couldn't have been done any other way. The new fairway bunkers on hole four have been dug out and will be shaped over the weekend. I hope you all agree with why we have made the changes, not only to get the golfer thinking about their tee shot, but also to improve the definition of the fairway. We aim to have these completed by next week.

We then started with the bunker construction on hole 11, there will be two bunkers positioned on the right hand side, just before the elbow of the dog leg. This will improve the golf hole drastically and will make it a true stroke index 2.

The crew stripping the turf

Also trying to get the course prepared for the weekend, the team have put some real effort in this week, not only a privilege for myself to work with, but an asset to the Golf Club. 

We've had a couple of ideas from the members which is great to see, I think its important to look into what the members want, and to improve our environment. Don't be scared to contact me with your thoughts or compliments ;)  lesmiellesgreens@gmail.com

Credits Due

It was great to see no damage to the new bunkers over the weekend, and I'd like to thank all golfers for there cooperation. We've marked out on the 4th fairway where we propose for the new fairway bunkers to be. We plan to keep the large existing bunker, however reduce this in size. I hope you all agree, the new bunkers on 5 have made an improvement visually and I believe will play much fairer and demanding.

 5th hole before renovation

5th hole complete

We've had a large amount of rain over the past few days, It's good to see our drainage works we completed last month are put to the test and prove to be working. We wish to look out for more drainage issues during the winter to improve surfaces. One being on the 5th approach, Friday morning we found one of the new bunker faces to be washed out, to prevent this from happening again, we built up the brow slightly and re shaped, and will now hook up a drain cap in the appropriate place. We actually took this into consideration when building these bunkers, however mother nature proves 'tough to beat'.

 Tom repairing the damage

Always having a busy week ahead, this week is no different. We have a liquid feed planned, mainly liquid iron and seaweed. And weather permitting to start the bunker construction on hole 4. If you have any suggestions or queries please do not hesitate to contact me via email lesmiellesgreens@gmail.com

Start of the new week

With another busy weekend, Mondays a day where we get some course tidying up and the start of the weeks works. We missed a cut on the greens this morning, just rolled the greens with the vibe rollers for the seniors competition this morning. Changed holes, cut tees and surrounds. It was a pleasant surprise to see no damage done to the new bunkers this morning. If were to do more bunkers this winter it's important the golfers get the message, as it is easily avoided and a time consuming job for us to repair.

This morning we applied an organic based fertilizer 7-5-12 containing magnesium and sulphur, this is part of our winter feeding program for the fairways.

Pop feeding the 9th fairway

Also as part of our agronomy program, soil tests were taken. We chose 5 of the greens, ranging from what we feel are the worst to the best. These soils will now go away to a lab in England to be examined. These examinations will show us our nutrition levels, and will depend on our feeding program for next season.

Soil testing the 7th green

This afternoon we are progressing on with the new bunkers on hole 5. The turf is taken from our turf nursery on site, this being cost effective and on hand when we need turf. We are hoping this project to be completed by Wednesday.

The turf bed

Tom rolling greens this morning

Golf Course Update

Little rain this week, which is drying the course up nicely. Also letting us get on with some 'winter jobs' if you like. Hole 3 is almost complete, we are just waiting on ground to continue filling the right hand side bunker, this ground is from a local demolition contractor, and is at no cost. We then add black sand on top to achieve the correct grade.

We've cleared the tamarisk shrub from the back of the 3rd and 5th green, hopefully we will see some positive results from doing this. A lot of the content was either dead or over hanging, which didn't look so great.

the back of the fifth green

Also cracking on with the new bunkers on the 5th, we're starting to see some good shapes. These bunker faces will be turfed just like the ones on hole 3.

 Tom and George shaping the bunkers on hole 5

This week we have been setting up the new irrigation system, the system was installed beginning of the year, however we ran with the old system this season. We are now programming all the valve decoders to the new system, which will be in operation next year. This system will take our water management to the next level,  improving the surfaces, and to help us operate it more effective.

Mikey wiring up one of the valves

Mowing has slowed up the past few weeks, cutting fairways and tees weekly, and greens and surrounds when needed (around 3 times a week). When we're not cutting greens, we either brush to remove the dew and stand up the grass, or roll to maintain some speed and trueness. Hopefully we will apply a winter feed to the fairways tomorrow, will keep you posted if it goes ahead. Lastly, alot of the surrounds have suffered in the high traffic areas, and with the wet weather. It's noticeable that trolleys are being pushed far too close to the edges of greens, so please think about this when next playing!

If you have any questions with regards to our projects please do not hesitate to contact me via email - lesmiellesgreens@gmail.com