Course Update – Monday, 1 September 2025
The maintenance crew have been hard at work preparing 11, 12 and 13 for the reopening on the 8th of September. With the weather not quite how we wanted, the decision to overow 11, 12 & 13 was made. We’ve thrown Poa Trivialis seed at a low rate, to ensure a putting surface is achieved for reopening and that the new greens have a good chance at handling traffic in their infancy. In a bid to ensure Atlas Golf stays on time with their project work on the rest of the course, this action was taken so that no further delays were made. The Poa Triv took very quickly, and is filling in the weak spots of the new TifEagle greens. Once the weather turns, and the warm days start to beat down on the TifEagle, it will start to outcompete the Poa Triv.
Bunker works on 12 & 13 are complete, with some touch up work required to ensure they are ready for play, they should provide a much nicer feel now that they have new sand, and slightly different shaping. Turf works were complete last week, as we repaired the damage on the left-hand side of 11 & 13, as well as the rear bunker on 12. Coming into spring, this should all take fairly quickly and knit in well with the rest of playing surfaces.
Some new drainage was put into bottom of the hill on 12, to catch the excess water that is seeping through the knoll. The water that is arising to the surfaces appears quite rusty, which we take as being old rainwater that’s been caught up in the existing drainage that has been damaged over the years. The water may still run out of the hill, but the majority of it should now be caught by the new trenches feeding towards the path.
On course, the greens have held up quite well over winter, with good ball roll and colour, we have been happy with the consistency of the greens and coverage over the last few months. We’ve had a lot of golf over the last few months, but the course has held up well, the Tees always get a little tired by the end of winter, but we should see them bounce back quickly when the sun warms up, this also means the other playing surfaces will start to jump, and we’ll be out mowing more frequently.
The volunteers have been out most recently at the back of 14, in the dense planting between 15 & 16, and they’ve done a wonderful job raising low lying foliage to open the views right up and create a maintainable space. The right-hand side of 8 Tee has also had some work done, clearing unwanted debris and overgrown shrubbery. We look forward to the next outing and thank all the volunteers for the time as always.
The Greens replacement program is right around the corner with 2, 7 & 8 beginning next week, Atlas (contractors) will be utilising the Fairfield road, and possibly the driving range as entry and exit points. This means that due care should be taken when traversing the 3rd hole, as large machinery will be moving around the maintenance track and those holes that are out of play. These holes will be sprayed with herbicide today, so don’t be surprised if you see a little bit of discolouration by the end of the week!
