Course Manager's Fortnightly Course Update (17/11/2023)

Course Manager's Fortnightly Course Update (17/11/2023)

As Peter is on holiday, one of my tasks is to write this message to the members. I have been Deputy Course Manager at Hesketh now for 6 months and I am really enjoying my new position. This year has gone by very quickly and it doesn’t seem that long ago we were seeking to get as much water on the course as possible and now we are doing all we can to get water off the course. The projects that we are carrying out are going to improve the playability and appearance of each hole. At the moment the weather is holding up somewhat and this is allowing us to cut many areas, unfortunately many fairways are still too sodden to cut, and we will cut them only when we can guarantee no damage.

5th Green Complex

This is a project we have been excited to undertake. The future of developing our course is improving the flow from green to tee. We have always struggled to maintain the narrow entrance to the unsightly shale path. We have therefore relandscaped this whole area. firstly, we removed all the shale path, we then excavated approximately 150 tons of sand from the area to the left of the tee, we then reshaped the new land bridge giving us a walkway of 10 meters in the narrowest area. Currently ground conditions are preventing us from carting rootzone over to complete the shaping process before we turf it with a bent fescue to blend in seamlessly with the current surroundings.

6th Green Complex

We have known for a while that the bunker immediately to the right of the 6th green is very rarely visited, therefore to improve the walkway and to spread wear we have filled it in. whilst undertaking this we have re landscaped the bank prior to the bunker, again this maximizes the walk off area and has a much nicer flow from green to tee, as mentioned about the 5th complex, this flow is something we are striving to achieve throughout the course.

Newest Team Member

This is Garey Simpson, he is our newest member of staff and he is doing an excellent job. He is picking up new skills every day and becoming a key member of our staff.

16th Bunker

This was another job that we had been eager to put right for a while with the previous bunker falling into a state of disrepair. We got together with Ian Clark, Green Director and decided the best option for this hole would be to create a pot bunker, mirroring the bunkers to the right, by doing this it allowed us to improve surrounding areas by removing high, steep mounds therefore making it more mower friendly.

Tree work

This week we have a tree felling course being held at Hesketh. Keiran, one of our team is on the training course and this signifies another step forward by the club, providing us with another member of the Green Team qualified. There will be lots of logs in the overflow car park over the coming weeks that will be for members to collect. A donation to the Junior section or Captain’s charities would certainly be appreciated.

Spraying

We will be spraying the greens with a penetrant wetting agent this week; this helps water flow through the profile whilst also removing dew and reducing the risk of frost from the surface.

Fertilizer

This week will also see us apply an autumn granular fertilizer (4-4-4) to the greens, this will help maintain healthy surfaces over the colder months and helps root development towards the playing season.

Dave Williams - Deputy Course Manager

On behalf of the Green Team.

Return to News Page

Created by intelligentgolf version 10.1.2.