Sunshine at last!

Greenkeeping must be the best job in the world when the weather is, as it has been this week.

The sun has shone for most of the week and yesterday some of us were working in polo shirts, unusual for this time of year.

Even though the weather has been so good, we plan to switch play to some of our winter teeing positions from Monday next week, which will give our summer tees some much needed rest.

Bunkers on the 1st have all been either re-built or edged. 

Bunkers on the 2nd hole are to be done next week.

Greenside on the 15th has been revetted and turfed, the base of the bunker will be dished next week before adding sand.

Most of our repair work has been carried out to grass paths and the remaining areas which have been stripped of turf will be finished using a harder wearing imported fescue/rye turf.

Construction work is going well with all of the bushes now removed between old 17th & 18th. The pile of earth which you will see is to be re-spread once sub grade levels are achieved.

Simon and Trevor have been working hard with our rough management, cutting and collecting and also completing our last bits of seeding work on Dunluce. The weather has been so mild that soil temperatures remain warm enough for good germination so instead of having seed stored over the winter we have over-seeded all of our new fairways and green surrounds using our dimple seeder.

Phase 2 work and winter work programme underway.

As the golfing season begins to slow down on the Links we are now able to focus our attention towards the winter work programme as well as begin phase 2 of our course amendments. 

The work that the Greenkeepers have done this year has been phenomenal but the job itself never really slows down as we have gone from one of our busiest seasons straight into an intense winter programme of works.

The focus for the greenkeeping team this winter is the bunkers as most of the existing bunkers on the Dunluce Links shall be rebuilt as well as re-turfing of all worn areas throughout the courses. 

Rough management is also one of our main projects, of which we plan to complete the main part by early November but rough management will be ongoing throughout the winter. New areas must be cut and collected before topdressing.

Some good work done this week.

Dunluce greens have recovered well from over-seeding and topdressing with good germination seen throughout the course. It must be one of the most satisfying jobs for a Greenkeeper to see more fine leafed grass establishing well and improving the botanical composition.

The 18th fairway has been reshaped with the right hand side brought in to encourage players to drive down the main part of the fairway. We plan to hollow time the new rough area tomorrow and over-seed with a seed rough mix which will create some better definition.

The 5th ladies tee was lifted on Tuesday, rotovated and screened level before re-turfing today. The tee looks as it was before but as the surface is now level we can use the whole teeing ground for marker placements thus better spreading the wear.