Greenkeepers uppdate week 22.

A eight week history. April & may.

The course wasz under snow for 15 weeks. The snow cover provided some protection for low tempratures and also did not cause much ice build up, however, it did provide good conditions for disease attack.
Fungal disease such as snowmould/snømugg usually effect the most stressed areas and so was widespread on the tees. Fortunately, most of the greens overwintereg well.
Mechanically removing snow early can cause great stress to the plant and is probably only a good strategy if there is a real danger of ice burn/isbnrann.
Despite all the winter damage and despite the cold weather we managed to open the course on April 29th just 18 days after the winter snow finally disappered. There is a lot to do to prepare the course for play, so we called in the staff in good time. Some of this work involves - removing the ropes from around the greens and waterways, repairing opened up drains, erecting safety nets, starting the irrigation system, putting out marker stakes, rakes, tee signs etc. including new hole cups and 150 m. stakes, and preparing the playing surfaces.
The work on the greens included verti-cutting, rolling, overseeding, a granular fertilizing and 2 sand top-dressings.
It has also been a challenge preparing the bunkers for play as some dog-owners and children see them as their play areas. 
In addition to these tasks we were involved in shaping the new voll on hole 4, making a path to tee 1, building a new matereals storage area, fixing a leakage on fairway 3 on the main irrigation pipiline and erect a new garden marqee/telt i hagen.
In May we are still busy repairing parts of the course such as adding sand to some bunkers and seeding thin areas of grass, but we are also starting the regular maintenance plan. We have started a  full cutting programme. We have irregated when necessary, and have fertilized tees and foregreens.
The greens work has continued with rolling 4 times, a third top-dressing, a 2nd granular feed and 3 foiliar feeds.
We have lowered the hight of cut from 5mm to 4mm.
May has generally been very cold but there was a warm period in week 20 which resulted in leaves appearing on the trees and weeds/ugress appearing on the ground. So we are currently spraying against the weeds. We are also aerating and seeding the tees and fertilizing the fairways.
In week 22 we plan to verti-cut, top-dress, foiliar feed and roll the greens, weather permitting.



The Greenkeeper.