How is your course shaping up after winter and the dry spring?

[chico]

My course has seen a great improvement in just over a week. Greens getting less of a lottery and the course becoming greener overall. I don't know if it's the green keeper or the weather that's making the difference, probably a combination of them both.

 

[Skytot]

Our coarse, the greens were Cored & slit & sanded . But they didn’t check if the water sprinklers were working. They aren’t, with the forecast for dry weather for next 2 weeks the greens will continue to be bobbling all over the place . Cock Up

 

[Springveldt]

Pack your bags, come up to the NE of England. We have not had the warmth or excessive dry that you guys seem to have had. Courses are dryish but not excessively so. Everywhere is green and lush but without the warmth to have brought about rapid growth of rough. Greens are not slick but they are not bare or struggling either.

Any issues with my course, and we have them, are greenkeeper, lack of, related rather than weather.

Cough, cough. I'll invite you over to Newbiggin midweek and you can see a dry course, it feels like it's running like July already.

 

[Mel Smooth]

Ours is like Augusta.

 

[Springveldt]

Sounds like my place is similar to others. Tee boxes are looking bare in places but the fairways are in good shape as we had fairway protection on all winter. We have a new course manager and you can see the changes he's trying to make, the fringes have been cut shorter and he's trying to let the rough grow in places while cutting a path for people to walk through and it's framing some holes quite nicely.

Greens are worse now than they were all winter. During winter they were softer, slower and running true. Now they are brick hard (haven't seen a pitch mark in weeks), fast and bobbly. They are getting watered, last week me and my playing partner had to push down 2 sprinklers on 16 that had stayed up.

Bunkers are hit and miss, I took 2 to get out of one last night as there was around 3mm of sand in it, club just bounced and thinned it into the face. Next one I tried to dig a hole to China to make sure it got out. Then at the end of the round my mate flew one into the bunker on 17 and you could barely see his ball it was that plugged. Must have been 6 inches of sand in that one. Throw in that most members either cba to rake or don't know how to rake and drag all the sand to the edge then the bunkers are a complete lottery. Just trickle in and it stays and you have no shot, land near the lip and again it stays and you have no shot. Guess I should just get better and stop hitting it into them.

 

[Imurg]

Still suffering from little to no growth - except the greens.....
They put fertiliser on them the other day a d the drenching they got yesterday seems to have sprung them into life...
As its been so dry, the sprinklers have been on the greens...so now they're soft and slow....
Couldn't putt on the them today, just couldn't get the pace.
The slopes are still sloping but there's no speed in the greens.
Borrow for the slope and the ball doesn't get there, aim straighter and the slope slopes......

 

[sjw]

I'm frustrated with our tee boxes. I can forgive the fairways - the dry weather means they haven't grown much, fair enough. The greens were cored, but not sanded or watered for a while, which was odd, but I believe the irrigation was faulty which was the cause of that, and they're getting better now.

The tee boxes, however, have left me wondering what the hell they've done all winter. I know you can't really grow anything in the winter months, but there has been no effort to improve them in other ways such as leveling them, or removing a tree root from under one! Overhanging conifers on another could have been tidied up. They put a couple more mats down to use in winter... but they are terrible, aren't flat etc, and the tee boxes they were used in place of have had nothing done either. What was the point?

The bunkers I believe have had more sand put in them in the last couple of weeks, but I haven't been in many to confirm if that's the case.

 

[sunshine]

We got a course update email recently explaining that it's the cold overnight temps which limit the growth even if it's warm and sunny during the day. We've had some mild frosts down here in Hertforshire in the last month so this makes sense.

Usually they do greens maintenance in April and it takes about 4 weeks to recover. This year they did it in March and it's taken significantly longer to recover, still visible signs of the tining, greens quite bobbly but improving.

The course overall is looking very scruffy: renovation work is ongoing to rebuild bunkers and tees, clear trees, update drainage, none of this has matured and on top of that there are machinery tracks all over the course. It will look awesome come summer though.

 

[D-S]

Ours is like Augusta.

Hilly? Cheap Food?

 

[Billysboots]

Hilly? Cheap Food?

Neither. But they’ve got hundreds of camping chairs behind the 12th tee.

 

[IanM]

Newport's in a similar state. Greens great all winter, they did the maintenance a few weeks ago and they are struggling to recover. Slow and bumpy. Removed winter rules a few weeks ago, but lies are patchy in places, plenty of mud balls. We've had a odd mix of unhelpful weather, cold easterlies, dry spells, cold clear nights.... better stuff coming this weekend though!

The links course has been great. In fact two weeks ago, it was starting to burn up a bit! Bit of rain in the interim has calmed that down. Back in 10 days to see how it looks.

 

[nickjdavis]

Have had very little rain in the last 2 or three months until the last week or so.

Fairways were firm, quite bare with lots of run. Greens were hard with very little growth but ran surprisingly well, if a little quickly.

The bursts of rain we have had have made an immediate impact, with the warmer temperatures there is already a bit of grass growth on the fairways and they are just becoming a little bit springy underfoot...still plenty of run but just a little more give when playing iron shots off them. Greens have slowed up considerably with the growth and are a little bobbly in places as the two different grass types grow at different rates....but that is usual and it wont be long before they are running consistently again.

Over the winter a lot of work has been done removing and renovating bunkers including the addition of new sand to many of them. A couple of tee boxes have also been returfed....they've been brought back into play a little bit early in my opinion though and several tees have had new steps built in to the sides to prevent wear an tear. Lots of new roped off areas, perhaps these will finally prevent folks from taking trolleys where they shouldn't, seems like signage that clearly says "No Trolleys/buggies" passes many folk by.

Some of the timing/order of work that has been done leaves us a little bit bemused but overall, considering the weather we've had, must say the course is in good condition for the time of year.

 

[Mel Smooth]

Hilly? Cheap Food?

Actually considering we’re on the edge of the pennines, the course is reasonably flat.

Joking aside, I’m not gonna moan about the course - it is what it is.
Membership rates are great value, we’ve got 48 golf holes to be looked after plus a range and the main course is a great challenge especially in the summer when it’s dried out.

If I wanted pristine conditions I’d join Huddersfield where the youth plays but it’s half as expensive again for the dues, plus a joining fee that’s probably close to 3 bags.

It’s still April - most courses are probably ahead of where they usually are at this time of year.

 

[jim8flog]

Our coarse, the greens were Cored & slit & sanded . But they didn’t check if the water sprinklers were working. They aren’t, with the forecast for dry weather for next 2 weeks the greens will continue to be bobbling all over the place . Cock Up

It would be very unusual to use sprinklers to wash in sand, they do not supply enough water at a high enough rate or for long enough.
Where I play the use of sprinklers is to keep the grass growing.

 

[Crazyface]

Looking good. Greens not there yet but a lot of work has been done on them. We need rain now!!!!! Also, the GKers have actually been tiying up the course. Bramble removed etc etc, and it's starting to look much much better. The lads want me to keep on poking the bear as they can see things improving. Why do I have to do it all the time?

 

[Crazyface]

Wet winter, cold dry March = poor conditions. Soon as the heat gets into the soil it will change. Be patient brothers.

Also, last year we couldn't get on the course and were still on mats almost up to May. So everything is a bonus so far this year.

 

[clubchamp98]

Ours is ok atm.
But has suffered similar as others with lack of rain.

Tees are ok
Fairways are ok
Greens are rock hard bobbly and speed varies from green to green.
Bunkers are a Basket case and will never be any good unless they remove the felt linings!
Some very iffy lies around the green gives a lot of interesting shots

There are some very unsightly things around the course that nothing is being done about.
My pet hate is grass cuttings just dumped at the edge of the trees ,just take them into the trees.

 

[Mandofred]

Oakdale here in town has recovered well from winter....it's likely the muddiest course in the area (although not by a lot I think).....and the dry weather has brought out the firm ground sooner than it would normally occur. Grass isn't great....not enough rain to get the grass growing well. They punched the greens a month and a half? ago....those big half inch cores taken out with no sand.....they are still causing the ball to bounce around. If what I've heard occurs they are going to verticut? the greens very soon.....so it will take even longer for them to become decent. Without some good rain....I'm not expecting good fairways/greens anytime soon.

Ripon- lovely. Greens have been good all year and are pretty dang nice....lack of rain has caused the verticuts on the greens from a month or more ago to not quite disappear. But greens running pretty fast.....couple of guys I played with today hit putts that just wouldn't stop and rolled off the green. Fairways are off preferred lies (no preferred lies) this last weekend and I am happy with the lies I'm getting. This course is in really good shape.

Forecast is for little if any rain for the next week+.....at some point this is going to cause a problem.

 

[Burnsey]

As an all year golfer, courses seem simply fabulous of late.

I'm really happy with every course I've played since we've had decent weather, albeit greens are so difficult to score well.

 

[Tashyboy]

We have had a number of discussions amongst our group regarding the current condition of our course which, frankly, is pretty poor.

Fluffy, bobbly, bone hard greens, tee boxes with poor grass coverage, uneven and patchy growth around the greens and shocking bunkers, many hard packed with weeds and grass starting to become a problem.

Opinion is divided. There are some who say we can’t complain. Everywhere is the same. We’ve had overnight frosts well into April, little or no rainfall, there is simply no growth and so on.

And there are those who are saying, regardless of growing conditions, there is still work which could be done. The hard packed bunkers could be worked on, weeds and grass removed. Muddy areas around greens and tees could be similarly worked on and prepared for overseeding and dressing. Tee boxes could be irrigated, seeded and dressed. In short, there are some, myself included, who are coming round to the view that any complaint regarding course condition is being met with excuses which are starting to wear a little thin.

Personally, I’m frustrated. Our greens were absolutely mint all winter, especially through February, and the late winter/early spring maintenance, completed several weeks ago now, has left them in a really poor state. The whole course is just looking very scruffy.

I’m told everywhere is the same. So is that true? How is your place measuring up and, if it’s been struggling, are you seeing any signs of improvement in any area or is it your whole course which still seems to be stuck in its mid winter state?

This this and this

Personally am a bit narked. The tees looked knackered. Nothing has been done on the tees until the last month.. greens today were shocking bobbly is an understatement. We have an area between 14th and 15 and there is small hawthorn bushes starting to take root amongst oak trees. They Look shocking. It would take 2 mins to pull then out. One of the Lads had been laid off, yes he a moaning old sod but he is a worker. Another guy has enquired about a head green keepers job. I could go on.
I was talking to the guys today about rubbish and that on the course. All holes have a pot to put the broken tees in on every hole on just the yellow pots, red and whites nothing. Broken tees everywhere. Scruffy is an apt word.

I could have written your post myself, what I don’t understand is that no one from the management goes around the course to check it. The 18th green and fringes look excellent. But what about the other 17.