How's your track looking?

[Basher]

New year, new season.
We've had lots of snow covering the course which obviously meant no play.
Now the snow has gone and play is allowable, how does your course look?

Not having been up to mine in daylight hours this year yet!!! I have heard from golf mates that the course, although very soft and wet is looking and playing remarkably well. Testament to the Greenkeepers art, they have a thankless task this time of year.

We have a few tee mats on some of the holes (all par 3's) and 2 temporary greens. Other than that, the rest of the course is playable and apparently "looks a picture!"

Great news, just hope it's still in good nick this weekend when I attempt to get my first round of the year in!

 

[KeefG]

I've played High Throston twice in 3 days and, although its nice that they have proper greens on all 18 holes and only 2 x winter tee's, in my opinion they should really be limiting where people can & cant walk as parts of the fairways were very boggy and are getting trashed.

Also, due to the greens being super soft and too many tossers playing who find it impossible to repair pitch marks, the greens are looking a bit tatty.

I must have repaired at least 5 pitch marks on every single green today (I kid you not!!!) as they are my biggest pet hate in golf.

 

[Bigfoot]

Ours is a bit wet on a couple of the fairways but the greens were excellent.

 

[HomerJSimpson]

The 14th 15th and 16th fairways are very, very wet and really shouldn't be open (hopefully they'll be closed for midweek traffic) but the greens on Sunday were surprisingly quick for the time of year and very true. A few too many pitch marks but not too bad. There are some parts of fairways that have muddied up with trolley's going over them but all in all I'm pleasantly surprised.

 

[beck9965]

Apart from the comp tees the rest are still temp but all the greens are ok.

 

[leewestrudd1]

played on sunday,course was closed saturday. 11 and 12 were closed,i think there was standing water on the fairways,the rest of the course was good,the greens have had a good rest over the winter and it has clearly helped the condition,they were really slow but true. cant wait for the spring!

 

[brendy]

Back onto the proper greens after a few weeks of temp greens with the ice etc.
Amazingly it never stopped the course maintenance continuing including new drainage across a couple of fairways, railway sleepers renewed round a few teeboxes and new bunker drainage.
We just need water hazards now, can you believe we used to have at least one or two features and drains that had to be filled as there were complaints from certain folks with less than great golfing ability that they couldnt get their ball over the hazard to the greens.... ITS GOLF DEAL WITH IT!

 

[USER1999]

We had 5 temps on Sat, but other than that, looking good. 16th green is trashed by tobogannists though. Will take months to fix.

 

[drawboy]

Played my, soon to be old, course in the winter league on Sunday, 16 holes open, all temps and tee mats, in a word crap. I played my new course Monday which I have just joined all 18 open, all greens open, 5 winter tees. A massive difference in green keeping ability seeing as they are only 7/8 miles apart.

 

[Owen_Thomas_14]

Course is looking good. About 6 or 7 temp greens and a few wet (not waterlogged) fairways. All the snow kind of helped the course even though the greenkeepers couldnt get out to do the new bunkers etc

 

[Robobum]

We went back onto proper greens on Monday, they were the only wet parts of the whole course as the thaw came out of them. Our turf is almost links like so is firm and bone dry for 99% of the year anyway.

Don't know whether there are any greenkeepers on here (or amateur horticulturalists)?? A lot of the greens have an almost yellow tinge to them now that the snow and ice has gone. The surface is very good to play on but the appearance isn't the best. Anyone got any clues??

 

[big_russ]

Played Thursday last week and although there were some wet areas, as a whole I couldn't believe how firm the course was. We were on majority temp tees but only 2 temp greens and these were firm and true as well. Big well done to the greenstaff for their efforts.
We have had some new fairway bunkers built which have quite high lips on them so once they are in use I think they will cause problems for the unlucky ones who find them.

 

[jammydodger]

Went up this morning and we still had temps but that was cos of the frost. Had a wander around a couple of the greens later on when the frost had thawed and they were in excellent condition

The course wasnt boggy at all and we remarked at how well the course had stood up to the last months weather.

Still not going to play much for a month or so and then look out I will be hunting some prizes

 

[algar5]

Course is still very wet and field drains have burst on 2nd hole making fairway a swamp/water feature ! We are on 14 normal greens and 4 winter and all in all course has stood up well to the weather.

 

[Imurg]

We had 13 holes open last friday and they all played pretty much like normal. Apparently the 14th was almost under water and you have to walk the hole to get to the other parts of the course - hence the last 5 being closed. But I suspect the last 4 would have been perfectly playable and hopefully they'll all be open on friday.

 

[Owen_Thomas_14]

A lot of the greens have an almost yellow tinge to them now that the snow and ice has gone. The surface is very good to play on but the appearance isn't the best. Anyone got any clues??

Im not an expert but i have done a course on greenkeeping and as i remember its due to the grass not being able to get enough oxygen(being able to breathe) as the snow and ice has covered it. The only ways to get rid of this is to aerate(slit tine,hollow core,spike) or lower the pH of the soil with some fertiliser.

Im sure there is a very experienced greenkeeper on here but not all the time so better asking him to get full details on what the symptoms are etc.

 

[Deleted member 1740]

Went down to my place today and played 9 holes,the fairways were damp but not too bad though the greens where in cracking nick considering the bad weather we've had.

Playing from the 1st cut aswell so hopefully come the summer it'll be in good nick.

 

[Golfmmad]

Considering my course is very flat I was surprised at how well it's held up after the snow. Some of the fairways still had some water on when I played last Saturday. There were though, about 4 tees where we had mats - very unusual.

On the subject of pitch marks, there were quite a few but I wonder if it was because of the frozen greens before the snow. Trying to repair them was impossible, so maybe there was a build up. I always repair mine and a few others on my way.

Golfmmad.

 

[Smiffy]

I haven't set foot on our course since I played in a medal early in October.
Apparantly they are on 3 temporary greens at the moment and there is a trolley ban.
I'm playing at Copthorne on Thursday.

 

[matt01]

it is a bit wet in places but in the main it is in good nik