Spiking Greens

Crazyface

Crazyface

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Well well well. Our greenkeeper has decided to spike the bluddy greens. Captains day on Saturday and apparently the green were ace, also on Sunday. My mate was raving about them. First time this year mind. Then what do they do? Spike them today. They are a mess again. Seniors matches on this week, two off them. Visiting teams are going to be well chuffed. I've got to drive an hour to the course due to diversions for resurfacing the main road, I've already passed up onCaptains day because of this, and now I've been sent pictures of spiked greens. I've blown my top on our WhatsApp group. I'm ready to stop paying my subs. The club is going under and the clowns are hissing people off. Don't start with the well they must need it rubbish. We only have 300 members. Captains day is done and dusted by 12 noon. There is not the footfall to warrant this job being done. Especially with the green backed solid and no rain due for 7 days. I've called for them to be given a written warning for gross negligence
 
Crazyface said:
Well well well. Our greenkeeper has decided to spike the bluddy greens. Captains day on Saturday and apparently the green were ace, also on Sunday. My mate was raving about them. First time this year mind. Then what do they do? Spike them today. They are a mess again. Seniors matches on this week, two off them. Visiting teams are going to be well chuffed. I've got to drive an hour to the course due to diversions for resurfacing the main road, I've already passed up onCaptains day because of this, and now I've been sent pictures of spiked greens. I've blown my top on our WhatsApp group. I'm ready to stop paying my subs. The club is going under and the clowns are hissing people off. Don't start with the well they must need it rubbish. We only have 300 members. Captains day is done and dusted by 12 noon. There is not the footfall to warrant this job being done. Especially with the green backed solid and no rain due for 7 days. I've called for them to be given a written warning for gross negligence
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So you want a warning given for them doing their job 😂😂😂

Have you considered that right now is a good time to hollow tine greens with the ability to water them and warm growing weather

We micro tined ours and they were fine within days

And it doesn’t matter how many members there are - greens need tuning regularly to promote growth , battle thatching and ensure no disease
 
To be fair, this seems a strange time to do invasive maintenance. Absolute peak season.

I would understand a light top dressing or micro tine, but I wouldn’t be happy with a full on holes to putt across.
 
Extract from a club's newsletter that a friend sent me a few days ago when we were trying to organise a game.

"Greens – major summer renovations
The major summer renovations will start on the West next Monday (30thJune). This will involve spreading 60-80 tonnes of sand on the greens which is then worked into the soil profile with 19mm solid tines and micro-tines and repeated brushing. Summer reno’s are an essential part of the program for providing year-round healthy and free-draining greens, and by doing it at this time of year the recovery will be significantly quicker than at other times.
The same process will take place on the East Course starting 28th July."

Some may recognize this club and know that the greens are some of the best around. No gain without pain.
 
Crazyface said:
Well well well. Our greenkeeper has decided to spike the bluddy greens. Captains day on Saturday and apparently the green were ace, also on Sunday. My mate was raving about them. First time this year mind. Then what do they do? Spike them today. They are a mess again. Seniors matches on this week, two off them. Visiting teams are going to be well chuffed. I've got to drive an hour to the course due to diversions for resurfacing the main road, I've already passed up onCaptains day because of this, and now I've been sent pictures of spiked greens. I've blown my top on our WhatsApp group. I'm ready to stop paying my subs. The club is going under and the clowns are hissing people off. Don't start with the well they must need it rubbish. We only have 300 members. Captains day is done and dusted by 12 noon. There is not the footfall to warrant this job being done. Especially with the green backed solid and no rain due for 7 days. I've called for them to be given a written warning for gross negligence
Click to expand...
1, 2, 3, … 10. That should help calm you down.
 
Ours are being spiked next Monday and Tuesday. They gave notice a couple of weeks ago so we can all plan our playing around it.
 
Crazyface said:
Well well well. Our greenkeeper has decided to spike the bluddy greens. Captains day on Saturday and apparently the green were ace, also on Sunday. My mate was raving about them. First time this year mind. Then what do they do? Spike them today. They are a mess again. Seniors matches on this week, two off them. Visiting teams are going to be well chuffed. I've got to drive an hour to the course due to diversions for resurfacing the main road, I've already passed up onCaptains day because of this, and now I've been sent pictures of spiked greens. I've blown my top on our WhatsApp group. I'm ready to stop paying my subs. The club is going under and the clowns are hissing people off. Don't start with the well they must need it rubbish. We only have 300 members. Captains day is done and dusted by 12 noon. There is not the footfall to warrant this job being done. Especially with the green backed solid and no rain due for 7 days. I've called for them to be given a written warning for gross negligence
Click to expand...
What do you men by spiking

There are two types

Hollow coring - this means removing pugs of soil and refilling with a sand and soil mix - this will normally take some time to recover but is normally done spring and late summer

Thin/narrow tining. This improves drainage and is done partially to stop rains from flooding, allows water to to get to the roots. Depending on what type of machine your club if they have an 'earthquake' machine has it helps to break down compaction and actually speeds up the greens, it normally makes virtually zero difference to how greens roll in terms of bumpiness and signs of it will disappear in days.
 
It obviously can be very frustrating, but I would suggest that you enter into a constructive dialogue with your club management starting with listening to the rationale given for both the work and timing of that work before going off the deep end. #justsaying
 
SatchFan said:
Ours are being spiked next Monday and Tuesday. They gave notice a couple of weeks ago so we can all plan our playing around it.
Click to expand...
This is what I would hope all clubs would do. It needs doing, just let me know in an email sent out to the members and then I can decide whether to play or not.
 
Neilds said:
Amazing how many people are expert green keepers without any qualifications or experience 🤣
Click to expand...

I found that during my captaincy year. It got so bad, I convinced the head greenkeeper to come down to the club one weekend lunchtime and sit out on the patio where the handful of "experts" were in full flow. He put them to bed in minutes. It was epic. One loudmouth was so peed off that he left which turned out to be an added bonus. And all it cost me was the two beers I had to buy.
 
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