Stormy weather

The high winds on Monday brought down many trees on the course and in the woodland. (Up to 67.8 mph was recorded at Slaughden)  The clearing up will take a few weeks.

Here is a selection of photos

Several poplars down on golf lane

Behind the 2nd green on the river course

Jerry Jones making a start on the clearance work

The pump house right of the 9th, several other trees were brought down in this copse

October rainfall

We're half way through the month and it's already the wettest of the year with 36.2mm so far!

Verti-draining greens

We've just started Verti-draining the greens on the river course.  This work will be completed in a couple of days and later this week we'll start on the main course.

Aeration is a vitally important aspect of our management regime enabling us to maintain firm dry surfaces all year round.  It counteracts the compacting effects of foot traffic and machinery.

Although aeration has a short term detrimental effect on the playing surfaces - particularly greens, there are many benefits.

• It improves the air content of the soil creating healthy growing conditions
• Root mass and depth is increased
• Drainage is improved and surface penetration of rainfall and irrigation is faster
• Drought resistance is increased
• Thatch accumulation is reduced

We aim to Verti-drain the greens every four to six weeks throughout the winter and spring.

Weather summary for August and September

The average temperature for August was 18 degrees, the second warmest on our records.  The highest temperature recorded was 25.8 and the lowest 10.3.  The total rainfall was 22.6mm which is less than half the average for August.
September was close to average temperature wise at 14.5 degrees with a high of 26.2 and a low of 6.5.  There was 34mm of rainfall, which kept the trend going of every month this year having below average rainfall.
The total rainfall so far this year is 235mm so unless the remainder of the year is incredibly wet it looks like we're going to have another sub 400mm year.
The four driest years on record (2006, 2009, 2010, 2011 were all under 400mm) have fallen in the last seven years.  2011 was the driest with only 298mm. 
Our average annual rainfall is 546mm and the wettest year on record is 2001 with 750mm.