Wildlife walk

Our annual wildlife walk took place early this morning in wonderful spring sunshine.  Around 30 species of bird were seen or heard and red deer were present on the set aside fields.  Avian highlights were good views of a singing nightingale and a nesting tree creeper.  The bluebells at the far western end of the woodland are spectacular at present and well worth a look.  Many thanks to the leaders of the walk, Mike Swindells and Dave Thurlow.

Top dressing greens

The greens were top dressed this morning.  Top dressing is one of our main tools for promoting firm and true putting surfaces.  Through the growing season we aim to top dress once every four to six weeks and we usually apply around six dressings per year.  There is strong grass growth at present so the material will disappear into the base of the sward fairly quickly.

Danny top dressing the 4th green

Practice bunker

The new practice bunker is open for business and Simon Reeve was the first to try it out.  Of course Simon made it look easy; peppering the flag with a dozen golf balls.

Please take care when entering and leaving the bunker as the turf is still a little delicate.

Weather summary for March

It was a warm month with an average temperature of 8.4 degrees, 5.5 degrees higher than March 2013 (2.9) and over 2 degrees higher than the long term average (6.1).  The highest temperature recorded was 18.2 on the 31st and the lowest -0.1 on the 24th.  We recorded 13.8mm of rain, 8mm of this in the first three days of the month.  The average for March is 37.7mm.