January course work

The main tasks we've been working on this month are

• Verti-draining greens, tees and areas such as paths and worn parts of green surrounds.  This aeration work is probably the most essential winter renovation task as it alleviates the compacting effects of golf and vehicle traffic.
• Gorse coppicing to rejuvenate old leggy gorse, mostly on the 10th, 11th, 12th and 13th holes.
• Sapling cutting in the rough and gorse to prevent the course turning from heathland into woodland.  We remove large numbers of seedlings every winter and without this work the transition to woodland would be surprisingly rapid.
• Topping up sand in the bunkers where it has blown or washed away.
• Renovating the bunker left of the 3rd fairway.  (Don't worry - although it looks very deep at present, the final sand level will be similar to that before work started.  We're digging out deep because this area is very stony and we intend to put in a layer of clean soil to prevent stone being brought to the surface.)

Neil and Danny working on the 3rd bunker - some of the stony areas were so compact that a pick axe was needed to loosen it

Andrew and Shane topping up bunker sand

Trevor vertidraining

Weather summary for December

The temperature in December was a little above average at 6° (the average is 5.3°).  The lowest temperature was -0.8° on the 30th and the highest 14° on the 18th.  After the wettest November on record December was also relatively wet with 59.7mm compared with the average of 50.7mm.  The total rainfall for the year was 654.7mm, making it the wettest year since 2001 when we had 750mm.  The 2014 rainfall total was nearly 300mm higher than that recorded in 2013!

River course construction work update

Construction work on the new 3rd green and 4th tee on the river course is now finished.  The turf on the green and tee is now well established and the recently laid fairway turf is beginning to root and will be able to withstand further flooding within the next couple of weeks.  Once all of the turf is well rooted we can be confident that in the event of future tidal surge flooding the area will drain quickly and the salt resistant fescue turf will recover.  All of the costs associated with this project have been covered by our insurance.

The timing of the opening of the new areas for play is very dependent on the weather over the winter and spring but it's unlikely to be before the end of May.

River course work

We've been getting on with a few tasks on the river course this week.  The last of the scots pines between the 3rd and 4th holes that were killed by salt water flooding have been felled.  Work is in progress on slightly raising, extending and strengthening the bund on our boundary left of the 6th green.  It should now protect this area from all but the very highest surge tides.  Work has also started on building a couple of low mounds between the 8th and 9th holes.  The main purpose of these is to encourage players on the 8th to aim slightly left so that fewer balls are hit towards the 9th carry.

Danny felling the last couple of pines

Working on the bund left of the 6th

Starting work on the mounds

Arthur and Shane laying turf on one of the mounds right of the 8th

Mishap on the marsh

The large digger that has been working on Hazelwood marsh in recent weeks fell into a dyke yesterday and it's still there today.  No one was hurt but it looks like recovering it will be a difficult job and repairing it will be an expensive one.

Oops!

And then the tide came in

River course construction work

The turfing of the new 3rd fairway and approach was completed today.  We've been here before but hopefully this time it will have time to get established before the next storm surge!  Once the roots have got a grip the fescue turf we've put down should survive occasional saltwater flooding.  The areas further from the playing line that have not been turfed have been seeded.

Shane laying turf this afternoon

Tree planting

We've planted some pines right of the 3rd hole on the river course to replace those lost to the storm surge.  The new trees have been planted on higher ground above the level of the storm surge.  Some more pines were planted left of the 14th hole on the main course to screen golf lane and some of the buildings beyond.  Behind the 13th green hawthorn hedging has been planted close to the boundary to screen Leiston road.  Some of the gorse transplanted to this area last winter is already well established.

Shane and Danny planting pines

Weather summary for November

 After a warmer than average October the temperature in November was close to record breaking with an average of 10.2°.  The warmest November on our records was 2011 with 10.7°.  The lowest temperature was 1.8° on the 24th and the highest 17.6° on the 1st.  The wet theme to this autumn continued with the wettest November we've recorded.  We had 107mm of rain; more than double the 50mm average for the month, 25mm of the total fell in one day on the 5th.

Pine tree felling

Work has started on felling the row of Scots pine trees right of the fourth hole on the river course.  These have all been killed by the storm surge flooding with salt water.  The Monterey pines are faring a little better and we hope that at least some of these will survive.  We intend to plant a few replacement pines on higher ground in the triangle of rough between the 3rd and 5th holes.

Neil. Danny and Shane clearing the debris

River course update

The situation on the river course following the tidal surge and flooding three weeks ago is much improved.  The 3rd green and 4th tee are in very good order and due to the very mild weather we have already cut them twice.  The fairway turf that was laid the day before the flood has fared less well but we've saved a good proportion and we're confident that this will recover given time.  The heavy rain over the last couple of weeks has kept the area very wet (not helped by the layer of silt brought in by the flood) but the rain will have helped to flush the salt out of the turf and soil.  We intend to replace the lost turf in a couple of weeks time when the site has dried out a bit.

Craig cutting the new 3rd green for the first time