Greenkeeper SectionOur Head Greenkeeper-Gregor Norrie.
Gregor became our Head Greenkeeper in September 2006 and was responsible for the final shaping and the growing in of the course. His career started in June 1994 undertaking an apprenticeship at Carnoustie Golf Links, once this was completed at the end of 1997 he moved to an inland resort, Letham Grange by Arbroath. Whilst working here in 2000 the opportunity was taken to work for The Old Course Hotel St Andrews on The Dukes Course. In 2001 the chance of working at one of the finest golf resorts worldwide, Gleneagles came up. Initially working on the Kings and Queens courses Gregor was quick to progress to a senior position on The PGA Centenary Course and was involved in the remodeling work for The Ryder Cup in 2014. Throughout his career Gregor has prepared courses to 5 star resort standards and has worked at various European Tour events.
Members/Guests.
This greenkeeping section is a new addition to the Forbes of Kingennie website. In this I will keep everyone up to date with the ongoing work on the course and will explain why certain tasks are carried out. I am happy to answer any constructive questions anyone may have and listen to any ideas put forward.
Course Updates Recent work - verti cut, hollow cored, over seeded, top dressed, granular fertilizer applied. Recent work - general maintenance, mowing, edged tee stones, edged / painted distance markers. Recent work - general maintenance / brushing / mowing. Recent work - general maintenance. SEMI ROUGH Upcoming work - application of granular fertilizer. GENERAL WORK Selective weedkiller to be applied to all outfield areas of course. All gulley drains have been edged. As I write this report the course remains closed due to a covering of snow/ice. This is the 17th day and counting it has been closed in March and this is the first time in the courses history it has been closed in March due to snow. Let’s hope spring appears soon in time for the season ahead. We will move onto the full course on Monday 1st of April and would like to take this opportunity to thank all the members for using mats through the winter as this has helped protect the tees and fairways from any damage. The course as it stands is in good condition and ready for the start of the season. A couple of dates for your diary are Saturday the 6th of April, a Texas Scramble will be held, this is the traditional season opener with a 2pm shotgun start {arrive 1 30pm}. Another event in April is a member’s guest day. This will be held on Sunday the 21st April and any current club member {2013/2014} can bring along a guest for a complimentary game and use of the facilities at Forbes of Kingennie. Tee times must be booked in advance by calling the sports desk on 01382 350213. The putting green project we have been working on is nearing completion. The weather has hindered our progress slightly but with the addition of 300mm root zone layer this week it’s the small finishing touches and seeding remaining to be carried out. Below is the scheduled programme of top dressing/hollow coring work for the greens this Season. These dates can be dictated by the weather as top dressing in the rain it’s not advisable! One of the reasons for top dressing is to maintain a level surface. Reasons for hollow-coring: - Removal of organic material - Helps dilute/break up organic/thatch layer - Air circulation - Helps keep surface dry/firm - Aids drainage - For seed bed Monday 15th April - hollow core/over seeding Monday 22nd April - top dressing Monday 20th May - top dressing Monday 8th July - top dressing Monday 2nd September - top dressing Monday 30th September - hollow core/over seeding Monday 7th October - top dressing Top dressing is an essential part of maintaining a golf course. Listed below are some of the recent work and some of the upcoming work practices on the course. GREENS Recent work - granular feed applied, micro nutrient package applied. Upcoming - verti-cutting - this is a fine form of scarification which removes organic material, hollow coring, over seeding, top dressing, granular feed application, mowing height reduction. APPROACHES Recent work - worm suppressant applied. Upcoming - granular feed application. TEES Recent work - worm suppressant applied. Upcoming work - granular feed application, mowing height reduction. FAIRWAYS Recent work - rolling work, brushed, mown, worm suppressant applied. Upcoming work - mowing height reduction, granular feed application. SEMI-ROUGH Upcoming - granular feed application. BUNKER Upcoming - sand distribution levels check and add fresh sand to all bunkers. CAIRNGORMS PUTTING GREEN Upcoming work - granular feed application. After the course being closed for 11 days due to the snow, everybody was glad to see a quick thaw and to see the course re-open. The course in general is in good condition. The approaches,tees and fairways have a healthy,dense sward and will be in good condition for the start of the golfing season. Likewise the greens are very healthy and have a dense sward and have been draining much better this winter. The continued investment in the golf course has seen the start of our main project this winter, we have recently started working on the construction of a putting green and surrounding shrub beds beside the 1st tee. It was felt this area approaching the 1st tee would benefit from the installation of a putting green and a bench area should golfers like to have a practice putt prior to teeing off. The putting green will be built to U.S.G.A specification with the correct drainage,gravel layers and quality sand rootzone. The profile of the putting green consists of,the base sub-grade with the drainage channels excavated, then the drainage pipe is placed in them. On top of this is the main gravel carpet carpet,100mm in depth. Above this is a 50mm blinding layer made up of finer 10mm gravel. The final layer consists of the sand rootzone at a depth of 300mm. The green will be sown with seed approximately at the end of March/start of April,this is dependent on the weather not being to cold. The seed will be the same grass species as the existing greens. The seed will take time to germinate and mature but the green will be in use this season. It will certainly be a great addition to the facilities here at Kingennie. Below I have listed some of the other recent works that have been carried out and also some of the planned upcoming work. GREENS: Recent work - verti-drained, fungicide applied. Upcoming work - general maintenance, granular feed. APPROACHES: Recent work - fungicide applied. Upcoming work - application of worm suppressant. Granular feed. TEES: Recent work - verti-drained, fungicide applied. Upcoming work - granular feed, application of worm suppressant. FAIRWAYS: Recent work - verti-drained. Upcoming work - rolling work to even up surfaces after the deep aeration, application of worm suppressant. CAIRNGORMS PUTTING GREEN: Recent work - fungicide applied. Upcoming work - granular feed. GENERAL WORK: Other general tasks which have been carried out are, painting of tee markers and hazard posts. Also we have been working on the trees on the course, trimming back lower branches and re-tying/staking work. Recent work: hollow-cored, fungicide applied, micro nutrient package applied, liquid iron feed applied. Recent work: Hollow-cored, worm suppressant applied, fungicide applied. Recent work: For the last month we have been hand cutting the foregreens and collars to prevent any damage from larger ride on machine and also the presentation is far superior. Worm suppressant applied and fungicide applied. Upcoming work: Verti-draining. Application of granular winter feed. Recent work: Brushed fairways to remove stripes and lift grass then mown/shaded "half and half" for winter. PUTTING GREEN: Recent work: Fungicide applied. ROUGH: Recent work: We have started to cut and collect the long rough this will continue over the next few weeks. We have started to edge all drains on the course, essential work ensuring all the drains are clear. Also we will be edging all irrigation valve boxes. In general the the golf course has been at its best this season in the last 4 to 5 weeks. This is purely been down to the fact it has had a chance to dry out and we have been able to have dry cuts in all areas of the course. There is some light scarring in some of the wet areas which have been re-seeded and will recover before winter. As you will read below we have started preparing the course for winter,carrying out hollow coring and raising cutting heights to allow the course to go into winter as healthy as possible. I intend to go onto a winter course on the 1st of November,playing from tee mats,fairway mats and winter greens when weather conditions dictate. The main issues recently have been the greens and the horrific "summer" weather. GREENS- The greens have progressed well recently and grass cover has been mainly restored. Due to the recent wet spell that has lasted for going on 4 weeks a couple of areas on the 9th green are struggling despite regular aeration. Hopefully by keeping these areas aerated and some dry weather soon there will be no lasting damage. The two new greens 6th and 8th have come on well and benefited from their break a few weeks ago. Due to these greens still being new, mowing heights and general work e.g. top dressing, rolling etc will be not as intense as it is to the original greens. To sum up the 6th and the 8th will be slightly slower than the other greens. All the greens are being sarrel rolled regularly just now. This is a mild form of aeration with the purpose being to allow air and water to the root structure. This is important just now with the wet weather. Recently the greens have been verti-cut, this is a form of scarification to remove some of the thatch/organic layer from the greens. This also eliminates any lateral growth meaning less resistance for a ball rolling on the surface. Also this practice will remove any Annual Meadow Grass seed heads which will help stop this grass spreading and again make the greens run true. After the greens were verti-cut they were top-dressed. This is always a contentious issue with golfers. The main reasons for top-dressing is to integrate sand into/break up the thatch layer, which helps keep the greens draining and keep the surfaces dry/firm and also to level the putting surface, filling in pitch marks or any other indentations. Work to be carried out soon on the greens include, application of a growth regulator, this product targets the gibberellic acid site in the plant which controls the elongation. By targeting this inhibits vertical growth resulting in reduced top growth by up to 50%. For golfers this means less growth through the day, a benefit especially if you play in the evening. Also an application of potassium silicate is due. This product promotes upright growth in the grass plant, meaning less resistance to a ball rolling on the surface. With the application of both these products and a slight reduction in mowing height the greens will roll a tad more true and quicker. TEES- Nothing major to report here. Regular maintenance work continuing, including mowing, aeration, filling divots, edging tee stones etc. FAIRWAYS- The fairways are in good shape and I am quite pleased with the grass density and condition despite the ground conditions. All fairways have missed some mowing recently and mainly the 6th and 8th have went without being cut for nearly 2 weeks. This is because of the wet conditions and if these areas were mown there's every chance the machine would have damaged the ground leading to repairs and G.U.R areas. An application of fertilizer will be due soon which will help maintain sward density and colour and see them going into winter strong. FOREGREENS- Similar to the fairways it’s the ground conditions which are my only cause for concern. Mainly the 2nd and the 9th are proving to be problem areas despite regular aeration. Again these areas have missed many cuts due to the conditions and again not wanting to cause any damage. Hopefully these areas have a chance to dry out soon. BUNKERS- Regular maintenance continuing, flymo work, weeding, raking etc. The bunkers are due to be edged in the next week. SEMI ROUGH- No real problems here, like other parts of the course its trying not to make much mess and cause any damage with the wet conditions. I hope you find the above information useful. Gregor has been out and about with his camera and has popped these pictures on to highlight some of the challenging wet conditions we have faced. |
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