Introduction

Wow! What an end to 2009 and start to 2010. Our first hit of snow was on Thursday 17th December causing the course to be closed for a few days before Christmas. The snow thawed and the course remained open throughout most of the holiday period between Christmas and New Year. Then on the evening of Tuesday 5th January came the real carnage. Over 20cm of snow fell throughout the evening and overnight causing chaos and bringing the whole Country to a virtual standstill. For the first 3 days following the snow there was no electricity to the Club and all of it's buildings and with the roads virtually impassable there was no way of getting to the Club. We suffered substantial tree damage around the course, with many fallen trees, broken branches and damaged, dangerous branches still hanging on but perilously close to falling. It was obvious that a massive clear up operation would be required as soon as the snow started to thaw and disappear. As it turned out freezing cold temperatures ensured that the snow stayed for longer than we all hoped and in the end the course remained closed from Wednesday 6th January until Saturday 23rd January - just in time for the mens monthly medal.

The lonely clubhouse 

"Help! I'm sinking" shouts Alistair

Tree damage

The heavy snow not only caused chaos on the roads it also created a lot of problems in terms of tree and shrub damage. We lost quite a few trees and suffered substantial damage from the weight of the snow bending and breaking bows and branches, making many areas very unsafe. Gorse around the course also suffered quite badly (something tells me that not everyone will be heartbroken about that!!). Local contractors Green Frontiers had to be employed for 3 days with their specialist climbers, in order to remove high, hanging and damaged limbs and generally make things safe. Our own Greenstaff spent almost 3 working weeks clearing and tidying the course, with an estimated 200 tonnes of fallen timber and unsafe timber which had to be felled taking over 500 hundred man hours to remove. One of the most notable casualties was the birch tree overhanging the front of the 1st green. So far i've heard a few calls of "it's crying out for a bunker" however, we will wait and see how it plays this season before making any decisions. 

The end of an era as the 1st green birch is cut up

Irrigation System

Since the beginning of November, the team from Lakes and Greens have worked tirelessly on the course in some horrendous weather conditions. However, not even they could get anything done on the course during the snow. They estimate that they're just over a month behind schedule due to the weather. During the whiteout they kept themselves busy installing the housing for the pump station in our small maintenance building.

Bunkers

The weather has played havoc with our winter programme of bunker refurbishment. The bunkers on our agenda for remodelling are 5th greenside (becoming 2 bunkers), 8th left greenside, 15th both greenside and all 3 bunkers at the 18th. That will be a total of 21 bunkers either remodelled or constructed during the past 3 years. The remaining 21 bunkers, with the exception of the small one behind the 16th have good heathland characteristics and will have drainage installed where necessary, severe overhangs removed, possibly more heather where required and will be replenished with new sand thus creating uniformity throughout the course. When the aforementioned work is completed, the need for further strategic fairway bunkering and possible relocation of existing fairway bunkers will be considered.

5th Bunker Project

One of the weakest bunkers on the course was the greenside bunker at the 5th. In my opinion, it was a poor defence to the green, on a short and relatively easy par 5 hole. We decided to construct 2 new bunkers - one at the front to protect the front left entrance to the green and one behind it more or less in the same location as the old one, but slightly deeper! Strategically, the best line (for golfers going for the green in 2) is left of centre and let the natural terrain bring the ball back and up onto the green. Players will now have to be very wary of this shot as the front bunker poses a real threat - this, invariably, will sew a seed of doubt in one's mind and perhaps sticking to the right is a safer play. Hitting the target in 2 now becomes more difficult and anything to the right of the green playing to a hole location on the top level is a little tricky! In order to dig the bunkers to the correct level and tie in with the surrounding contours, it was necessary remove a substantial amount of soil. The spindly, ivy covered sticks between the green and the main road were removed (although i'm not sure how some of them were still standing) and the excavated soil was bunded around the entire area to the side and back of the green. At the moment we are planting a shrub mix of laurel, gorse and rhododendron surrounded by grass on the bunded soil. The bunkers will have their surrounds turfed with a mixture of grass and heather. At the moment the bunded area looks very contrived and artificial, however, in a few years time once the shrubs start to mature and spread, I'm certain that this will be a nice feature that not only screens the the area from the main road but allows more, much needed sunlight onto the green. There is scope to extend the green (back right) and the existing stopper banking behind the green will remain in situ in order that it can be spread and used as a sub base should we choose to do so in the future. Perhaps, instead of focusing on the newly planted area, we should look more closely at the trees which line both sides of our course along the stretch of main road, made even more unsightly following the recent snow damage - and consider whether such a mess is an appropriate advert for the Club.    

New pumphouse

Digging out left greenside bunker at 15th

15th left greenside starting to take shape

            Work commencing on 5th bunkers project

Digging out new bunkers at 5th

Planting laurel bushes on 5th soil bund 

Scruffy trees and scrub along the roadside