Dear All members

Last October/November we suffered a severe outbreak of Fusarium disease caused by damp,humid conditions and despite spraying with chemicals 3 times over this period we suffered quite a lot of scaring. Normally in the spring the greens would recover naturally with good growing conditions but at the moment with lack of natural warm rain and cold night time temperatures recovery is very slow.

Last Monday the greens were all overseeded with browntop bent seed which is disease resistant, wear tolerant, and provides good all year round colour. Like most parkland courses the greens consist of a mixture of poa annua and bent and because of the low temps at night the poa is struggling to grow which is causing an uneven putting surface. Plugging is also being carried out daily with fresh plugs from our turf nursery and this will continue.

With night time temperatures due to increase next week plus the chance of rain showers the greens will soon recover and the putting surfaces will be back to where they should be at this time of year.

Kind regards

Andrew Ross
Head Greenkeeper