Winter work update.

Just a quick update on the winter work, Im sure that many of you that have played have seen a few of the changes already carried out by the Links Team.  We started by raising and extending the drain at the rear of the 15th green to try and drain what is one of the wettest areas on the golf course.We also turfed and matted the areas leading up to the 16th tee and leading towards the 16th fairway, this has tidied up this area considerably.

Following on the turfing and matting theme the team have carried out fantastic work on the 9th and 10 th pathways already, with more to do also this winter this will see a huge improvement in the wear and tear and presentation of the walkways. 

 This winter will see a continuation of the great work of scrub clearance from last year with many more areas to be tackled with many being reduced to bare sand to improve the habitat for the mining bees etc and a much more of a links feel in the golfing environment.

We have also been renovating some of the bunkers, many had become very small and poor visually, this is the before picture of the 2nd right hand bunker,

And following the renovation, the bunker was raised a little, brought nearer the green and now with the sand lines visible from the start of the fairway it is a much more visually attractive bunker.

A similar problem on the 3rd hole, a bunker which had got very small and producing some very unfair positions and hidden from play.

 

The bunker has been reshaped and being one of the best strategic bunkers on the golf course is now clear to see and has much more visual interest.(the edges are kept firm so the ball runs into the middle of the bunker)

 The club have invested in a Toro hand mower for the winter months and this will see a dramatic reduction in wear and tear and compaction over the winter months on the greens and approaches when most damage can be made and we will see the improvements next year.
The greens are currently performing very well with very good smoothness, trueness and have been stimping at around 10!

More updates to come as the winter programme continues.

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas and a happy new Year from all the Links team.

Rhys Butler, Links Manager, Royal St David's Golf Club.

Happy,happy!

Well that was quite a contrast in months with September's rainfall a mere 16mm and October's rainfall at 175mm!Having just looked at the forecast for this week it doesnt look to great either.

The Links Team have been very busy with the Air2G2 aeration machine having done its job brilliantly and with no disruption to the playing surfaces at all, this machine really is the future of aeration.

Following this we have been overseeding many of the fairways, grassed walkways and green surrounds which have suffered after 40,000 rounds of golf this year,it is however very pleasing to see these areas greatly improved form last year with the use of wetting agent's and a bit more feed on these heavy wear areas to gain more grass coverage.

The overseeding on the greens has been a great success again this year with fabulous germination, we used the plant pot method of using a 13 mm solid tine to an 8mm depth,broadcast the fescue seed on the surface,we use a mix of slender creeping red fescue and chewings fescue with a few different cultivars, the seed is then matted in with a drag matt and a fendess topdressing to help germination.

After steady rainfall and warm temperatures which was perfect germination we applied a sand dressing to the putting surfaces to improve surface levels and a smooth ball roll.

The initial solid tine,seed, matt and topdress.

Now im happy when i see this!Germination!

We have now also decided to switch to a straight sand dressing which will enable us to apply more dressings through the autumn and winter periods when conditions allow.This is one change im very exited about and one i believe will make an enormous difference to the greens as we will accelerate organic matter reduction at the base of the turf which is one of our key objectives whilst creating a drier environment for the fescue to thrive whilst from a playing prespective will give much firmer, smoother and faster greens,now im sure that sounds good to everyone!

And here is another piece of the jigsaw which i believe will again improve the greens tremendously,this is our new greens roller, a demo machine which has come straight from the Ryder Cup, it was so good i couldnt let it go!

The winter programme is now well underway and we will have finished this project behind the 15th green tomorrow of raising what was a very low lying and always flooded in the winter with the high water table.We have raised this area around 18 inches, extended the drainage which was under this green and which goes out to the sea via on outlet pipe,we have also created subtle mounding and turfed and matted the worn areas to the tee and onto the fairway.

The golf course looks in tremendous shape at the moment with the greens undoubtedly as good as they have done all year, the few little changes we have had to carry out to improve plant health in the last few weeks is now really paying dividends.It really is great and very pleasing to see the Links Team's hard work coming to fruition.

We have a very busy winter schedule in front of us with lots of tasks to carry out which will improve the golf course even more, these will include

• Rabbit hole patching
• Removal of Scrub and consented gorse clearence
• Tree removal
• 8 naturalised bunkers
• Removal of shell and astro turf pathways
• Creation of sandy waste areas
• Rough management

As you can see there is a lot to do and there is a lot o rabbit holes,lots of scrub and lots of paths to do as well as also presenting the golf course to the best possible standard on a daily basis.

Best get on with it then!

Regards,

Rhys Butler,Links Manager,Royal St David's Golf Club.

Autumn renovations

This is a bit of a shorter blog with another one coming up next week when all work essential work has been completed.

The Presidents meeting was a great success again with good golfing conditions for the keen golfers.

It was rather a sleepless night for me on the Friday with torrential rain and heavy winds forecast so play was in serious doubt at one point and having got wet feet before even arriving to our maintenance facility on the Saturday morning and big puddles of water everywhere it really didnt look good, however a drive around a couple of the greens in the dark with the lights on revealed dry putting surfaces so it was game on.

The team as usual carried out a thorough course set up, cutting and rolling greens, moving holes and tees markers as well as divotting and all bunkers raked and after a showery start by the time we had finished course set up the sun was out and a glorious day lay ahead for the golfers. Phew!

A check of the rainfall gauge did show that we had 46 mm of rain over the weekend but all the aeration this year with the greens draining and performing very well after such heavy rain fall was a relief!

A small note to all golfers, with the Presidents meeting over we will now carry on with our Autumn renovations, the aim as always is to carry out these essential tasks as efficiently as possible with as little disruption as possible.We are aiming to 

• Overseed weaker fairways, walkways
• Topdress greens, tees and wetter fairways.
• Carry out aeration work on Wednesday 8th October, the Links Team will have priority on this day due to the machine being on hire and will need to complete all 19 greens in the one day. Please be patient as this is an essential task. The machine used for this is an Air2g2 self propelled hydrostatic drive three probe air injection machine which fractures the compacted rootzone.The benefits include improved root growth in the root zone through good micro biotic activity. Better drainage and aeration provides a more efficient take up of nutrients and moisture that will have long term beneficial effects to the soil structure and the health of the grass plant.
• Overseeding of the greens the following week to increase the amount of the finer leaved fescue grasses.
• We will also be starting much of the winter work programme soon so there will be lots happening in our quest to improve the golf course even further.

Many thanks,

Rhys Butler , Links Manager, Royal St David's Golf Club.

What an incredible spell of weather we have had, although August was a bit colder than the norm, a real indian summer has graced us in September with no rain for three weeks now and none forecast for the next two weeks!

As you can imagine this is good and bad for the links team, the hope was to overseed some fairways, walkways, tees and greens but the dry spell has halted us a little but with god soil temperatures there is hopefully still time .

The course has been looking great with the lads still in full flow presenting the golf course to the highest standard possible and with everything still growing it has been a very busy period for the team after the last blog we have had the St David's Gold Cross amateur tournament, the Open amateur medal as well as the ladies and mens summer meetings and next week sees the Senior Men's Open and the 25th playing of the Aberdovey and Royal St David's pro-am.

Nothing unusual to report as we are still very much in the summer maintenance where high presentation is paramount.
The course has been playing very well with nice firm,dry linksy conditions being the order of the day,the greens have been running smoothly and putting nicely.I am tremendously exited with the amount of fescue i am now seeing in the greens and this will only help in producing even better putting surfaces in the future.
Once again even during such busy periods the links team have been keeping up with regular aeration,wetting agent applications,fertilizer applications when required, topdressing to keep playing surfaces smooth etc as well as all the cutting of the playing surfaces.
We have seen some fairy ring activity this year as have most clubs in the country, the hot dry spell and a wet/dry cycle are ideal conditions for these to flourish.The worst ones have recovered nicely by regular aeration and localised additional inputs of wetting agent to help reduce the hydrophopic areas in the middle of the fairy rings as the team is doing in the picture below.

As you can imagine working on the golf course, we do get to see some amazing wildlife and some extraordinary sights that nature provides us with,an amazing huge spiders web and there were hundreds down by the 6th hole.

A stunning array of colour's on this caterpillar on the 13 th green

Amazing sunrise over the 7th green.

A picture of the Team working hard during the summer meeting moving holes, cutting and rolling for extra smoothness to the putting surfaces.

On a personal note my girlfriend and I welcome a new addition to our family,another boy to our male dominated household,god  help Sian!Flynn was born on August 12th and is doing great.

Hard to believe but with this weather but we are only a few weeks away from the start of our winter programme, we have a lot of work planned again this winter and some exiting visual changes to the golf course which will really make a difference to the course.
Will keep you all posted.

Regards,

Rhys Butler, Links Manager,Royal St David's Golf Club.

Hot Hot Hot.

What a fabulous few weeks of links golf we have been treated to with baking hot weather for a prolonged period now providing a great authentic links experience.

 The Open as usual had lots of drama to keep us all on the edge of our seats and the golf course looked great,probably a touch greener than everyone wanted but its very difficult to beat mother natures untimely rainfall.

I went to watch the practice day on Tuesday and it was great to see the top players on the world trying to figure out and plot out their way around the links which was presented so magnificently by Craig Gilholm and his team.

The Links Team at Royal St David's have also been extremely busy with Open week a great success, the firm and fiery conditions proved a great test all week and the whole course looked superb, a testimony to the hard work of the Links Team.
A picture of the Links Team working during set up for the competition during Open week.

The club also hosted the Welsh professional championship at the start of July with a host of top players playing including past Ryder Cup Players and several European Tour players.
Some rain had softened the course a little for the players as the aim is always to set the golf course up firm and fast for all championships as links golf should be.
It was a thrilling finish with former European Tour Winner Stephen Dodd edging out a good friend  of mine Garry Houston in a play off.
It was great to hear such positive comments from a lot of the players on the changes and the course as a whole.

The course presentation has been of a consistently high level all year and we are always looking to improve all aspects of the golf course including , bunkers, pathways, greens,tees,fairways and approaches ,making the roughs playable whilst retaining the championship element of the golf course. 

We are currently working on improving the grassed walkways and I'm tremendously exited with the presentation improvement and definition in these areas, pictures to follow soon!

Below are a few pictures of the high quality presentation improvements that we are looking to maintain all the time.

The 5th fairway towards the green

Looking back down the 5th fairway

Looking back down the 10th fairway towards the tee

In between all the tournaments the Links Team have been very busy applying wetting agents to tees,greens, approaches and fairways which balances air to water ratios in the soil as well as treating the effects of dry patch and increases turf resilience and stress tolerance which i believe we have already seen a major difference in the quality of the sward on some of the weaker fairways which would be struggling after the long hot spell we have had. May there please be more of it!
We have been  busy continuing with the aeration programme which is already seeing big improvements in the rooting of the finer grasses with last week's 8mm solid tining of the greens and top dressed after to diluting any thatch levels whilst also promoting dry,firm and smooth putting surfaces.

We are very happy with the programme so far this year ,we are nicely up to date with all maintenance practises and my thanks goes to all the team for their hard work and passion and enthusiasm to provide the very best links experience on a daily basis to all golfers.

Hope to see you on the links soon,

Rhys Butler,
Links Manager, Royal St David's Golf Club.

Smooth!

We are still having some very strange weather at the moment,blistering sunshine Thursday and having just returned from work this morning setting up the course for the monthly medal in which i encountered very heavy rain, thunder and lightning!

The course is looking great at the moment thanks to all the efforts of the Links Team, the definition is fantastic at the moment with the fairways and semi rough and then the deeper rough beautifully defined.

A picture of the 8th fairway with the 1 st and 2nd cut of rough shown, the course is playing very fair at the moment. We are continually monitoring the roughs to make the course playable for all whilst retaining the championship elements which make the course what it is.

Below you can see the lads are busy divotting as we do every week to keep the course presentation at the highest level.

The greens are nice and firm currently with excellent smoothness and trueness levels. We have good green speed at the moment, this will vary with the more moisture slowing the greens but when the greens do get a nice dry spell they are very quick!

A view back up the 5th fairway

Following the redesign of the 17th hole and a change in design to a few of the bunkers to see how they play through the year and to gain an insight into golfers thoughts and to gain feedback for possibility of expanding this design to the rest of the golf course it was decided to do a trial on the 5th fairway bunker and to see the visual difference especially from the teeing ground.

The old bunker at ground level with no sand visible form the tee.

 The newly reshaped and renovated bunker with

The bunker at ground level

In the picture below it shows the visual difference the higher sand line makes to the tee shot with the sand clearly visible,there are also 5 bunkers down the left hand side which if the sand line was higher would be visible from the tee and would possibly define the shape of the hole a lot more clearly as well as for visitors playing for the first time would be able to differentiate between the mounds and bunkers on the hole.

The team have also been very busy working on the weaker areas with overseeding lots of areas on the golf course such as a few green edge perimeters and heavy wear areas and walkways. Improving the weaker areas and gaining good grass coverage on these areas makes such a difference to the presentation of the golf course.

As i mentioned in the previous blog , this time of year and through the summer is a lot more routine maintenance such as rough cutting, spraying applications of fertiliser,herbicide and wetting agents etc as well as divotting all playing areas and ,green,tee,approach and fairway cutting as well as raking the bunkers and keeping the pathways and all areas of the course in top condition.
We are also keeping up the regular aeration with solid tining monthly, weekly star slitting and regular top dressing applications.

Below is a picture of the importance of regular aeration to the plant, the plant needs air just like we do!

We have also renewed the 150 yard markers and look really good! The new tee markers are also a great improvement and have certainly improved the teeing ground presentation.

The wildlife and plants on the golf course this time of year is simply amazing,from a green winged orchid below to the Skylarks and buzzards which often can be seen in the skies, a wonderful site full of diversity.

We hope to see you out playing on the links soon,and lets pray for a bit of sunny weather to further enhance the golfing experience.

Rhys Butler, Links Manager, Royal St David's Golf Club.

Wow, rough!!

All of a sudden the whole course has started growing and the course has very much a summer look to it and when we have a dry spell the real links like conditions which we all expect in dry,firm and  fast playing conditions are here and a challenge for all. Although a unsettled period is expected for the next few days let's hope the dry and warm weather returns soon.

The rough has certainly grown recently and we have started to grade the rough from fairway to an inch and a half cut into a three inch cut before reaching the deeper rough. Every hole is different but the aim where possible is to have two cuts of each height. Being a championship golf course we are always aiming to produce a challenging test of golf whilst also being fair and playable for all golfers.

The definition of fairway and rough is certainly standing out now and is looking really good.

All playing surfaces , tees, greens, approaches and fairways have received an application of herbicide to clean them out from some of the weeds in them such as daisies,cats ear etc and will result in a nice clean playing surface with much better presentation.

Much of the work carried out over the winter such as the turf and matted areas are taking well and are regularly monitored to keep them in good condition.

We are always looking to improve any essential signage around the course and here we used some sleepers instead of the metal poles to hold up the signs and this is much more natural to the golf course and the history and connection to the railway.

The blog over the summer isn't quite as interesting,varied and exiting as over the construction period over the winter where the winter work programme provides many changes and improvements to the golf course but i hope to bring you all the latest news on the Links Team plans and work schedules.

Through the summer is much more presentation work with regular cutting of roughs, fairways, tees, approaches etc as well as regular aeration and topdressing and regular divotting etc to keep the course in excellent condition.There is a lot of other key maintenance practises that are also key to producing fantastic playing surfaces such as applications of wetting agent which is key on a links course as with high stress drought conditions which has been known to occasionally happen! produces a better rootzone environment which improves plant health to brushing of greens for refinement of the playing surfaces to produce the smoothest and truest playing surfaces possible.

We are currently nicely up to date with all maintenance tasks which is a great credit to the team for all their hard work and we can now work with the weather and make adjustments as we need.

We will be aiming to solid tine and topdress again in the next couple of weeks with the aim to complete the tasks as quickly and efficiently as possible to minimise disruption to the golfers which can mean some very early morning starts for the links team.
That's all for now, hope to see you all out on the links soon.

Rhys Butler, Links Manager, Royal St David's Golf Club

Easter sunshine!

What a fabulous start to the Easter meeting with glorious weather and great golfing conditions greeting the full field of golfers playing,and set to continue as well.
The Links Team have been very busy recently preparing and getting the golf course in fine shape with lots of presentation work being carried out such as strimming ,flymoing, divoting , cutting faiways, tees approaches and even with a little early season growth some rough as well!

We have been brushing the greens to remove any lateral growth in the greens and this in turn produces a much smoother, truer and faster putting sufaces, the greens are very good with all these attributes as well as good firmness producing excellent playing surfaces.

Due to such mild weather we are in a position to apply the herbicide to kill the daisy's and other weed contamination on the fairways,approaches ,tees etc.This makes a tremendous difference to the visual appearance and playability and taking the presentation of the golf course to the highest level.
As you can imagine the grass does take a bit of a knock back during this herbicide application therefore it is good practice to feed the surfaces first to strengthen up the sward, we have already done this and are now in a position in the coming week to start applying the herbicide.

The improvement to the 12th  tee complex with new steps on both mens and ladies tees greatly improving the area is now complete and has made a great visual impact to the hole.

Before

After

The new walkways which replaced some of the the shell paths with turf and matting is taking very well and the grass is coming through nicely with the paths looking very natural whilst also being very hard wearing with the matting for extra protection.
All of the areas we returfed ,re contoured etc over the winter period the new 17th and the new hollows etc are always being refined and looked after in order for establishment and presentation to be of the highest quality.

We have a lot of key maintenance practices to carry out after the easter meeting with pro core solid tine aeration, this will keep the turf  healthy and give the deep rooting fescues more passages to explore.
There will be very little disruption with the greens rolled immediately to reinstate a smooth surface.
We also will be topdressing the greens soon to help produce a nice smooth putting surface.


Wishing you all all a happy easter and hope you all enjoy your golf.

Rhys Butler,Links Manager, Royal St David's Golf Club.

Sand!

We are now starting to see a lot more sand around the course trying to capture the linksy feel of the environment and whilst getting pictures for the  blog i was reminded that sand and cameras really don't go well together with the zoom on my camera now disappeared and the camera is not looking like it's going to last much longer!Lesson learnt! Sand 1 Camera 0.

A lot of the winter programme has come to an end and many thanks go to all of the team for all of their hard work in all weather. We only have the 13th Sandy waste area to the left of the fairway around the sharp rush to finish, the removal of the top soil and enriched sand within the area leaving only bare sand to colonise naturally, this bare sand will benefit plant and invertebrate species which specialise in open sand habitats within the dune system as well as making this area much more playable as previously it was very thick grassland and finding your ball was almost impossible but now a much more open area is a benefit to all.

Here is a picture of the area to the right of the 2nd green which has been completed using rough turf and heather, a vast improvement from the trees and bramble which dominated the right hand side of the green previously.

The left hand side of the 2nd has also been completed following the removal of the bramble that had covered the bank, this bank as you can see has now been transplanted with marram and looks far better and more like the environment we are striving for.

2nd bank from the 3rd tee side with some rustic sleeper detailing to complete the job.

The 15 the tee has also been completed with marram added in between the heather to blend into the beautiful natural landscape.

This area is now much improved and will now withstand the wear and tear of golfers far better.

From this.

To this!

 The 16 th tee has also been completed with the  5 foot high bramble bush that surrounded the tee having been stripped and reduced to bare sand and now having been finished by being planted with marram this tee now looks fantastic sitting there perched upon the dune.What a fabulous teeing natural teeing ground!

The greenkeeping team over the years have stockpiled a huge quantity of old turves and topsoil which has been left to decompose naturally with all the beneficial bacteria, fungi and earth worms doing their bit in the big compost bund around the turf nursery and we have been screening this composted materials this week for use on the golf course for divotting etc. This process of recycling old materials makes the site very sustainable with our own turf nursery and our own natural soil supply and it is beautiful soil whilst saving us a fortune and not having to import any materials for turfing etc.

 The soil screener,its big!

 The result,lovely soil.

The team have also been very busy this week aerating the greens with a 8mm solid tine.

Aeration is critical to the turf health, it relives soil compaction and reduces the accumulation of thatch as well as providing oxygen to the roots of the plant as well as spaces for the deep rooting fine grasses to explore. 

The greens have been rolled to restore surface smoothness following aeration and they are quick!

The course in general is drying out nicely and with the water table getting gradually lower day by day we are hoping all the bunkers will be back in play soon.

The forecast with just the odd shower over the weekend in general is very good and preety settled with some nice sunny periods.

There is a few more maintenance practices planned on the golf course in the next week or so, we are looking to get an application of Lawn Sand on the greens and a light top dressing will follow.

The tees will have a light feed and a light sand dressing also.

The fairways have also already had an application of wetting agent which should in the long term greatly improve the condition and uniformity of the finer grasses population on the fairways.
Wetting agent will work in the soil to stabilize moisture levels  as well as balancing air to water ratios and provide better access to nutrients in the rootzone resulting in stronger turf throughout the season that will perform in all conditions as well as increase turf resilience and stress tolerance.

As always a huge thanks to all the team for their hard work,dedication, passion and enthusiasm to the club and golf course,truly fantastic to see.

Happy golfing,

Rhys Butler, Links Manager, Royal St David's Golf Club.