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.

Where did i put them sunglasses?

Just a quick update for you all on the maintenance practices that have been happening on the links this week.

The weather plays a big part in when we carry out many of our greenkeeping tasks, for example a nice bit of rain to wash in topdressing and fertilisers etc.This week provided an ideal opportunity to carry out a lot of tasks which we wouldnt normally be able to do such as some localised overseeding work we started on Monday as with above average temperatures and looking like it will remain settled for a while every opportunity to improve the playing surfaces must be grabbed with both hands! 

As previous in overseeding we have used a solid tine to a 8-9mm depth and used a drop spreader to broadcast the seed and then brushed/matted the seed into the holes.

After this we have topdressed the overseeded areas to improve seed and soil contact and improve germination chances, we will also apply seaweed to these areas in a couple of weeks to enhance germination.

The weather being so mild and with heavy rain forecasted for Thursday,which it certainly did! was an ideal opportunity for us to start our top dressing programme which will help keep the greens firm,restore surface levels and smoothness and helps promote a good soil profile as well as improving percloation rates and controlling thatch levels as well as encouraging a healthy dense sward.

Here is a picture of our widespin dresser in action 

Even this liitle fella loved the topdressing so much he wanted to join in!

After the topdressing is broadcast it is matted in to the turf gently with some astroturf on a metal mat.

The opportunity to apply the first fertiliser feed for the year was also taken with a traditional Lawn Sand dresssing being applied which has a little bit of iron to tackle any moss in the base of the turf as well as reducing the pH to encourage the finer grasses and deter worms from casting as well as a little nitrogen to fill any bare areas left by the removal of the moss of which there is very very little but we are aimimg for the very best greens so attention to detail is paramount.

It's very important to have all these tasks done which are an important base and start for the season and is equally pleasing to be ahead of the game through good planning of the links team.

Out of interest the blog is still having many views and we are now over 3,500 views! Fantastic,like ive mentioned before if you have any questions please don't hesitate to ask.

Rhys Butler, Links Manager, Royal St Davids Golf Club.

Spring is here!

Well with the St David's meeting upon us tomorrow and a nice day forecast with light winds and slightly colder than average temperatures it looks like a good day to kick start the season. Time has flown by and although there has been no great change in the weather recently with high rainfall inflating the water table and strong Southerly winds being the norm. We survived the major storms that hit most of the country hard but with some trees coming down by the clubhouse which unfortunately proved the end for the practice net but lucky as we are to be blessed with one of the best driving ranges in the country for a limber up before tackling the links all is fine.

There has been tremendous strides made by the Links team in the continuation of the winter programme with the ecological tree and scrub management coming to a close now before the nesting birds return. Here are a few examples of the hard work carried out.

Below the left hand bank left of the 2nd green cleared of the invasive bramble, this will be planted with marram grass and  heather very soon.

The 2nd left hand back as it was covered in bramble, quite horrid!

Below the right hand side of the 2nd green where trees and bramble had again been allowed to take over the area.

 The right hand side of the 2nd green with the area stripped and returned to its natural state with rough turf,sand and heather.

 Below a picture of the 14th with the right hand bank covered in bramble and trees and thick burnet rose on the left hand bank.

Below with the banks stripped to bare sand and returned to it's natural environment as the hole was meant to be played with much better view of the wayward shot's location and improving the visual appeal of the hole.

The left hand bank on the 14th shaped and contoured as nature intended.

This picture below proves how much you can change a hole visually, the approach shot to the 17th in my opinion was ruined by the shell path from 14th tee catching the eye and taking away the natural feel of the hole.
Now with a rough turf bank introduced in front of the path the approach shot now looks far more natural with the green appearing to be in a natural amphitheatre and further highlighted of the natural environment with the sandy waste area in the backround.

The new rough bank in front of the path

The picture below shows another scrub area tackled by the team has been the 170m2 blackthorn and bramble bush on the left hand side of the 17th hole,this again has been reduced to bare sand and will be much more playable as well as being visually much more attractive.

The final piece of this year's ecological work was the removal of the bramble in front of the 16th tee,shown below, this is far better visually with the tee looking now like it's just sitting there in the dune, a fabulous natural teeing ground.

The final few changes to the 17th hole have now been completed with the last bunker on the right hand side of the fairway being filled in, the old grass bunker being lowered to make the greenside bunkers a lot more visible and the raising of the level of the ladies 17th tee. What a terrific hole it now is!

Alongside all the ecological work that has been carried out there has been lots of other maintenance happening on the links with some late turfing/patching of rabbit holes and a few areas on paths etc.
With the high rainfall of 210mm in January and a significant amount again this month we vertidrained the greens and a bit of out of the ordinary took the step to solid tine the greens again the week after as we felt the greens were still  a little wet and felt we needed to dry them out as much as we can to favour the finer grasses and to keep them as smooth and firm as possible. Some lightweight rolling soon restored surface smoothness and firmness to the greens.
The greens have also received an application of seaweed and iron and a little potassium for optimum plant health.
The tees and approaches have also received the same treatment.
The course is all ready for the St David's meeting with the course fully divotted and with presentation complete with tees, approaches etc cut and everything as tidy as possible its all ready for the golfers to get out there and enjoy the links.
I would very much like to thank all of the team for all their hard work throughout the challenging winter period, the quality of the course and changes which i hope you will all enjoy is testament to all their hard work and passion and commitment to Royal St David's Golf Club.

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