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