The warmer temperatures and beautiful sunny days have certainly helped the liquid fertiliser that has been applied to the fairways to really kick in with some excellent colour noticeable.  It isn't really warm enough for the fairway grasses to come to life just yet but it's a pleasant look on the courses.  Throughout the low growth months of winter the divots left in fairways are much more noticeable as there is little to no recovery and those divots that are sanded are very obvious.  It is very important for the divots to be filled with sand to allow fellow players the chance of not finishing in a depression but rather a sandy lie.  Too much sand is bad for the surface and most particularly the mowers so a little care taken with refilling your divots goes a long way to improving the courses.  Certainly the attempt to fill divots on 6W tee below is less than desirable!!

 

Not the way to fill divots

The temporary greens on the front nine West are developing and give a great demonstration of just how important full sunlight is for turf to grow properly.  The photos of 3W which is nearly in total shade and 9W which gets substantial sunlight are prime examples.  The USGA course advisory service has a saying that "if your turf isn't getting 8 hours sunlight a day.....why isn't it?"  In other words if you want quality turf then the sun needs to reach the ground.  The greens were sown with a mixture of Poa Trivialis and Bentgrass and the Trivialis is supposed to be an "elite shade grass" which still isn't good enough to get it to germinate well on 3W.

9W temporary germination

3W struggling for germination