A very busy week on the courses with the River course renovations completed.  The greens have come up particularly well with a smaller diameter tine used for the aeration lessening the damage and therefore recovery time.  The greens were de-thatched at minus 3 mm in up to 5 directions up and back on the same line which removed a huge amount of dead plant material and then were aerated with the cores left on to be rubbed back in to the surface.  The greens were then blown off with fertiliser applied and specially amended sand applied to finish them off.  All tees were also aerated and the cores rubbed back in and all fairways aerated.  All of this was achieved in 2 days which is a credit to the great work of the crew and the excellent weather.  There were 14 staff available on the day which compares to 22 for the River green renovations in 2009!

Aerating begins

 

Material blown off the green

This came out of 15 green

 

 

 

 

Finished result

Next time we have a school formal in the clubhouse we may need a fence around 18W green!!
Stilettos and bentgrass just don't mix!!  Then again it's one way to aerate the greens!!
 

Obviously a nice spot for a photo!!

 

The bunkers on the18th green on both courses have got a variety of rakes in them to see if we can find a better one than those we currently have.  Hopefully you won't hit into the bunkers but if you do let me know what you think.