GREENS INFORMATION  The golf course at Downfield was, like most inland courses, running a little behind normal growth conditions. However, in the last few weeks the change in growth has made a huge difference. Presentation and quality of surfaces are now back to our usual high standards for summer play. Everyone who has visited Downfield seems to be very pleased with the way the course is playing. Greens are rolling at a very good pace and are running true. Scores in our competitions are reflecting this. Well done to Paul and his staff for their efforts.    The major work this winter was on drainage to keys areas and greens and winter 2010 will be no different. With rainfall seemingly increasing year on year, we need to do our very best to keep our on course drains flowing properly. We have put in new drains across some greens and on the worst fairways as well as repairing damaged drains all over the course, but this is an ongoing project. The major areas which have caused us most trouble during the last few wet spells. i.e. 6th,11th,14th,16th and 17th have all received some tlc. The bunker at right of the 5th green has been moved a little left to control traffic better, and to help with tying up some broken drains. There are two new bunkers on the 4th hole about 60  and 90 yards short of the new 4th green. The copse of trees to the left of the 12th green which have been causing extreme shading to the green, have now been removed and the green is thriving.     The 7th Green at Downfield Course report from Sports Turf Research Institiute   Downfield Golf Club Spring Agronomy Report Report Date: 26.04.10 The STRI Agronomy and Advisory service is designed to assist clients in understanding the best way to manage their sports facilities. All recommendations made by STRI are impartial, with no affiliation to any manufacturer, supplier or contractor. STRI Downfield Golf Club Spring Agronomy Report Date of Visit Monday 26th April 2010 Visit Objective To review the spring condition of the course and confirm spring and summer maintenance operations Present Mr David Hart – Green Convener Mr Paul Murphy – Course Manager Mr Richard Windows – Turfgrass Agronomist, STRI Ltd. 1.0 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY  Despite a very cold winter the course emerged into the spring with a good cover of grass to all playing surfaces. Cold temperatures and easterly winds recently have hampered early season growth.  Light foliar feeds through March and April have encouraged some growth despite the cold weather. These have also helped provide slightly smoother surfaces than previous springs.  Drainage was installed to the 17th green. Some additional rolling and top dressing is required to smooth and perfect this surface for the main season.  The maintenance programme at Downfield is excellent and produces very high quality putting surfaces during favourable summer conditions. However, playing qualities and turf condition quickly deteriorates during wet weather and more generally through the early spring months. The limiting factor on year round performance of the greens is due to the poor drainage qualities of the underlying soils and shaded environment around many greens. To improve year round performance we must look to improve drainage and improve light and airflow around the greens.  As part of the upgraded agronomy service, the STRI Programme (involving objective measurements) will be integrated into all future agronomy visits. This will identify where improvements are required, allow maintenance targets to be set and provide a measure of progress in response to maintenance over time.  We are delighted to see greens maintenance being extended into the surrounds and approaches to greens as well as a lower mowing height being adopted to these areas. .  The coarse textured perennial ryegrass remains an issue to green surrounds on 5, 7 and 13. A renovation programme will be formulated for these areas during the late summer. However, if this is unsuccessful re-turfing with high quality imported fescue/bent dominant turf will be required through the autumn/winter.  The 4th surround and approach remains weak and suffered during the wet autumn weather. The turf has subsequently thinned and will require significant renovation this spring to restore grass cover. Now that drainage has been installed a similar level of deterioration in the future should be avoided.  The 4th fairway requires intensive sand top dressing along with some feeding to boost growth and improve the consistency of lies and surface drainage.  One or two weak areas of fairways following winter damage was present (e.g. 1 and 2), which will require some overseeding and feeding over the forthcoming weeks. 2.0 GREENS 2.1 Observations & Review As organic matter levels in the upper soil profile were identified as being slightly high last autumn, following the wet weather over the past two years, an intensive thatch removal and top dressing programme was formulated and implemented during October. This involved hollow coring using 19mm tines followed by the application of approximately 50 tonnes of sand to the greens. While this work went well, the late implementation of the work has meant the holes remain present throughout the winter and some of the weaker surfaces are still to recover. For this reason, hollow coring, albeit less intensive, should be implemented much earlier (ideally around July) to optimise recovery, minimise disruption to golf and improve the results from the operation. Due to sound maintenance operations, turf health and vigour was good going into the cold period of weather that commenced in mid December. Due to the shaded nature of some greens and the populations of annual meadow grass to these surfaces, there was a concern that the very cold weather and prolonged snow cover may have resulted in significant damage to the turf. Pleasingly this was not the case as the turf was strong and well conditioned going into this cold period of weather. Consequently all the surfaces except the 6th emerged from this cold weather with a strong cover of grass going into the early spring. The 6th did suffer from a greater intensity of fusarium damage and has been appropriately plugged to aid the rapid restoration of grass cover to this green. Some sections of greens which held water during the autumn/winter have lost grass cover, e.g. rear of 11 and right of 15. These will be renovated over the forthcoming weeks. So far this spring five applications of potassium nitrate fertiliser have been applied as a foliar feed through March and April to encourage early season growth and help improve early spring playing qualities. This programme has been successful and a significantly stronger cover of grass was considered to be present in comparison to previous years. A couple of top dressing applications have been made through March and April with regular Turf Iron rolling to optimise smoothness, trueness and early season pace. Some of the stronger greens (e.g. 9 and 18) have had some light verti-cutting to refine the bent grass component of the sward. As growth is now picking up, the main granular feed shall be applied to the weaker greens to help the hollow core holes fill in and facilitate the appropriate sward refinement operations to polish the greens in anticipation of the main season. Photograph 1: Thin turf is present to areas which retained water through the winter e.g. rear of the 11th green The installation of pipe drainage was successfully completed to the 17th green. However, the aeration work prior to the drainage installation did make the turf rather difficult to lift and re-lay. So, if this programme of work is extended to other greens in the future, avoiding any sort of aeration prior to re-turfing will of course be beneficial. 2.2 Discussion As we have discussed in previous reports, and during the recent visit, the maintenance programme implemented at Downfield is first class. The progress made over the past 10-15 years in improving botanical composition, year round consistency, reducing chemical inputs and ultimately providing high quality putting surfaces during favourable weather conditions is an example to other similar inland clubs. There is no doubt the standards that are achieved at Downfield during favourable weather conditions provide some of the best inland greens in Scotland. We simply need to sustain the current maintenance programme with some ongoing fine tuning to sustain the high standards currently achieved. However, as we have observed over the past 2-3 years (essentially since LFQ in 2007) the greens quickly deteriorate in terms of playing quality and turf condition during the winter and, in fact, during any periods of prolonged wet weather. The heavy and poor drainage performance of underlying soils combined with the heavily shaded nature of many of the greens being the primary reasons for such poor performance in wet weather. The reconstruction of the 4th, 12th and pipe drainage to the 17th green is a positive step to improve the performance of these greens but, we really should extend similar strategies to the other greens around the course over the next few years. In addition, it is essential we implement more tree thinning and removal work (see photograph 3) around many greens to improve light and airflow, which is an essential pre-requisite for healthy turf and year round playability. A serious discussion regarding these issues should be made internally to allow an appropriate management plan and budget for the works to be developed. We are Downfield Golf Club 5 confident the greens will not improve beyond the standards currently achieved unless this more intensive work is implemented. Photograph 2: Further tree removal is required to the rear of the 17th green 2.3 Objective Measurements As the STRI Programme has been integrated into routine agronomy visits to Downfield, we took objective measurements of the key playing qualities of greens speed, surface smoothness, trueness and firmness during the visit. To provide a representation of the different construction types and parts of the course we selected greens to 1, 12 and 17 for objective measurements. By measuring the playing qualities, we can accurately assess the standards being set and also compare them to our ideal. As we stated in previous reports, Downfield is a high class parkland course so we aim to create a consistent set of firm, smooth, true well paced and authentic surfaces that remain consistent throughout the year regardless of the weather conditions. As part of the STRI Programme service, the playing qualities of the greens can be recorded by the Greenstaff and collated on the STRI extranet throughout the year. This information, combined with that recorded during STRI agronomy visits, will be presented with the aid of simple graphics and will...  Provide a running commentary of green performance throughout the year.  Assess consistency between greens.  Inform maintenance decision making.  Identify the strengths and weaknesses of the existing maintenance programme and allow accurate fine tuning where necessary. This objective approach to greenkeeping and agronomy essentially allows a more accurate greenkeeping plan to be formulated and implemented to ensure our playing quality targets are met. The following table illustrates the results from the indicator greens collected in the visit. Downfield Golf Club 6 Downfield Golf Club Objective measurement results Hardness Green speed VWC Smoothness Trueness Word picture 1 77 7 ft 2 in 41.7 17.9 12.3 5.9 1 rolled n/a 8 ft 0 in n/a 14.9 9.7 6.4 12 103 7 ft 5 in 25.0 19.6 10.9 5.8 17 86 6 ft 6 in 27.8 20.4 11.7 5.7   Archive News Friday the 1st May 2009 saw the 4th hole opened for play after huge construction. The green and most of the fairway inside 120 yards was lifted and rebuilt. There are discussions about the re-bunkering of the entire hole in the near future but the exact positioning of them is being looked at by our course architect, David J Russell. The greens committee will then decide if this will make the hole a better challenge for all players. There have been some drainage issues in the fairway and extra drainage channels have been put in. These channels will be seeded and should solve any future problems even if rainfall continues to increase. At present the big issue for all inland courses is how to make them cope better with the extreme rainfall we are getting. 2008 saw the second phase of our course redesign work being carried out by Paul Murphy and his staff. They changed the surface on the 12th green in 2006 to allow for better drainage and to encourage stronger grasses to thrive. In late 2007-early 2008 we joined forces with David J Russell from RAW Golf Design to set out a re-bunkering programme to bring the course "up to date". At present the 10th, 13th and 15th have seen some bunker work. The 4th hole has been redesigned and the green rebuilt to a very high specification. It is nearly finished it's makeover as the green has been the cause of some major problems for the last couple of years. Although many say it is one of our best par 5's, it will be made even into one of the best par 5's in the country. The work is finished now with the Gelly burn re-routed slightly and a small pond put in short right of the new green. New bunkering near the green will take place in winter 2009. The removal of some of our larger trees around the 5th green has proved to be a huge success with the green transformed and looking very healthy even into late autumn