Thursday 9th January
I wanted to give you an update on where we are with the golf course after possibly one of the busiest winter periods we have ever experienced at The Club. Over the last few years we have marketed Epsom GC as the ‘go-to’ golf course when the rain comes and as you all know we have had plenty of that through the end of November to Christmas. We are incredibly lucky with our natural drainage and the positive feedback we have had from guests has been unbelievable but this, in my opinion, has come at a price. Having been out on the golf course with our Head Greenkeeper yesterday, we felt that the course looks a little ‘battered and bruised’ after such a busy period. So with this in mind throughout the quieter January we will, when possible, try and rest parts of the golf course to give it a chance to recover ready for the new season. For example, the 2nd green, easily our wettest, is very muddy and full of footprints. So tomorrow and possibly Monday we will be putting the temporary green into play.
The water table is incredibly high so if we do have more rain we will use the temporary greens and possibly close the course from time to time but please understand that this is for the long-term benefit to make sure that we have the quality of golf course going into the golfing season that we have come to expect over the past few years. Thank you in advance for your understanding.
However, the largest problem we have suffered in the past couple of months is a disease called fusarium which leaves the dead patches on the greens. The main causes of this were the damp, wet and mild December. We have also struggled to combat the fusarium as the weather conditions have been against us as we need there to be no rain whilst spraying the fungicide and then a further 24 hours of dry weather so the treatment can dry on the leaf. On top of this we also need the temperature over 7c for the plant to absorb the fungicide and the wind needs to be below 5 mph for the spray to hit its target. So as you can appreciate with the weather we experienced in December we were unable to spray for a long period. Craig was able to finally spray last Saturday and it seems to have stopped the fusarium from spreading any further, but the scares will remain until the spring when the grass starts growing again.
We have other bits and pieces going on around the course that you will see and we are planning to hire in a digger in the next few weeks to remove all the tree stumps from earlier tree work.
But once again, our course continues to play incredibly well for the time of year with lovely dry fairways and greens that are still running well. In my opinion, having played a couple of other courses over the festive period, we should be very pleased and appreciate the golf course we have.
I hope you all enjoy your golf in 2020.
Stuart Walker, Director of Golf