Tuesday 9th December 7.30am

aka Shave

The end of an era...

My good friend and colleague Dave Thornton sadly leaves the greenskeepers shed for the last time this Friday 12th December after over 40 years of service.

I've personally enjoyed Dave's company and friendship over the last eight years. He has been a great mentor to me and taught me many 'tricks' of the trade. 

He will be missed by all.

Six steps to making our new practice tee.....

Winter Tournament ~ Blackwell Golf Club ~ Wens 3rd December
Nice day at Blackwell Golf Club and thanks to everyone who turned up and joined in. Karl and myself enjoyed your company, the course was in fabulous condition, congratulations to Rhys Thomas, and his team. The Tournament was kindly sponsored by Working Turf and a special thanks to all our sponsors, most important prize when they 'thought it was all over' went to yours truly Harvey Brooke for nearest the pin on the 18th...Ha !!

Chicken dinner ~ WINNER

If you've never seen World Long Drive Champion Jamie Sadlowski hit a golf ball, then you're in for a real treat. He's the guy who hit a drive 331 yards from his knees and now he's back with more ridiculously long drives.

In a video for Callaway Golf, Sadlowski digs deep into the bag of tricks to hit shots that have probably never been done before. If they have, I can guarantee the balls weren't hit this far.

Exclusive preview of the official film of The 2014 Ryder Cup at Gleneagles, just released November 14th. Order your copy at the official Ryder Cup shop now: http://euroshop.rydercup.com nice Christmas pressy eh ?

There's a new trend at the moment on the BIGGA (British and International Golf Greenkeepers Association) Facebook page and it's all about mushrooms. The pictures and trend was started by fellow greenkeepers Simon Torr (Bearwood Lakes golfclub) and Joseph Dormer (West Sussex Golf Club), it's started a domino effect throughout the greenkeeping industry producing some fantasic photos, so guess what?
 I want to join in with the fun!! 

'Shroom of the day...

Verti draining helps to aerate the soil and to relieve it of any compaction and a number of the benefits from the process include the following:

• Improves and helps maintain a better playing surface 

• Improves and helps promote good soil structure

• Promotes quicker drying of turf 

• Better absorption of water from the surface to the drainage system helping prevent surface water problems
 
This process is usually followed by spreading sand on the sports turf. This is then brushed into the holes created by the vertidrain machinery to give the fairways better drainage. However, our budget at Redditch doesn't stretch to the spreading on the sand at the moment (it's a work in progress).

Verti draining can alleviate problems that sports turf face such as compacted surfaces interfering with the draining system. 

Verti draining can be carried out at various times of the year (conditions permitting) and is very effective for improving drainage and deep aeration on all turf surfaces and helps prevent surfaces becoming water logged leading to game cancellations.

A big thank you to our contracting friends at ALS for doing what we thought was the impossible ~ Verti draining all the fairways in one day ~ 
                                         from Dusk Till Dawn.

Spring/summer turns to autumn/winter on the 14th tee

 Be~leaf in us