The newly turfed lake surround by 18th green

It’s been a busy few weeks for the greenkeeping team, with the long-awaited rainfall and generally milder weather contributing significantly to our programme of works but also the general appearance and preparation of the course.

Last week saw a fair amount of new grass seed going down, particularly on areas of the course that have seen most traffic during winter as well as the driving range. As mentioned previously, the rainfall helped this activity enormously – and the ‘knitting’ of newly-laid turf around our incredible new water features too.

This week, weather permitting, the greens will be getting their first application of fertiliser for this season. Essentially a spring/summer mix rich in iron, the treatment will help ‘green up’ the putting surfaces and promote growth providing the right weather conditions prevail. We also plan to fertilise the newly-planted trees – again, this will encourage strong and vigorous growth when the temperatures climb further.

In a first here at Leeds Golf Centre, we are soon to embark on ‘divoting’ the fairways – filling holes in common landing areas with a sand/seed mix to improve the appearance and reduce the likelihood of finding that perfect drive with a less-than-perfect lie. Can I please remind all members that replacing divots is essential if we are to maintain excellent fairways throughout the season.

Finally for this edition, you’ll perhaps be interested to learn that we have purchased a new Toro hand mower which will help enormously with the presentation and playability of our greens – especially when summer is in full swing. The height of cut is now set at 6mm but this will be lowered gradually over the coming months – putting practice will have never been so important for you all as the greens get faster and faster this year!

Thanks for reading – look forward to seeing you on the fairways sometime very soon!

Brian D Carr
Head Greenkeeper