Dear Member,
Over the coming
weeks we will be commencing our Hollowing Programme for the autumn.
This is slightly
inconvenient for the members but an absolute necessary for the conditioning of
the course. We have come through the hottest June and July on record with only
a small amount of grass drying out on the course. For those who played golf
in the early morning just after the irrigation the course seemed too wet,
however in the late afternoon the course had completely dried out due to the
heat and more influentially the wind.
Temperatures are
now dipping back and this will bring relief to the course. It has allowed us to
reduce the irrigation from 1300m3 of water a night to 800m3. This is a
significant reduction.
Besides giving
the course water during the heat stress, the most important thing for the grass
is its ability to breathe air. By aerifying the greens, tees, approaches and
fairways we allow oxygen back into the ground, giving the root system the
ability to oxygenate. Compaction is one of the biggest differences between a
lawn and a golf course with all the traffic from golfers and machines causing
layering especially in greens where the grass is only 3mm in height. By
removing some of this compaction the plant has a better chance of survival.
This time last
year Royal Mougins were hit with serious disease throughout the course. The
Greenkeeping team are working tirelessly to ensure this doesn’t happen again.
With the extreme temperatures, the roots have come closer to the surface making
them more susceptible to different diseases but these are being monitored at
the moment and so far the greens are clean. There were a few mole crickets in
the putting green and the 14th and we had an outbreak of Cutworm but
these have disappeared.
Starting on 24th
August a very small 6mm tining of the greens will take place. This will be
top-dressed after and will have little effect on play. We will also be doing a
10-12mm tining of the approaches and tees followed by an overseeding and
topdressing. We are sorry for the slight inconvenience but this is for the
future of the course. We know that the members understand and we very much
appreciate if this message could be passed onto guests that might be playing
too.
Later in October
we will Hollowtine the greens in preparation for the winter and next season.
Thanking you in
advance for your assistance and patience.
Royal Mougins
Golf Club Turfgrass
Soon we’ll miss hating the summer heat.
