News from the Greenkeeper and John Clarkin

This summer, the weather conditions were typical of a normal summer on the Riviera, dry and hot. A big effort was made by the greenkeeping team to reduce irrigation as much as possible and there is no doubt less water was used this year compared to last year. There were still areas on the course that were saturated for long periods due to the irrigation and this seemed to be a common complaint through the season. This was due to the following:

·         Undulations of the fairways and water moving off the high areas into the low areas.

·         Poor sprinkler system in some zones.

·         Compaction on the fairways.

·         Clay(sticky) soil conditions.

·         Poor structure of the soil.

·         Lack of topdressing.

This makes uniformed irrigation of the fairways virtually impossible. Actions are being taken to have more consistent dry fairways for next year. We are having an irrigation audit carried out to look at more efficient watering practises.  While certain areas were wet, we all noticed areas drying out on the course like the approach to the 3^rd green and the 13^th fairway where there was an infestation of warm season grasses. This was proof that the irrigation is not getting to the targeted zones of the fairways and approaches.

This October the greenkeepers are carrying out the following programmes to ensure better fairways for next year including:

·         Total Vertidraining of the fairways and semi rough to relieve compaction. This will continue throughout the winter.

·         Carottaging( hollowtining ) of the approaches.

·         Overseeding with a drought tolerant ryegrass suitable for Royal Mougins.

·         Topdressing of the fairways and approaches. There will be some holes that will have slightly excessive amounts of sand but this will be short lived and the benefits will far outweigh the negatives. This too will continue through the winter.

·         Selective verticutting of the fairways.

On the greens, there was more consistency this year with less disease. We are trying to keep the speed above 2.7m on the stimpmeter and we have largely been successful as a result of the topdressing programme of once every week. The greens too will be hollowtined,  overseeded and topdressed from the 7^th October. Hopefully the weather will be on our side and they should be back to normal within 2 weeks.

Following on from this the same procedure will be carried out on the tees.

The winter programme will address the following:

·         Entrances to the fairways. Both resodding and the introduction of artificial turf for some areas.

·         Tree management.

·         Reduction of weeds.

·         Levelling of the 8^th and 9^th tee boxes.

·         Increasing the depth of sand in the bases of the bunkers especially the greenside ones.

·         Continue to improve the driving range.

There is a long way to go to achieve our goal at Royal Mougins. It will take patience from the members as certain mechanical operations are required to bring the course to the standard expected and deserved by the members and guests. The majority of these works will take place between now and April of next year and we thank you for your understanding. We all look forward to producing a top class course for 2014.

Thank you

John Clarkin,  Turfgrass Consultancy Ltd

Richard Meyrieux, Head Greenkeeper