Old Course greenkeeping blog
As the build-up to the 150th anniversary Open Championship here at St Andrews Links gathers pace, the Course Manager of the Old Course, Gordon McKie will be blogging about the work he and his team are doing to ensure that the world’s most famous golf course is in peak condition for golf’s oldest major. Gordon will be posting regular updates about the preparations and the challenges he faces as he readies the course for The Open.
03/09/2010
The weather has improved over the last week or so with good temperatures, particularly in the afternoons which has been encouraging considering all the overseeding work we have been carrying out to various areas of the golf course.
Over the past week we have been working hard at getting the area where the grandstand was located to the right handside of the 1st fairway prepared for overseeding operations, we started by cutting back overgrown growth, removing debris, hollow cored the area and finally we overseeded the areas either side of Granny Clark’s Wynd with a mixture of fescue and bent grass, the area has been roped off and marked GUR to keep traffic off and allow the seed to germinate which will hopefully happen in the next 10-14 days.
The other big project this week has been to cut back the rough to the left handside of the 17th fairway which we sprayed about three weeks ago with a chemical which helps to kill off the thicker ryegrass sward which dominates this area. So this week we have cut back all the dying grass and scarified intensively to help prepare a seed bed for the up and coming overseeding we will carry out early next week. My plan is to oversow the area with a mixture of Crested Dog’s Tail, Red Fescue, Slender Creeping Fescue and Chewing Fescue to help produce a more finer links type rough.
The main tasks at the moment are overseeding as this is the optimum time for germination success; another task which I have been trying out in conjunction with these operations is laying germination sheets over the seeded areas to help speed the grass germination process up. We have laid sheets over areas our old putting green and 14th tee which will hopefully help us to get the areas back into to play sooner, the germination sheets act in a way like a electric blanket and help contain heat under the sheets and thus allow the seeds to germinate quicker and once this has happened we will lift the sheets and allow the grass to flourish naturally.
Apart from all the overseeding on the course and disappearing rough the routine work continues with regular mowing as well as herbicide applications to fairways to eradicate clover which has been appearing randomly on fairways, we spot treat these areas to remove the clover. We have also seen a rise in wormcast activity, in particular to the 1st and 18th fairways. Today we sprayed this area to help reduce the problem which can have an effect on the overall presentation - the casts smear in the dewie surface when we are mowing.
Over the next week or so we shall be busy preparing the course for a busy few weeks ahead which will include the R&A Autumn meetings which are held over the Old Course in September, which is followed by the Dunhill Links Championship in early October.
Never ending!
Posted: by
Gordon McKie
19/08/2010
Our seed which we sowed into damaged areas of Bruce Embankment has started to germinate and produce some light growth in under 2 weeks, the weather has helped with warm afternoons and showers over the last week or so. We will now hopefully get a decent coverage of grass on the area prior to the Dunhill build. The area was marked off today for media tent and offices for the build to take place for the tournament which begins in early October, the pavilion which will be sited on the bank at the back of the 17th green was also marked out.
The course has been busy over the last week or so, but we have been carrying out various maintenance tasks including micro coring high spots on fairways, overseeding and top dressing with sand and soil to help restore moisture levels in these areas which tend to dry out quite quickly. We have also been continuing our work to grandstand areas as they come down in the way of overseeding, blowing rough back up, aeration to allow grass to grow again.
Wetting agent was applied to greens over the weekend to help keep soil structure wet to allow better even playing surface on top. Tomorrow we will doing our usual course set up and possibly make a start to fertilising the newly germinated seed on the Bruce Embankment.
This weekend we have local club competitions on course both Saturday and Sunday, so no maintenance to take place, apart from course set up.
Image: Aerial view showing open set-up on the Bruce Embankment.
Posted: by
Gordon McKie
11/08/2010
Now all marquees have been removed from the tented village area works can commence on renovating the area back to some decent order. This week we started that work by firstly scarifying the Bruce Embankment to open surface up and remove overgrown grass and then we overseeded the areas that I felt would have a chance to establish prior to the tented village build for the Dunhill. Since then we have had some rain which for once will help us and hopefully get a quick germination!
We continue to work on grandstand areas as they come down by way of replenishing turf from platforms and re-seeding areas, but because these areas are generally in rough they will comeback quicker than others.
Also in the last week we have started some preparations for the next Open, whenever that may be! The rough to the left of the 17th hole which was very severe and contains more undesirable ryegrass in the sward was sprayed with a chemical which will remove the rye, this will take around a month to take the full effect. We will then cut back the longer grass, scarify and overseed with the more desirable fescue species which will hopefully give us a more natural swispy links like rough. We are tackling this early so as we have long enough time to get the rough the way we want it.
Other jobs this week have been overseeding greens, general course tidy and staff appraisal reviews!
Posted: by
Gordon McKie
04/08/2010
All of the tents and marquees are finally disappearing from the Bruce Embankment, which will allow us to start to make some renovation work on this area and get it back into decent shape prior to the Dunhill Links. As you will see from the picture everything looks a bit yellow and not very aesthetically pleasing, but given time and a bit of tender loving care we will have it back in shape in no time. The reason the grass is so yellow is that it has been denied daylight for a number of months but now that we have removed the tents things should comeback naturally with a little help from the greenkeepers!
Plans for the area are to aerate with hollow cores, scarify and overseed before applying a light feed to encourage the new grass to comeback, we may even need to re-turf some areas to get it looking good again.
We will leave the Bruce Embankment Putting Green until after the Dunhill as that area will have a media tent erected on it for the Dunhill, so no point in doing anything until that has come down in mid October.
Elsewhere on the course things are looking fine with all surfaces being mowed regularly. We have widen some areas of rough to allow pace of play to be speeded up. This week we have the Junior Boys & Girls semi finals and finals on course on Thursday morning, so we will be busy with that, then it will be back to renovations on Bruce and any areas of course where the grandstands and scoreboards have come down from.
Looking ahead to the weekend we shall be overseeding the greens and giving them a light top dress to help smooth over the surface.
Posted: by
Gordon McKie
28/07/2010
With the Open over and done the work does not stop there for us - grandstand dismantle has started and the clear up operation is underway in tented village. Over the coming weeks we will be working with contractors to get the whole site cleared as quickly and as tidily as possible. After that we will be moving in to repair any necessary areas and get back into a presentable condition for the remainder of the season.
After an Open Championship it will normally take a few months and probably into the following season before we see the course and perimeters returning to their normal looking selves. But during that time it is business as usual as far as golf is concerned as we are probably be busier after an Open as many people flock to play the course they have just viewed on their tv screens from all corners of the world. On top of that we need to prepare for the Dunhill Links in October as well as numerous local club competitions through August and September.
Now all the major work for an Open Championship is over I will try and find some time to get some golf in myself, starting with a competition on Old Course this Saturday – hope it is in good condition!
Posted: by
Gordon McKie