Date posted: 17th June 2019
Hi Fellow Members,
Our course is in excellent condition and a huge thanks to Michael Browne and his team for their expertise.
Currently we are experiencing heavier rough than usual. This is down to the weather which is moist and warm producing good growth conditions making the rough lush. The rough is still being cut at the exact same height as in previous years.
Our fairways are being cut at 13mm which is the summer height according to the course policy document. This is the same height as other years. However due to the dry spell last summer and the excessive worm casts we lost some of the density in the grass cover. With the overseeding programme started in 2018 this will improve in time. Raising the cut height to winter levels can be counterproductive as it would allow the grass leaf to fall over preventing new growth.
When I started this position, I felt that the definition in the course was poor. With that I mean that when standing on the Tee it was difficult to tell where the fairway finished and the rough started. At the time we had a first cut between the fairway and the rough. Discussing this with Michael we decided to remove the first cut from the fairway. This was done in 2017. We continued with the first cut around the green. This year we dropped the height of the first cut around the green. This was done to try to get a denser grass cover similar to having a shorter leaf height on the fairway. However with the good growth conditions it has lead to excellent definition and overall a very good look.
Now we are aware that in certain areas that the ball runs out of fairway easily and can lead to a poor lie within inches of the fairway. Although we have not had the first cut for the last two years this is the first time that the rough has become lush. So, we are going to re-introduce the first cut. This will mean the height of the green surrounds will also increase, as the same machine does both.
We are also going to increase the fairway height by 2mm and cut the approaches, (currently cut lower than fairway), to the fairway height. This is a temporary measure and is not a change of policy going forward. We hope the above measures will make the playing conditions more friendly along with keeping the good definition we have at the moment.
Finally, since the new rule regarding leaving the flag in while putting, we have noticed the hole edges becoming damaged and frayed. We do not know why this is happening and the only explanation we can come up with is they are being damaged in removing the ball with the flag present. So, we would ask you all to be extra careful in removing the ball from the hole. Please do not attempt to remove the ball by pulling the flag out quickly, do not remove ball with the putter end when the flag is still present.
Happy Golfing!
Paddy May
Course Convenor
