Greens Newsletter - 21st September The Greens Committee walked the course last week to identify winter tee locations and establish what we can undertake in our winter work programme. There will be a few new tee locations this winter. We have tried to minimise the effects of traffic, but many walkways to and from tees will always scar the course by the end of winter. We have had some success over the past few years and once again we shall be staking the greens complexes to reduce wear to these much-improved areas. You will no doubt have noticed the significant improvement to the fairway on the 5th approaching the green – the new turf has been protected by taking all greens equipment traffic through the trees at the back of the 6th green. This will be the norm from now on. We shall complete the improvements to this hole this winter when we re-turf the area adjacent to the exit from the greens sheds. Other winter work includes extending the 9th tee back by about three metres. The white teeing ground is too small and is damaged by the mowers turning on this small area of turf. By extending and grading off the back of the tee it allows the mowers to mow on and off the tee. The remaining area around this tee, the walkways from 8th & 11th greens, together with the area behind the 12th tee will all be cleared and re-turfed to give a better presentation of what is presently a very scruffy area of the course. Selected trees will remain but with enough spacing to allow us to cut the grass in between. The worn pathway from the 8th green across the back of the 12th red/winter tee will be repaired and we shall prevent traffic from recreating the path in future. Depending on time pressures, we shall drain the pond on the 9th, dig out the invasive water soldier and redesign the pond and surrounding turfed areas to present this to a much higher standard. Now, it wouldn’t do if I didn’t have a little moan, would it? So, this week I am just going to remind you all about trolleys, buggies etc and their proximity to the greens. The rule is – do not take trolleys onto the fringes of the greens – the “no go” area is defined by an imaginary line around the green which is defined by the fairway edge of the greenside bunkers. I know that 90+ % of members adhere to this ruling, but some do not. On Friday of last week, I requested three different groups of visitors to keep their trolleys away from the greens – I have to say the major offenders are visitors! | 
