Dear Members,

To follow on from the last update in which I said I’d report back with information regarding the opening time of the new green; the headline news is that it will not be of a suitable putting quality until mid-to-late May ‘25 (usual caveats on weather), so will remain closed until then. Given our desire to match putting quality with this new green and the on-course greens, there is not enough time left this year to achieve this and open before winter.

There’s a lot of excitement building around this new green as an improved feature for warming up, practicing, teaching and, let’s not forget, fun! There’s also a lot of positivity regarding the better arrival experience and how well the new green sits in the wider landscape too. I can’t wait to see it fully set up & in play and I’m sure I’m not alone here.

Establishment progress is going extremely well. The cutting height is now at 4mm (on-course greens are 2.5mm), there’s a full coverage of grass to admire, and the fine turf outer areas adjacent to the green are also on par with where we aimed to be. All the key ingredients are there and we’re working hard to capitalise on the late season growth to refine the playing surface.

Our next main goal is to refine the leaf texture (width of grass blades) or “train the grass” as I like to call it. It’s a process that involves removing the coarser leaf blades that are lying flat, which then improves leaf fineness by creating vacant space to be filled by new grass leaves that are finer by nature. Brushing with mowing (as seen in the photograph), topdressing, and time, together with good growing temperatures, are needed & will be our focus now until we lose growth sometime in October/November. Interestingly, one can have two separate greens at the same cutting height that perform very differently if the leaf is coarse on one (poor speed, trueness, smoothness) and fine on the other (excellent putting quality).

A mid-to-late May opening will gives us time to deliver the expected performance level and ensure its durable enough to withstand player traffic. It also gives us time in April & early May to use repeat applications of Poa-annua seed harvested from the main course greens to overseed the new green with. We need to load it with as much Poa seed as possible in the early part of the year so that it can germinate and establish through the growing season. Critical in the blending of Poa and Bent to gain the greatest speed of transition between the two and achieve both visual & playing performance consistency with the main course greens. A reminder here to set expectations that it will take three to five years of successive overseeding to fully achieve this.

On a final note, we’ll be lowering the tarmac path intersection behind Garden 1’s blue tee and next to the new green in February next year to install a flood channel. This reconstruction work is needed to achieve final flood conformance in the area as per planning permission. Dropping the height here will allow floodwaters via this channel to move freely from Garden’s 9th hole through to the ditch on Garden 1, and then finally into the river. The work will take approximately three weeks to complete, so there’ll be temporary access to the Driving Range and Garden course, but it will not affect the new putting green or Garden 1 tees directly.

John Lockyer
Director of Greens