Birchwood Park Golf Member News - May 24

AN UPDATE FROM...

Stephen Norton General Manager

After what has felt like a very long wet winter, I hope we will have some good weather on the horizon before long.

I look forward to a point where we will get consistent growth again. The course has felt the impact of this recent weather pattern, even at the end of April, we had frosts.

New Course Manager and the Greenkeeping

team.

As explained previously, Neil left his Course Manager post at the end of January, and I am pleased to announce Dean Wallace as his replacement. Dean will introduce himself further in his section however I just wanted to stress how impressed I have been with his attitude and his work rate this year so far.

Dean’s approach to greenkeeping is slightly different to Neil’s and will focus more on a more defined turf management plan and more regular maintenance work on the course. We have recently welcomed back Steve Ferris part-time to assist Dean in carrying out various mechanical work to look after our equipment. We are also recruiting now for a further greenkeeper, and a gardener. Filling these positions will be a huge help and will undoubtedly lead to improved results.

Safe Golf Accreditation

I would like to extend my thanks to Stephen Lee who has once again provided all the information required for the club to achieve its re-certification for SafeGolf accreditation.

has met the standards set by England Golf and share the mission of the SafeGolf partnership to:

SAFEGUARD THE WELFARE OF CHILDREN AND YOUNG PEOPLE, AS WELL AS ADULTS AT RISK, ensuring that all people have a fun, safe and positive experience in the sport of golf.

08/05/2024

07/05/2025

New equipment

We have recently placed orders of over £100,000 for a new Fairway Mower and a new Sprayer. These purchases represent another example of the club continuing to invest into is equipment. We expect to receive the sprayer in the next few weeks and the fairway mower towards the end of the summer.

Other works:

• We are currently replacing the lift to the Kelvedon Suite. This lift is old, and several parts are now obsolete. The £80,000 improvement should be completed by midJune. At this point, the container near the 10th tee car park will be removed again.

Continued on the next page

Jeremy Tomlinson

BIRCHWOOD PARK GOLF CENTRE

• We are spending £29,000 upgrading and improving our Building Management software to improve the efficiency of our energy usage.

• We are finalising plans to install solar panels across the site which will have a big impact on the club’s electricity bills, especially as we move away from petrol and diesel vehicles and tools and towards electrical and battery options.

• We are already planning for further project work later this year including further bunker renovations along with other course improvements.

Bunker madness

On a recent course walk, I was pleased to see the efforts of the greenkeepers in raking the bunkers. However – we need your help. Just an hour or two after they had been raked, there were footprints and marks all over them.

With over 70% of rounds being played by members recently, it is an issue that I need you, the members, to make sure is resolved. Please help us to look after the course to make sure we can spend our time where it is most effective.

12th hole GUR

As you can appreciate we are protecting the newly planted trees by keeping the whole area of trees as GUR. If your ball ends up in the staked tree area, indicated by the red shaded areas in the image below, please ensure you:

• Take full relief from the area no nearer the hole.

• When defining the point of drop make sure your stance is not still in the GUR area.

• If you cannot identify the white GUR line clearly, please ensure your dop point is clear from the closest staked tree.

COURSE UPDATE

Dean Wallace Course Manager

First off, I would like to introduce myself as Birchwood Park’s new Course Manager.

My name is Dean Wallace, I have been greenkeeping for 20 years now and I have been at Birchwood Park for the past five years, starting as the First Assistant, then onto Deputy Course Manager, and as of the 1st April, the Course Manager. Before Birchwood Park, I was working in Hertfordshire at Essendon Country Club as Deputy Course Manager on the Fred Hawtree-designed Old Course.

Outside of Birchwood Park, I live locally with my partner and three children, in my time away from work I enjoy going to gigs and have a season ticket at Spurs (which I sometimes enjoy too!).

Golf course update

Before I begin talking about what’s currently going on out on the course, I’d like to take some time to let you know my vision and expectations for the course. I aim to deliver to you the best possible version of Birchwood Park.

Starting with the greens; we will begin a biweekly aeration programme using either our Star tines or Dynacore machinery, depending on time and conditions. This will help open the top of the grass plant up encouraging water to get down and help break up any unreleased fertiliser which will help with colour and growth. There will also be more of a topdressing routine which will be starting as soon as possible. I feel that over the last few years, there has been a lack of topdressing.

The purpose of topdressing is to help improve the roll of your ball by increasing firmness and the smoothness of the surface as well as diluting any thatch levels. This process will be done little and often and shouldn’t interfere with your game.

Bunkers will be a big focus, both in general maintenance and the ongoing renovations. This will include making sure we stay on top of weeds and raking and then more regular flymowing and edging to keep the edges looking sharp and smart. We have already started topping up with sand to improve their playability and this will be an ongoing focus. We recognise the challenges of maintaining tees on a course with so much play. We will complete more aeration to increase coverage and colour as well as a regular divoting regime to encourage growth.

The 9-hole course will be treated in the same way as the main course with regards to both greens and bunkers.

Greens

During recent weeks we have recently changed all the flags, pins, cup inserts and yellow tee markers on the course. We have completed feeding on all greens and spraying a fungicide to keep disease pressure to a minimum. I am pleased with how they have held up over the winter but will continue to strive for improvement. I recently organised for a company to come in and take soil samples from various greens. This will help us recognise any nutrient deficiencies or anomalies and will help guide us on a more informed turf management plan moving forward.

Continued on the next page

As we explained in a previous email, the damage to the 3rd green is sadly due to a hydraulic oil leak on one of our pieces of machinery. Thankfully the quick actions of the greenkeeper have contained it to a single green. The team will be carrying out regular work to help this recover.

Tees

We have gone back onto grass tees across all holes and I’d like to thank everyone for their understanding whilst we were using the tee mats. This has improved the quality of these tees coming out of what has been a very wet winter and start of spring. With spring arriving, we will be placing divot boxes back on our most worn tees. Please can I encourage you to use these as it does make a difference. Some of the tees look very tired after the long winter, I can reassure you that as conditions for growth improve, we will see improvements on these.

Fairways

We are now back to cutting fairways more regularly and within the next few weeks, we will have a set of fresh ground-cutting units which will improve the look of them. As soon as the weather improves, we have a contractor booked to come and spray all fairways and semi-rough with a weed control which again will improve the look and condition of these areas.

Bunkers

We have had 40 tonnes of new sand in the bunkers throughout the course and we will continue putting in new sand. We have also replaced many of the rakes in them. This will improve both the look of the bunkers and the lies in the bunkers. We have made a very good start on this process and will continue throughout the season.

Rough

Whilst some areas still need help from Mother Nature, the rough is slightly different. It is growing very quickly and we will be using our tractor-mounted Snake Trimax to cut it down. The semi-bands just outside the fairways will be reduced from three bands to two, so we can use our machine to concentrate on areas like the tee banks and backs of greens.

Projects

The new bunkers on the 11th and 2nd are now open and most of the rope from the course has come in to help improve the look of the course. Again, I’d like to thank people for sticking to these routes over the winter months as it does help with wear coming into spring. As the turf establishes itself further, we will trim the grass around the edges to normal height again.

Continued on the next page

The newly levelled and turfed tee should be ready for play by the middle of May. We still must measure the exact size, but it should be a 4mx4m area cut into a circular shape to give a bigger, flatter area for golfers to use. We will also be removing the small tree in front of the tee to improve the line of sight for golfers.

Other areas

On the range, we have recently overseeded and fed the outfield as well as weeding the outside bays and shingle area. With a lot of help from our ball-picking team we have also changed all the golf balls over as well to brand new ones.

We are turfing various worn areas over the coming weeks and generally looking to improve various areas around the clubhouse as well.

Thank you for reading! I hope that we can continue to improve the course and your golfing experience at Birchwood.

Fathers Day at Birchwood Park

Combining fine food and classic comedy action as Basil, Sybil & Manuel do their very best to look after you in their typical crazy style. Chaos and mayhem are served in large portions and very likely to interrupt the proceedings!

Clothing

HEAD PRO UPDATE

Stephen Lee Head Pro

NEW STOCK ARRIVALS

All the new Spring/Summer Clothing is now on display in the Pro Shop.

Brands include J.Lindeberg, Ping, Puma, Footjoy, Stuburt & Nike

Don’t forget as members you’ll receive 10% OFF all these items.

TaylorMade

The NEW TaylorMade Qi10 Woods and Irons are available for free custom-fitting.

Oakley

This is a new supplier for us in 2024 with sunglasses available from just £119.99.

WELCOME TO Jackson Massey Golf Professional

Jackson is a selfemployed golf professional with a successful amateur career, representing Surrey County and travelling the world playing elite amateur tournaments. After multiple professional wins, he decided to turn his efforts to coaching.

Over the last seven years, Jackson has worked with golfers of all abilities, including PGA Tour & DP World Tour Tournament Professionals to improve all areas of their game. Jackson has a very holistic approach to golf coaching, catering to players of every level and providing high-performance, goal-driven golf tuition.