Birchwood Park Golf Member News - Sept & Oct 23

AN UPDATE FROM...

Stephen Norton General Manager

As we come out of summer and the daylight draws in, I appreciate there is a high demand for tee times amongst members. So, we’ll be giving a brief overview of the challenges we are seeing and steps we have taken to help.

Whilst we have a similar number of members as in previous years, the increase in play amongst members is causing the issue. As a club, we have one of the smallest memberships in the whole BGL group, around 108 members less on average. The difference we see at Birchwood Park is that the members are playing more golf. Compared to some of our clubs, the average Birchwood Park member plays 38% more rounds than members at other clubs. When compared to 2019, our members are playing 25% more rounds this year than they did then.

Looking at August alone, we had 5,722 rounds played in the month and each day saw 108 members play on average. That equates to 756 member rounds per week.

We have closed membership off again to new joiners to manage this demand. Stephen Lee, Head Professional, will also be paying close attention to those who do not show up for tee times, and we will act where needed. We have moved to nine-minute intervals to free up a few more tee times and once the clocks change, we will revert to eight-minute intervals for the winter.

Please can I ask everyone to only book the tee times they need, and if you need to cancel the tee time, please do so as early

as possible, to free up the slot for other members. Whilst not popular, the reason we pair groups up on the tee sheet is to help manage the pace of the play as well as to ensure we can accommodate as many members as possible, so please only book the number of players who will be playing.

SUSTAINABILITY

In our efforts to reduce our carbon emissions and improve our sustainability we are always working on plans to improve the operations of the club.

The company recently commissioned an audit of our waste management and whilst we got very good feedback about the operations, we will be looking to improve on this by adopting some of the suggestions raised.

Key Fact – Thanks to the efforts of everyone at the club and in partnership with very responsible contractors, just 0.25% of the group’s waste currently goes to landfill. This is a very pleasing stat, however there is still room for improvement.

Another project we are working on is a grant from the Woodland Trust for planting trees and shrubs. We have identified an area between 11,12, and 13 which is out of play but will lend itself to increasing our tree count. Not only will these offer more habitat for wildlife, but as they grow, they will help absorb carbon from the atmosphere.

See you around the club soon!

Stephen

COURSE UPDATE

Neil Crittenden Course Manager

The summer has been quite kind to us as greenkeepers this year with steady amounts of rain and warm but not too hot days. This has meant that the grass cover on the course has stayed relatively Green and alive which will give big benefits going into the winter with less drought damage to repair. The extra work on the tees this year is paying dividends for the footfall that we have on the course - they are holding up extremely well and have looked good all season.

BUNKERS

We have managed to rebuild our small rough cutter that broke down early in the season, meaning we couldn’t cut under the trees. Whilst we did try other means, this just wasn’t successful. Going forward these areas will be kept under control.

We invested in more Ballwashers for the course, to replace broken ones and to have more in general for you to use.

We have been topping bunkers up with fresh sand and have already put 120 tonnes into them this year and will continue doing so. One question I do get asked is about raking the bunkers more frequently, we do a full rake on a Tuesday and a then Friday for the weekend. It’s a very time-consuming job but an important one at that. With the amount of play that we get here we are finding that this is not working and are looking at ways to maintain them more frequently and will implement this as soon as possible. Presently we are about to change the greenside rakes at a cost of £2,000 as we have found that the small plastic rakes are not up to standard so have opted for large wooden handled ones to help you rake them after your shot. This will help everyone out, for yourselves it will mean better lies with less footprints and it will help us put them back when fully raked. There will be three rakes in most greenside bunkers so you will never be far away from one.

ANTHRACNOSE

This year has seen outbreaks of Anthracnose all over the southeast, weather conditions have been ideal for these outbreaks. We have had relatively small outbreaks and have done everything possible to keep these at bay with fungicide applications, high nutrient levels and constant aerating.

Continued on the next page

Anthracnose is a turf disease that is typically viewed as the second most common turf disease. It can affect all grass species but is most prevalent in Annual Meadow Grass and Fescue, from which 80% of our greens are made up. Anthracnose can result in two types of disease: foliar blight and basal rot.

With foliar blight infection, the grass turns a tan-yellow colour in irregular patches. It is often mistaken for drought in the summer, particularly since the stress induced by hot humid conditions can significantly trigger anthracnose to break out. Basal rot begins as the yellowing of older leaves on individual plants. The youngest leaf may become brick red in the later stages of development. The plant easily pulls from the turf and a black rot is visible at the base of the stem. The disease is commonly always present in turf surfaces, but the symptoms are most likely to occur when turf becomes stressed. The disease outbreaks are most frequently seen on the greens which are under the most stressful management. Foliar blight most frequently occurs in hot, humid weather spells. Basal rot in cool, wet weather.

WINTER PROJECTS

We are just finalising the quotes for the winter projects we will be undertaking this year, including renovating four existing bunkers as well as removing two bunkers which will be no longer needed. We are also looking to rebuild the 15th white tee as well as the planting mentioned earlier.

We will update further on this, once all plans are finalised.

Neil

CLUB UPDATE

Stephen Lee Head Pro

YOUR CHANCE TO WIN A DOZEN TITLEIST PRO V1 GOLF BALLS

All you have to do is guess how many tees are in the bowl below!!

Entry is FREE, one guess per member, closing date is 15/10/23

Pop into the Pro Shop to register your guess!!

until at least February 28th 2024.

TEE TIME INTERVALS

As previously mentioned, to help the availability of booking tee times we have moved to nine-minute gaps between tee times. This will be reduced to eight-minute intervals from Sunday 29th October.

WINTER WHEEL POLICY

Don’t forget it’s approaching that time of the year when the winter wheels will need to go onto your golf trolleys. From November 1st our winter wheel policy will come into force

MEMBER RENEWAL VOUCHERS

Those of you who renewed your golf membership with us back in July would have received vouchers to use at the club that included free guest green fees, a free bay on our TrackMan range and 20% off any single item of clothing or footwear.

Please remember that these need to be redeemed by 31/12/23.

Stephen

Thank you for reading the latest Members News.

Please feel free to contact us on 01322 662038

Birchwood Rd, Dartford

DA2 7HJ