Agronomy

Well summer for the Golf Course maintenance team means closures and projects. It’s never easy during the hotter months but do feel we have achieved quite a lot and wanted to give you an insight of what was done and still ongoing leading into the cooler and busy months.

We had 2 course closures for each course this summer as we have done in the past. This is when we do our cultural practices like hollow coring and heavy topdressing. It was the first time the Majlis greens have had any major work done to them as they are still classed as in their infancy. What we wanted to achieve with the Majlis work was to help the levels of the greens and take out any high areas we might have. This was done by scarifying the greens aggressively. The heavy sand then helped with really getting the levels and encourage the grass to grow through.

The Faldo course had its usual work done to it and very happy with how quick they recovered from our the work carried out. This shows they are in good health and look forward to bringing the height of cut down as the temperatures cools and get those great speeds again.

• Leveling tees that were quite bad due to being divoted over time. Some needed a bit more work so was turfed or re sprigged. • Filling in the gap between the fairways on hole 13. This is so we can make it easier for the shorter hitters. • We managed to do a great job on Tropical Signal Grass eradication this summer. Its not fully gone but happy with what was achieved and will continue next summer.

As the whole of last summer was about the greens, we felt there was a lot more jobs we wanted to do this summer and the list below is a snapshot of what was achieved since June 2022.

• Leveling of greens surrounds that we felt we too high and not uniform to the edge of the greens. • 13th tee extension on the side of the Ladies 9th tee. This is so it can be used not only for the Desert Classic. • 7th Tee extension to increase surface area and can spread wear even more. • 9th Green side cart path. It was always felt that the grass to the right of the green got very worn from cart traffic, so putting the cart path will negate that and improve turf quality. • Entrances to grass areas from cart paths have been fixed so not a huge step to drive over.

The driving range got a full redesign this summer. We closed for 3 weeks to achieve this and very happy with the result. We enlarged the target greens and shaped some so they cater for both ends of the range.

The grass we brought in was turf grass and is Paspalum type. This grass is strong and will present very well throughout the year.

Chipping green was also redesigned and sprigged with the grass we have on the Majlis greens. This grass came from our nursery which comes in very handy for projects like this.

We are very much looking forward to the coming golfing season and hope you enjoy the changes we have made on both courses.