The annual spring fairway renovations will start this Sunday, 8th September. This will be the same renovation as the previous four years. Once the fairways have been scarified, the coring machine will follow and remove a small four inch plug from the ground. These plugs will be left to dry, then rubbed back into the surface as a top dressing. This process increases our fairways’ ability to drain, relieves compaction, reduces thatch, improves soil structure, encourages root growth, reduces watering inputs, reduces disease occurrence and enables us to produce a high quality surface.
The green surrounds commenced yesterday and should be finished by this Friday, 6th September. The green surrounds can be identified by a staggered blue line, you may take a 15cm preferred lie within this area as it is deemed the “mown portion”.
The fairway renovations should be completed by Friday 13th September, weather permitting. Both Wednesday and Thursday competitions will incur some moderate interruptions. Please see below the temporary local rules in place for the remainder of this week.
IMPORTANT TEMPORARY LOCAL RULE – PLEASE READ CAREFULLY
A temporary local rule will be in place during the renovations. With lots of machinery and staff working on the fairways, dangerous circumstances may arise. If a ball comes to rest in the direct line of a tractor or piece of machinery, which is moving slowly and is unable to move out of your way, you may take relief from the direct line of the machinery. This is described under the following local rule
TEMPORARY IMMOVABLE OBSTRUCTIONS
All equipment/machinery or staff associated with fairway renovation works is defined as temporary immovable obstructions (TIO).
Interference: A TIO incurs when
(a) the ball lies in front of and so close to the TIO that the TIO interferes with the players stance or the area of his intended swing, or
(b) the ball lies in, on, under or behind the TIO so that any part of the TIO intervenes directly between the player’s ball and the hole and is on his line of play.
Interference also exists if the ball lies within one club-length of a spot equidistant from the hole where such intervention would exist.
Note 1: If a ball to be dropped under this Local Rule is not immediately recoverable, another ball may be substituted.
Relief: If the ball lies through the green, the point on the course nearest to where the ball lies must be determined that
(a) is not nearer the hole,
(b) avoids interference as defined above and
(c) is not in a hazard or on a putting green.
The player must lift the ball and drop it, without penalty, within one club length of the point so determined on a part of the course that fulfils (a), (b) and (c) above.
Thank you for your patience during a very busy period for the green-staff team. The fairways will be back in perfect conditions within a week to ten days.
Sam Neylon
Course Superintendent
