Auchterader Golf Club

Golf Course Update - in order to keep members fully updated of developments on the golf course, we will be distributing a course update following every Committee Meeting.

Course Update - January 2025

A short report to cover the last 3-month period containing mostly winter work, due to illness and holidays. A more detailed report will be produced covering the extensive work at the 11th green in the coming weeks.

As always, a summary of the weather since October’s report. We finished October with 91mm of rain, after a poor start to the month the last 10 days were a bit drier and this continued into November. With only 46mm for the whole of November and 38mm of that in a 48-hour period there were very few rain days. It was the 2nd driest November we have on record! As well as being dry, the temperatures were also unusually high for the time of year which resulted in continued good growth throughout all playing areas.

Unfortunately, December returned to normal and we had close to our average figure with 131mm of rain and much cooler temps.

The yearly total for 2024 was 1118mm, despite having a number of decent months we finished just above the yearly average of 1085mm!
2025 has obviously seen us start with a long period of closure due to snow lying and freezing conditions but the temperatures are due to change this week so hopefully we will see some golf return asap.

Greens

• Mowing heights gradually increased to 6mm with pedestrian mowers in use due to softer conditions.
• Rolling frequency reduced and carried out only if conditions allow.
• Spraying has now switched over to a winter program with a winter defence package sprayed to help reduce the chances of disease and stress.
• Fungicide sprayed as and when required.
• Fertiliser (3-0-14 +8FE) applied early December to strengthen the grass plant and aid us through the winter months.
• Gypsum applied to all greens near the end of October.
• Aerated once with the Procore, 10mm solid tines approx. 5-6 inch depth.
• Verti-cutting has stopped for the winter period due the lack of growth and recovery.
• Regular dew removal carried out to reduce disease pressure.
• Greens will receive another solid tine in the coming weeks with larger tines (19mm) and a deeper depth (10inches) to help aid drainage.
• Topdressing will also be applied when conditions allow.
• Surfaces have remained fairly good so far through the first half of the winter and play has continued on the main greens when possible. We will try to carry on like this as much as possible if conditions allow.

Winter Greens

• Mowing as required at 8mm height.
• A light topdressing will be applied if weather conditions improve to help smooth out the surfaces.
• Another spray application will also be applied in the coming weeks.
• Regular re-painting of the white lines.
• Holes changed twice and another change due.
• Daily blowing and clearing.

Tees & Approaches

• Mowing frequency reduced, height remains @ 8mm with triple mower.
• Tees and approaches due to be aerated again with 19mm solid tines.
• Tee markers have remained on a number of tees for a longer period of time than usual in the winter due to the conditions but with the weather turning and the need to protect the tees for next season these will mostly be moved to normal winter teeing areas shortly.
• Topdressing applications on both areas will be applied as soon as the conditions improve.
• The lower height of cut on green collars has stopped for the winter but will return again when growth improves.

Fairways, Intermediate & Semi-Rough

• Very little mowing carried out on any of these areas as growth has slowed right down.
• All areas blowed regularly over the period to remove leaves and debris.
• A contractor will be in late January to spike all fairways with larger tines at deeper depth this was originally planned for November but circumstances didn’t allow.

Bunkers & Paths

• Bunker raking has been reduced right back although the weekend boys have continued to rake at weekends right through unless frozen or flooded.
• Washouts repaired as required.
• Paths have been blown and tidied daily.
• With wetter conditions there has been a lot of potholes on paths and we will fix the worst of them as we can until the weather improves.
• As previously the winter bunker rule is now in-play. With our time on setup restricted with winter works bunkers will no longer be raked daily but this rule allows players to rake before playing their shot.

Winter Works

• Most of our time so far has been spent at the 11th green. Good progress has been made and as mentioned above a more detailed update will be produced shortly.
• Gorse removal carried out in various areas. Both left and right greenside at 7 and work has started on the left-hand side of the 8th.
• This week excellent progress has been made clearing ditches to allow better water flow and aid drainage.
• A number of the thick-rough areas have been cut out and collected. This will be ongoing with several areas still to be done.
• The 18th red and yellow tee will be stripped as soon as ground conditions allow and work carried out to re-level and widen the playing surface.
• Some drainage repairs are required on various areas throughout the course that will be addressed once the remainder of the 11th project has been completed.
• Various other winter works remain which we will hopefully have started or completed by the next update.

Miscellaneous

To finish off this short report, I would again like to put on record my thanks to all of those who dedicated some of their time and volunteered with coring work and divoting through the last year. It’s very much appreciated and should never be underestimated how much it helps us.

Also, a massive thankyou to Louise Raeburn for all her hard work in the last few years serving as Greens Convenor, it’s been pleasure and we’re sure going to miss those sweets and treats!

Lastly, we as a team hope that you all had a good golfing year in 2024 and enjoyed the playing conditions that we take so much pride in producing. I can’t thank Alan G, Gordon, Allan D, Elliot and the weekend warriors Lindsay, Fergus and Ruaridh enough for the work carried out over the last year. The whole competition season they produced championship level playing surfaces on a daily basis, a remarkable achievement.

We hope to continue on the same path in 2025 and wish you all an enjoyable and successful year at AGC.

(Included picture of the putting green from 19th December).

Shaun McNaughton