Club Noticeboard

As the Government continue to move forward with their pathway back to relative normality the Hospitality team are preparing to welcome you back indoors from 17^th May.

There are ongoing regulations to be followed and in addition to these we have some building improvements taking place that we will need to work around. As a result of this work the upstairs bar will remain closed until Saturday 22^nd May. Additionally, due to the nature of the work, the kitchen service will not be available on the 19^th, 20^th or 21^st May.

The opening of the Clubhouse and hospitality service will follow the guidance provided by England Golf and the team will have completed the full check list of advisory aspects that cover health and safety, hygiene and fire safety prior to the reopening to ensure everything is as it should be after such an extended period without use. We will of course be implementing all covid safe requirements that are applicable to the indoor service provision.

The timeline for opening the clubhouse and hospitality service indoors will be as follows:

Monday 17^th and Tuesday 18^th May – Access only from the rear patio door, as currently.

Facilities that are open - Toilet facilities, Locker rooms, Downstairs Bar and patio only

Facilities that are closed – Upstairs Bar, Showers

Full Bar and catering service available

Wednesday 19^th to Friday 21^st May – As Monday but no kitchen/food services will be available on a

casual use basis.

Saturday 22^nd Ongoing – Upstairs bar will reopen. The stairs one way system will be in operation.

Kitchen services will resume.

Clubhouse Covid Secure Hospitality service

Face coverings remain a requirement at all times within the clubhouse, unless seated at a table.

Sanitising stations are located just inside the clubhouse entrance.

If you have played golf then you must sit in your playing groups, max 4 people.

Non golfing members, maximum 6 people per table or two households. Non golfers must book their table in advance.

Moving from one table to another is not permitted.

Moving of furniture is not permitted.

Standing to talk to other tables is not permitted.

All users of the hospitality service are requested to register their attendance using the QR code displayed at the entrance and payment for items must be made using your club card as this provides a record of your attendance.

Service will only be provided at the table. Please, do not approach the bar.

Tables and chairs will be sanitised between sittings so please wait to be shown to a table.

Top ups of member accounts can only be done through the hub app or by card. Cash top ups continue not to be accepted, as per the guidance from England Golf.

No, not the kind you have served with your evening meal, it’s a reference to the putting surfaces we are experiencing here at TLGC.

Some members maybe concerned that the greens are not being watered sufficiently and that this is why the surfaces are only slowly recovering from the essential early Spring scarification and sand injection which created the lines you see now.

The correlation of lack of rain fall, and the slow recovery from the maintenance work seems to make sense but this in fact is not the reason.

The soil moisture levels of the greens have been measured and in general are within the tolerance required. This doesn’t mean the greens have not been watered though. The irrigation system has been used as necessary and areas that are more susceptible to drying out such as the 9^th green and the back of the 18^th green have been receiving additional hand watering. This though is to simply keep the grass alive as unforatunately the temperature of the water that comes from the irrigation is extremely cold and further holds back the soil temperature. To try to reduce the effect of the cold water, any hand watering is done during the warmest part of the day.

For the grass to grow and the putting surfaces improve we have to be patient and wait for the soil temperatures to rise. The consistently cold nights in addition to the cold water being applied has meant that growth is very slow, for consistent growth the soil temperature needs to be at least 6-8 degrees Celsius 24 hours a day. The fact that we have experienced frosts nearly every morning shows this has not been close to being the case. Once the night time temperatures are consistently higher you will start to some significant growth and improvement. The rough will also get a bit thicker though, can’t have it all!

Finally, we continue to follow the guidance provided to us by STRI and this will mean in the next few weeks further spray applications with regards to moss. Followed by a verticut (light scarify) of the greens, over seeding and top dress. This is all necessary work to continue the long term improvement of the putting surfaces.

Hopefully members have been able to read the STRI reports from last year (they are available in the Club Docs area of the Members Hub App) and are aware of the need for us to reduce the levels of thatch in the putting surfaces. We started this process last year with additional hollow core and dressing treatments and members were informed of the intention to continue this positive action though out this year starting with the use of a Graden machine in March.

However, due to a combination the sudden improvement in weather conditions and likely return to golf on the 29th March. Our Course Manger made the decision to bring the planned maintenance in March forward and it is being done right now. The reason for bringing it forward is purely to have an increased period of recovery before the members return to the course. The surfaces are still a little soft but on balance this decision made perfect sense, especially if temperatures remain as they are as the grass type we have begins to grow and recover well once soil temperatures reach around 10 degrees Celsius.

So what is a Graden? Click Here to see it in action.

Effectively it is a deep scarification that removes a higher percentage of thatch than the hollow core process whilst at the same time filling the grooves with sand to firm up the surfaces and dilute the thatch levels further. This treatment works down to a depth of 20mm, but this is the depth requiring most attention, hollow core treatments will be used later in the year to reduce thatch at a greater depth.