Welcome to Grass Roots!!!!!!
This page will have information from our greenstaff, general snippets of information that hopefully, will increase awareness of why things are done a certain way, what is/will be happening in the near future and an email based forum so that you can ask the greenstaff questions and get a response!!!
Contact the greenstaff on
greenstaff@chalgravegolf.co.uk
Front Entrance Works January 2010
Work has commenced at the front entrance to prepare the site access for the landscaping works around the course. Most members will know that we were granted a planning consent back in February 2009 for a 4 million gallon reservoir, to store water during the winter period for use in the Spring, Summer and Autumn. Once completed, this will enable us to irrigate all of the tees, all of the fringes, and the last 30-50 yards into the green on every hole.
The reservoir project is a multi stage operation, involving the reshaping and soft landscaping of existing, out of play areas, providing new larger, well drained tees, better shaping around a few greens, a new bridleway down the back of the course, where the footpath exists at present from the church, and finally, the irrigation reservoir.
To put this into perspective, the "reservoir" will be a large pond, roughly 15% bigger than the pond on the 10th hole, but deeper. It will be located in the triangle of unused (from a golf point of view) land between the 12th, 13th and 14th holes. The 12th fairway will need to be reshaped so that the pond sits properly in the landscape, with undulating contours running up to its edge rather than a steep and false angled slope. It is likely that we will play the 12th from the existing tee, but to the right of the trees, sharing a massive fairway with the 8th hole to keep the hole as a par 4 whilst the works are completed.
The works at the front entrance are necessary because we have to have a controlled area at the entrance to ensure vehicles are checked in and out, and are clean before they return to the highway. The 5th hole should be unaffected (unless you have a severe hook!)
I will put more detailed plans up shortly.
14th Fairway drainage completed
Over the past two wet summers, it has been clear that a couple of the springs that find their way to the surface on various parts of the course, had established some new routes. Generally, what happens, is that when we have sustained wet weather, then the long established underground routes that the water has been taking for years, cannot deal with the increased volume. The water pressure causes new routes to open up underground as the water has to go somewhere. If that new route actually becomes easier than the old route for the water to flow down then the water will simply follow the easiest route of flow. It is this principle that has seen the wet spots appear by the ditch on the 3rd, in front of the 7th green, in front of the 11th pond, the "waterbed" effect on the back of the 13th green and the middle of the 14th fairway plus some areas of the rough around the 14th/15th fairways. All of these areas have now had substantial drainage installed to deal with the water flow, and to move that water away from the important playing areas. The 14th fairway was completed this week, and already significant water flow can now be seen into the ditch across the 14th/15th/11th which is where we have drained it to. Don't expect to get a dry lie in the ditch anymore!!
We expect the drainage to enable the fairway and rough areas to firm back up again and for normal play from these areas to resume shortly.
New Course Routing Experiment
Captains Day 2007 saw the trial run of a potential new routing for the course. There are a number of issues that we would like to resolve with the course that have become apparent over the 14 years of operation, and the renovation of tees and the work with the reservoir will give an opportunity to resolve most of these issues.
The main areas where problems have been identified are:
3rd Green to 4th Tee ~ very slow part of the course as players have to wait for the group in front to putt out and walk back towards them for some distance before they are clear to play the next shot to the 3rd green. Excessive wear is also experienced on the front of the 3rd green as a result of this high traffic.
8th Green to 9th Tee ~ occasionally, we have players taking a short cut across or in front of the 17th green to access the 9th tee.
11th Green to 12th Tee ~ everyone's pet hate, the long walk up the hill!!!
17th Green to 18th Tee ~ players walking across, often with trolleys, the 9th tee box.
Other Issues:
10th Tee as a start hole ~ being over 150 yards and unseen from the clubhouse and a par 3. At busy times, players often go down to start on the 10th when the 1st is busy, only to find that there are already a number of groups waiting on the 10th. In addition, par 3's are notoriously slow start holes. It is not inconceivable that a fourball all might take 5 shots each on the 10th....that is 20 shots to be played before the next group can start. Compare this with the 1st where it is rare for players to still be in range after a second shot has been played. In a worst case scenario, after 10 shots, (everyone plays 2 and two players have played 3) everyone will be out of range and the next group can start.
Mid round snacks, balls, tees and toilets ~ at present, the 9th hole is not conducive to players coming back to the clubhouse mid round, whereas the 18th to 1st holes is a much more ideal set up.
The possible Alternative Route as tried on Captains Day, meant playing the holes numbered as they currently are, in the following order: Front Nine 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 10th, 11th, 15th, 16th, 17th and 9th
Back Nine 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 12th, 13th, 14th, 8th and 18th
Thisresolved all of the earlier identified problems. The 3rd played very smoothly, with players moving to the back of the green and away from the following group. From the 8th green, players would now move to the 18th tee, meaning that there was no benefit to walking in front of the 17th green. There was no walk up the hill to the 12th hole. The players on the 17th green moved to the 9th tee so again there was no problem with players crossing one tee to access another one. The 4th Hole became the 10th tee, visible from the clubhouse and a par 4 so no starting problems at all.
However, all was not perfect. The walk from the 9th green to the 4th hole was quite long, uphill and bumpy through the carpark, even if it was perfect for collecting a bacon roll and using the loos. The loss of correlation between the 7th green and 8th tee meant that people appeared (from the 14th green onto the 8th tee) as players were about to play their shots to the 7th green. In addition, people ready to tee off on the 8th were disturbed as players approached the 7th green. The access to the 4th tee from the carpark would need to be sorted out. At present, the walk from the 3rd to the 4th tee is across and up reasonably level ground. The 4th from the carpark is across a quite severe side slope, which would be very difficult and slippery in the winter.
All in all, it was a very successful experiment and the problems of 7th green to 12th tee and 14th green to 8th tee can actually be reasonably easily resolved with realigning tees for the 12th and 8th holes, and these tees are to be renovated extensively as part of the reservoir project anyway. The walk from 9th green to the 4th tee can be resolved by going from the 9th green to the 1st tee and the 18th green to the 4th tee, which shortens the walks considerably, although we then lose the direct walk past the clubhouse after each nine holes. We are, however considerably closer than we are at present.
The comments from players were very favourable. A few had reservations, as described above. Most found the alternative route much easier on the legs. There was a final added bonus of the two nines being more balanced in terms of par for nine holes and the distribution of the par 5's.
Will we implement it? Possibly, once we have looked again at the problems that were created. To change and create new problems to replace existing ones seems somewhat pointless. Watch this space.......
And now they're wondering why we men prefer to play poker or watch TV over mowing the lawn?