Dear northern Europe, can we borrow some rain?
I understand we all migrate to the southern lands for those clear blue skies and hot sunshine, but for the love of all things green, just a little rain please. Since it’s July now I guess I shouldn’t get my hopes up.
The golf course took a bit of a beating through April and May as warm dry winds and an accumulation of problems with the irrigation hit us. Those of you who were here would have experienced a browning golf course, akin to that of a British Open links, but in Spain we expect lush green grass and colorful flowers.
This very newsletter has been delayed two times, purely because we haven’t had time, what with recovering the grass and trying to keep the greens alive in 40º of heat.
Above is our mechanic José Antonio working his magic on the aerating machine which seems to get injured more than Neymar Jr. I don’t know who has more years, the mechanic or the machine.
During the spring / summer months the aerator’s job is to drill long holes into the surface so air and water can soak into the ground, essential for healthy roots. Each green is perforated with approximately 50,000 holes. That’s 500,000 on the ten greens twice a month, 1 million holes per month.
The result, as you can see below, are greens that are healthy and rich in colour despite being in a drought the whole year.
Progress on hole 4
The new grass on hole 4 is looking healthier every day. We were hoping to have this green ready for late spring but the water problems have delayed progress. As you can see in the photo above, it’s not a problem any more. The green is being cut at 8mm, as long as we can keep the density high we’ll reduce it over the coming weeks.
It won’t be a super fast surface, but the slope is so severe it would be impossible if it was.
Irrigation Works
During the spring, irrigation company Rimesa installed a new intake for the irrigation as well as a new motor for the broken pump. If you remember, the newsletter from September last year claimed we had two working pumps, well that didn’t last long.
After analysis it was discovered that the old intake pipe was resting near the bottom of the lake. A lake that’s had 20 years of sediment deposited in it. The pipe was subsequently noted to be broken and leaking too. It resulted in water vapor build up in the pumps causing them to break often, a problem we know the previous company had too.
A floating pipe system has been installed so it is always sucking in clean water from the surface of the lake, no matter how low the water levels drop.
Short back & sides
During the spring we used spare time to tidy up a few areas on the course. Pine needles were transported from the 4th hole to form flowerbeds, rough areas were cut back further and the old palm behind the 5th green was finally pruned after what must be 10 years of dead palms were removed. It took two days to complete.
