Main greens on with important ‘no play zones’ and ‘drop zones’
Its been a frustrating few weeks with very high levels of rain fall following the week of snow in mid-March. These conditions led to the unusual saturation of some approaches, aprons and surrounds of greens that made these areas unplayable. This was the reason that even some temporary greens were moved forward from the usual positions. Moving the temporary greens was an action to keep the course open on 18 holes in anyway possible given the conditions of these areas.
Up until this Friday (24th March) the rain had been so constant, particularly over night, that it was still not practical to either move temporary greens back or re-open some main greens as large areas of the approaches, aprons and surrounds remained unplayable. This led to the decision the cancel Sunday’s competition. See picture below of rear of 18th green from Friday am as an example of unplayable area at that time.
The much improved weather this weekend has meant that it was possible to reassess these areas with a view to reopening all main greens. There are still areas close to greens that are unplayable but they have reduced in size such that it has now been possible to mark these as No Play Zones (NPZ) and create Drop Zones (DZ) by these. Please see picture of 8th hole approach, with No Play Zone inside the roped area and Drop Zone to the rear.
This has now been put into place in all areas that affected play to main greens. All main greens are now on and will remain so unless the greens themselves are affected by severe weather.
Thank you for your patience over the past few weeks and particularly this weekend. With the weather helping, NPZ and DZs in place the season will start with all greens in play and further updates will describe course works, including application of a newly refurbished mole plough, to mitigate against a recurrence of this issue in future.