Winter Newsletter 2022 FINAL for WEB

Greens Convenor’s Report
This is my first Winter Newsletter report as Greens
Convenor and I would like to say what an honour
and privilege it is to hold the position at Royal
Dornoch. I am aware that I am following in the
footsteps of extremely efficient and experienced
Convenors and sadly as many of you know our
previous Convenor passed away in October this
year and our love and thoughts go to his wife Mags
along with his family and friends. Adrian was a
larger than life Yorkshireman who was truly
passionate about Royal Dornoch Golf Club and
completed at least 3 stints on Council as Greens
Convenor. Adrian and his expertise will be greatly
missed at Dornoch.
The weather has been really mild lately which
meant the green keepers were still cutting grass
which is unusual in late November. However, as I
write, Winter has arrived with a vengeance after a
really mild but wet Autumn and has finally hit the
courses with frost, snow, wind and rain. It hasn’t
been the best week to be working outdoors but as
normal Eoin and the team have persevered to get
things done. The Winter programme is well under
way and with hopefully some kind weather we will
see the benefits for the start of the season.
On the Championship Course the team have
completed the bunker revetting on the 10th and
started the ones on the top of the hill on the 17th.
The greens have been micro tined which is done to
relieve compaction and help the water percolate
through the surface as quickly as possible so when
the snow melts this should help dry out the surfaces
quicker. Following the tining they were then rolled
to smooth the surfaces for play. The team continue
to turf weak or any worn areas on fairways. The
revetting on the bank of the 8th tee is in the process
of being done.
On the Struie Course they continue to aerate the
greens with the Air2G2 air injection machine. This
breaks up the soil profile under the surface giving
the roots of the grass plant room to grow in the air
pockets it makes. The turfing of weak areas on the
greens surrounds also continues.
After a few stormy days the coastal erosion fencing
on the 10th hole of the Struie Course took a
battering so the team has replaced the damaged
sections, built up the bank with sand and planted
Marrum grass to help stabilise it. With the snow
covering the course they also turned their attention to
areas of bushes that needed to be removed or cut back.
They have also started removing all the bushes in the
dunes on the sea side of the course and trimming sides
of pathways.
Work has also been done on the Struie Course for the
R&A Senior Amateur Championships in July next
year. The grass has been coming back onto fairways
and tees and now Eoin, Scott and team are hoping for
a good Spring to help with growth. The enlarging of
the 18th white tee has been finished with our own
team completing the work and installing the irrigation.
All of the Greens Committee completed a course walk
on 6th December which was very beneficial and
enjoyable to see at first hand all the work that is being
done.
We have had confirmation of passing the GEO
certification in June 2021 which confirms that Royal
Dornoch Golf Club has successfully achieved GEO
Certified© status for its outstanding work to foster
nature, conserve resources and support the
community. GEO Certified© is the most respected
certification for golf, based on a credibly and
transparently developed modern and sustainable
standard of best practice.
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