This week’s update was held over to include some detail of storm Claudia. The North West fared rather better than other areas, but by the end of the week we had received 50 mm (2 inches) of rain, of which 33 mm fell on Friday. There has been no storm wind damage, however. Wednesday was also a wet day.

Unsurprisingly we had to bring in a buggy and power trolley ban. Other Chester courses - including Bromborough - fared worse and were closed on Friday. Our underlying ground is still very dry - it’s just the top layer that becomes sopping wet and vulnerable - so today we’ve been able to revert to a simple buggy ban. We are also trying to protect vulnerable areas and guide foot traffic by roping off - please spread out and try not to hug the ropes.

As predicted, we’ve had to spray the greens with fungicide to deal with attacks of fusarium - it’s a nationwide problem. The tees will be sprayed with an iron solution, which toughens the grass and attacks moss. It looks like we are moving into a colder spell which will deter fungal infection.

The black tees on 2 and 5 have been levelled: 2 has been turfed, 5 will follow this week.

As part off the ongoing winter work we are identifying a number of damaged trees which need to be taken out - including several that were mortally weakened two springs ago when the squirrels stripped several of large areas of bark. They will need to be felled; we can do this in-house courtesy of Callum’s chain saw licence.

Course Committee