Woburn Golf Club The Marquess 3rd and 5th Fairway Drainage
March 2016
Fineturf have recently installed secondary fairway drainage on the 3rd and 5th holes of The Marquess course at Woburn Golf Club. A number of drainage options were discussed with the club. For this project it was decided that sand slitting would result in to wide a trench, increasing recovery time and creating the risk of mowers disrupting the trench edges. Sand injection was also ruled out due to the heave created from the excess material in the soil, increasing the risk of mower scalping.
The chosen solution was the Shelton System 25™. This mini trencher can excavate narrow 25mm trenches and when fitted with an attachment can backfill in one operation. Lytag was used to backfill the 225mm deep trenches with 1 inch of rootzone on top. The permeable material Lytag allows quick removal of water and the high absorption rate results in retained moisture that can be returned into the soil during dry spells.
The narrow trenches produced by the Shelton delivered an extremely tidy finish and meant the hole was back in play straight away. There was no heave, the trenches were flush with the existing surface and the greenkeepers could continue mowing the fairways.
As with all contracts great care was taken to minimise the disruption of the surrounding ground. Heavy duty boards were used for all machinery tracks and the fairways were left in an excellent, playable condition; particularly for such a wet March.
