A MESSAGE
From: Andrés Sánchez Garcia, General Director of Atalaya Golf & Country Club
To: Atalaya Golf Members, Green Fee Guests and the General Public
We at Atalaya Golf & Country Club strive to provide the best golfing experience possible on the Costa del Sol. Key to assuring a great round of golf for everyone is providing courses that are always in healthy and pristine condition. To this end Atalaya’s greenskeepers and management have developed a very strong maintenance program.
Temporary Opening of New Course
The New Course is currently closed but will be open from May 31st until June 20th. The three-weeks opening will allow us to work on our Old Course – drainages, replacement of ante greens (the area surrounding the green) with sod and other important maintenance improvements.
Temporary Closure of Old Course
One of the important tasks that the grounds crew will carry out while the Old Course is closed (May 31st – June 20th) is hollow tining, often called ‘aeration of the greens’. This proven technique is recognised as essential to proper golf course maintenance.
Reasons For Hollow Tining
Every day the greens on all golf courses suffer stress. They are continually walked over, regularly mowed using heavy machinery and habitually compressed as a result of golf balls hitting and crossing over them time and time again. The end result is a very compacted surface that does not allow air and water to seep down deeply into the soil reaching the roots of the grass. The process of hollow tining, through which cores of turf are removed from the putting surface, eliminates this problem.
Hollow tining also removes thatch, ‘a layer of grass stems, roots and debris’ that grows over time and yields soft and slow greens. Further, microorganisms which are necessary for the healthy growing of grass are stimulated as a result of the process.
After hollow tining the greens are dressed with special sand, seed and gypsum, a soft sulfate mineral fertiliser used to create the proper pH balance of the soil with the purpose of inducing optimal growing conditions.
Time is then required, about two weeks or a little more, for the sand to seep down through the holes deeply into the ground and for the grass to grow properly to yield fast and smooth rolling greens for all to enjoy.
