Another bad week of weather and quite luckily we narrowly avoided a flood when the river actually broke its bank at the low spot behind 1R green on both high tides on Tuesday.  Fortunately the river's catchment upstream missed some of the heavier rain (they still got 80mm) and that kept levels "under control".  The bunkers took an absolute pounding and have taken the rest of the week to get shoveled back into some normality and the fairways were too wet to mow for most of the week and in the end due to their length we had to mow through some unfavourable ground conditions.

One of a few bunkers a machine could help out in.

 

In the 81 days since the start of March we have had only 26 days where no rain was recorded and received 760mm or 30 inches in the old scale.  You have to go back to the double flood year of 2022 to match that same run of rain days. 9 inches of that rain has fallen in the past 8 days as well.

The weather has played havoc with our work programs with either rain or wind disrupting.  Our preventative spray programs on the greens have been the worst hit and we now have some disease present in some River course greens.  Following the solid tine of the greens a few weeks ago we are getting some wheel marking from the mowers which is normal and probably exacerbated by the wet soft conditions.  There is no disruption to the playing surface though. 

With no further rain overnight carts should be back on the West course for Saturday.  It is still extremely wet in places so please drive with care. 

Another disastrous week for golfing and golf course maintenance.  We were lucky enough to get all but 10W fairways mown on Monday while we were able and it pretty much hasn't stopped raining since.  The rain forecast seems to get worse every time I look at it and some of the showers we have been getting have been torrential.  90mm from Tuesday am till Friday am which isn't a crazy number for us but it just comes on top of everything else we have had this year.

We have done a few Poa annua control trials around the courses and the rain certainly hasn't helped.  One of the more successful ones was on the edge of some of the West greens.  We did get a leaf tip burn that has since grown out but we finally got some result with some yellowing of the target plants.  When the rain stops we can continue the trials on a wider front.  Most of our other trials haven't been successful so the search continues.

Discolouration from the spray.

3 plants in the spray zone yellowing.

 

  

Yet another frustrating week with the weather again impacting work programs and golf.  At least it dried out enough for us to get a mow on some West fairways but there are still several that are still too wet to mow.  The volume of rain this week hasn't been much but the ground just isn't drying out.  At least we were lucky on Wednesday that the 80 - 100mm that fell near Ballina and was tracking north didn't make it here.  The 7mm we did get did enough damage though and the forecast next week looks bleak and it won't take much to top the courses up.

Poa annua (wintergrass) has started to germinate again and several trials with varying products and methods are under way.  As reported here previously most of the Poa we have on the courses is now resistant to most control options.  This is not only a problem for us here at CTH but is a problem Australia and worldwide.  Most treatments will have a deleterious effect on the roots of the desired grasses so in the greens case we need to tread very carefully, particularly approaching winter..  The constant wet of the past few weeks provides the perfect environment for the Poa to germinate.  And speaking of winter we got a fair blast of what's to come this morning with 12 degrees registered in the compound.  It was certainly a chilly start on the mowers and a few of the boys went searching for their gloves.

Cold crisp start to the day overlooking the Tweed River.

Elsewhere on the courses and we are in good shape heading into winter, despite the rain, with an excellent coverage of grass on tees and fairways.  It is always interesting when carts are restricted to see the immediate improvement in the fairways.  A large majority of players have followed the signage on 1 and 9 River fairways and kept their carts off the fairways and the improvement in the turf is amazing.  Pity two of the early groups on the West course ignored the request to stay off 16W fairway.  I bet they would be straight into the bar if the sign read "free beer today"!!  

Not quite staying off the fairway??

 

 

What a waste of a week with the constant rain muddling golf and all our plans for the week.  I should have known when the seagulls came in last Saturday and started preening themselves on the dam at 4/9W as they always seem to do when there's lots of rain about.  They certainly knew what was coming with 240mm falling over the week.  With the wet March it seems like it hasn't stopped raining, however on closer inspection of recent rainfall records it's actually been relatively dry!!  Here are the year to date figures to the end of April and number of rain days since 2020.

2020        1555mm        56 days.

2021        1390mm        70 days.

2022        1608mm        85 days.

2023        460mm          51 days.

2024        1073mm        79 days.

2025        1549mm        61 days.

2026        831mm          65 days.

So a smaller total in 2026 thus far but lots of rain days has made it feel like it's rained non stop.  One good thing about all the rain is the way the recently drained bunkers performed, particularly 8W which was completely shelled out and renewed.  With the volume of rain we have had it would have normally washed out and hold water for days.  You have to try and find a positive!!

80mm of rain in 24 hours and holding firm.

We took advantage of no play on Tuesday to get the greens on both courses solid tine aerated which allows some much needed oxygen to get into the rootzone.  But other than that the short week and constant rain has played havoc with our maintenance programs once again.  When will it stop? 

This Blog reaches far and wide but this last month created a record with more than 30,000 page views for the month. It has been averaging around 10,000 per month for the past year so hopefully someone is getting some benefit from it??!!

 

Off the stats page of the Blog.

 

  

 

  

As I mentioned last week the warmer weather was just what we needed leading into winter and I must say we have an excellent cover of grass across the courses now.  It almost felt like a winter blast this week with cold southerly winds accompanied by frequent cloud bursts.  We received 20mm on course overnight into Friday and dare I say we needed it.  It was certainly a week for rainbows with the scattered showers and blasts of sun.

A pot of gold awaits @ 16W green??

 

The front bunker on 8W was re-drained this week which is part of an ongoing program we are conducting on both courses.  There was a layer of fairly impervious clay just above the existing drainage pipe so not much water had ever found its way down to it.  We also filled some of the "melon" holes on 13W fairway and heavily topdressed the area.

The rain forecast for the next few days isn't good for some of the work planned next week which includes adding some sand to selected River bunkers.  Obviously moving sand around needs dry firm conditions so hopefully the forecasters have got it wrong. 

It's hard to believe that 12 months ago we were still knee deep in TCAlfred recovery with stumps being ground out.  We finished up totaling 302 stumps from the cyclone but you would hardly know anything happened now.  The big winner has been some of the turf with the extra sunlight lapped up by the grass.

One of the biggest - RHS 2W tee.

32 degrees in the shed compound today was most welcome as was the weather during the week.  Light winds and warm dry conditions is just what we are after at this time of year and the condition of the courses at weeks end shows it.  It was nice to get some compliments on the River course from Monday's Masters shotgun, particularly on the greens.  Given a 10am shotgun we were able to double mow and double roll before play which is a time luxury we don't often get.  Wednesday had us scrambling again to get a single mow and roll in front of a 6.30 two tee start.

The course closures are also a huge help with work getting done without interference from play.  This week on Tuesday we were able to drain the LHS fairway bunker on 5R that has been a long term issue and then on Thursday following the vets we got the River greens sanded which we have been trying to get done for some time but the weather always threw a spanner in the works.  That will be the final sanding for this season.

Final sanding for the season.

 

As part of the Club's centenary we have purchased some commemorative pin flags that will be in use from Wednesday April 15.  

So the colour coded pin placement system will be on hold while these flags are in use. 

 

Sample of the new pin flag.