Thirty inches of rain since November 11.  Not a misprint!!  I doubt any other course could take that type of punishment and remain open.  It really is a credit to the people who built the courses and installed the drainage which works incredibly well on such a flat site.  Having such little fall makes the pipes run very slowly but they are very effective.

At the Board meeting on Tuesday night this week there was discussion around the forecast for Wednesday golf.  My contribution was that the biggest concern, although not technical in any way, was that the seagulls had been camped on the dam at 4 / 9 West and had been there all night.  They certainly did know something as that 80mm in 40 minutes just after lunch on Wednesday was almost literally out of this world.

The West course is taking forever to dry out in places and just when we think we can mow a fairway we get more rain on it.  The 80mm on Wednesday wasn't to big a problem as that volume of water just runs to the catch basins.  It's the smaller showers that are the ones that really keep us wet.

The constant rain means low sunlight hours which isn't conducive to good greens growing weather.  The River greens have really struggled which is a trait of 328 and even the West greens have got a bit ''puffy''.  Both sides got a de-thatch this week followed by a close mow which has resulted in a scalped look in areas on the greens. A good forecast of sunny weather looms so hopefully that occurs.

They didn't move for 48 hours.

 

I could nearly write exactly what I wrote last week with respect to the rain, grass growth and staff shortages.  At one stage earlier this week we had received 22 inches of rain in 26 days.  I don't know of many courses that could take that volume of rain in that timeframe and remain playable.  This week was a shame though as during the course closure on Tuesday the West course was completely blown and mown and looked an absolute treat on Tuesday night.  32mm of rain in a squally weather front soon changed all that for Wednesday unfortunately.

Year to date rainfall has us sitting at 2,706mm which puts it at number 6 on the all time list since 1886.  Rainfall figures for the past 4 years see the following;

2020 - 2,735mm.    2021 - 2,413mm.    2022 - 2,846mm.    2023 - 1,314mm. 

On the irrigation front 14W has finally been completed but some of the main trenchlines are still very soft.  No installation will be started before Christmas with a lot of topping up trenches and tidy up work currently being completed.  Work will re-commence on Monday January 6 on 18W which is also when we will do some work at the LHS fairway bunker on 18W to eliminate the wet area in front of the bunker and will also reduce the size of the fairway bunker and re-drain it.

Another ''500 Friday'' this week with over 500 players booked in and with the way the Fridays fall during Christmas we will probably have a couple of 600 Fridays thrown in.  Hopefully we get some decent weather to allow everyone to enjoy the courses.  It should be noted that when you are putting that quantity (and type of play) through the courses, turf quality and presentation has to suffer.

The practice facilities, particularly the new ''target green'' as we call it are really getting some use and are showing the signs of wear quite badly.  When you are practicing and taking divots on the ranges, the preferred method of arranging your divots is as per the top photo below which will allow for a much more rapid recovery of the area compared to the bottom photo. 

A good pattern.

 

A not so good pattern and sand dump.

So November 2024 finished up being the second wettest November since records began in 1886 for Tweed Heads with 408mm recorded.  The actual record happened in 1917 with 606mm of rain falling.  We have now had 542mm since November 11.  That's half a metre of rain in a bit over three weeks so no wonder we are wet.  There is water still lying in some rough areas that I have never seen stay there this long.

It has come at a bad time this week with two staff off each day sick, one on annual leave and a casual resigned last week leaving us four men down on where we should be.  The West bunkers have taken a real hit and will remain out of play until next week when we have the numbers to get to them.  The grass growth is also at its peak at the moment with the heat and moisture in the ground so it is nigh on impossible to keep the courses mown.

Speaking of taking a hit, thanks to the player that did this to 16R bunker this past Wednesday afternoon.  When you have people like this out there it's hard to produce any sort of quality playing surfaces.

Nearly tripped over the rake.

The irrigation install has also taken a hit over the past month with ground conditions as wet as they can be.  The contractors have done a bit more top dressing on the low trenches this week while trying to finish 14W off.  I have mentioned a few times about the mainline trenches that are dug by a large excavator doing a very good job of root pruning along the sides of fairways.  I didn't expect to get the same result from the ploughing machine that pulls the pipe in around the greens.  The photo below is from 15W at the rear of the green with the plough line arrowed and a distinctive difference in growth on the greenside of the line.  It has happened in several other green surrounds as well so is another added bonus.

Significant difference in growth on the greenside of the plough line.

 

A few more showers this week took us to over 400mm for November which makes it the wettest month of the year just eclipsing January when we had 393mm.  That also takes us to 2400mm for the year or 2.4 metres!!  The water table is very high so any amount of rain pretty much just tops us up.  This location has been recording rainfall data since 1886 and more than 2000mm in a calendar year has only been recorded 27 times over all those years.  Somewhat perhaps worryingly is that in the 14 years since 2010 there has been 2000mm+ 8 times!!

We had an issue with one of the old irrigation satellite locations at the rear of 9R green it is a location that we have had problems with over the years due to corrosion caused by its close proximity to the river.  A group of solenoid wires had severe corrosion and caused them to stop operating the sprinklers.  Unfortunately that group included all of 9R green, causing it to dry out to the point where there was virtually no moisture left in the profile.  Fortunately we are now able to go to the older defunct satellites and scavenge some parts from them as the parts we require are no longer available.  We were able to get to the green and get the moisture levels back to where they needed to be before we lost turf but it was touch and go to be honest.  That has always been one of the issues with our old irrigation system in that you generally don't find out there is a problem with the system until you start losing turf.  With the new system an alarm will alert us to any operational issues and we are able to run a diagnostic test every day which will also give us feedback as to operation.

Those pesky seagulls back again on 17R.

 I don't really know where to start after last night and today.  The photo above is of the dam on 17R this morning and that water is the same level as the irrigation lake which is behind me in the photo.  Quite incredulously I saw five people out playing today!!  We received 126mm till 9am this morning and we have picked up another 59mm till 5.30pm, most of which came down between 4.30 and 5.30pm. 

Looking back to 12R tee 5.30pm Friday.

 

Needless to say the West greens renovations were a bit of a disaster in what was almost a carbon copy of last year weather wise.  We finished up getting everything done except for a hollow tine aeration and fertiliser.  We might be re-sanding though as a lot of that has been washed away in the torrential rain.

Also needless to say it wasn't a very productive week on the irrigation install either with them sheduled to work on one of our wettest fairways at 14W.  They did get some sand in to top up some of the trenchlines and at lunchtime Friday most had stayed in place.  Not so sure now!!

Seagulls on 9W dam.

It's never a good sign when the seagulls come on the property preening themselves next to the dam on 4 / 9 West as they only do it when there is excessive rain and quite often in flood times.  So I was a bit concerned on Tuesday morning after the deluge the night before to see them there.  It didn't lead to a flood but it was another 115mm for the week that we really didn't need.  It has had quite an impact on our programmes and has us well behind where we need to be.  Weather always plays a part in our operation but all this rain is quite frustrating. This week numbers takes us to 2150mm for the year which means that four of the past five years has produced more than two metres of rain.

I mentioned last week that the massive storm just after the renovation fertiliser went out may have washed some of the fertiliser away and at that stage we looked pretty good.  However after some time for the fertiliser to start releasing the nutrients we have had some loss.  There must have been some really heavy rain along the riverbank as its 1, 12, 13 and 8R greens that are the worst affected with a blotchy result and you can see below on the side of 13R where the fertiliser washed off the green.  This weeks bad weather hampered our efforts to top the greens up again.

Two fertiliser wash areas circled.

The renovation of the West greens is scheduled for next Monday and Tuesday and as mentioned for the recent River renovations we need dry conditions and the forecast doesn't look good.  We had the same issue last year with wet weather de-railing the West renovation so hopefully the forecast changes. 

This time last week I was lamenting how the violent Thursday night storm, had washed away the fertiliser that had been applied that day to the renovated River greens.  How wrong could I have been with one of the most aggressive bursts of growth post renovation I have seen.  We are pulling a full catcher load off every green compared with maybe one catcher for all 18 the norm during normal growth.  It has been a difficult week with the wild winds meaning we haven't been able to spray anywhere, particularly the growth regulator that the greens so desperately need now.  It's a good problem to have though and it will be a good result to the renovation in the coming weeks.

The wind has provided the new irrigation system the chance to demonstrate one of its features and that is the smaller fairway sprinklers operating effectively overnight in the windy conditions.  As we dry out any dry areas on fairways can also be noted and the closest sprinkler can have its run time increased to alleviate the dryness as they are very effective covering a eighteen metre arc rather than the thirty metres of our previous fairway sprinklers..

Elsewhere on the courses I think I remember blogging about unrepaired pitchmarks on the West greens recently so I dug up an old photo of 8W green when it was Bentgrass.  If I had the time I could have replicated the ''golf ball'' photo below on 8W this week.

450 golf balls on poorly repaired pitchmarkrs 8W 2011.

 

Could do the same today on 8W.

 

While I was searching the blog for the golf ball photo I came across this quote from 2010 and wondered if you told Cameron where he would be now if he would have believed you back then. 

It's been a long week hosting the Greg Norman Junior Masters but a successful one, particularly for the senior boys winner Cameron Smith who shot an amazing four round total of 24 under par.