You certainly couldn't argue with the forecast for today as it was just about spot on with 15mm of rain coming down in the thunderstorm just after 6am this morning.  It did wipe most of the comp morning players out but the intrepid players form Coolangatta Surf Club still came out on the West, except for one group who somehow found themselves at 2R instead!!

Not really a lot to report on the courses but the turf certainly enjoyed the almost warm sunny conditions earlier in the week.  I just updated our bi-monthly plan and there's a lot of golf coming up so the warmer and brighter the better for the turf.  We will also have a smallish crew in the next few weeks with some annual leave and trade school commitments taking some staff away which is an ideal time of year for it to happen.  As we dried out this week there was a lot of dust generated on our access tracks due to us using a recycled concrete roadbase material after the cyclone which is about 1/10^th  the cost of regular roadbase.  We will be trialling a dust suppression compound next time we dry out to that extent.

I will have a first next week with some blind golfers playing on the course.  I know the process but have never seen it in action so looking forward to it.  Hope they don't complain about course conditions too much!!

The irrigation install is on the last hole and we got the chance to run a couple of large cycles this week and as mentioned previously the pressure and distribution of the water is certainly first class.  There is still some work to be done that is classified as rectifications and also the removal of the old satellites and some valve boxes in the coming weeks.

One of the questions often put to Superintendents is "sunrise or sunset?"  After this beautiful sunrise across 13R green and the Tweed River this week I know where my answer lies.

 

 

An interesting but at least warm way to start Saturday morning after someone lit fire to our green waste pile @ 6R.  You just never know what you're going to get each morning!!

 

Nearly ten days without rain is a very nice break and the courses are showing it as they finally dry out.  Light winds and fine sunny days make for excellent golfing conditions and there has certainly been lots of players taking advantage.

Earlier this week saw nearly the last of the tree works associated with the cyclone.  While removing some hangers one of the tree loppers found some substantial structural damage in two large Eucalypt's between the two 18's and there was another dead tree in the area that was also removed.  Two of the trees have been left as "habitat trees" as they are full of hollows which will give some excellent nesting spots for the variety of birds on the courses.  There are already some Cockatoo's that have moved in as seen in the photos below.

   

The two trees between the 18's.

 

First residents??  Location circled below.

 

That's where the cockatoo is located!!

The greens on both courses are holding up very well for this time of year.  One of the issues that we can experience in winter is disease but thus far our preventative applications have kept them clean, which given the amount of leaf wetness that there has been is a great win.  The Poa annua (Wintergrass) population is also down on the past two years in the greens which is also a good thing.

The irrigation system install continues and as mentioned last week there is certainly light at the end of the tunnel with 11R in progress and only 1W remaining.  It was certainly a fairly big week for us as the power to our old irrigation system was dis-connected along with the old pump station meaning we are now only using the new system.  Probably not that exciting for golfers but I can tell you it is for us.  We ran a couple of large irrigation programs this week and the water pressure supplied from the new pump station was extra impressive to say the least.  The new pump station only has slightly more capacity than our old one  but the bigger new pipe size allows for greater water flow and resultant pressure.    

It seems the rain just won't leave us alone with another 80+mm fall earlier in the week.  It was enough to virtually close the courses on Monday and Tuesday so we took the opportunity to give greens on both courses an aeration with some 6mm diameter solid tines.  With no play we also took the opportunity of leveling some areas around the new sprinklers on the greens.  I feel for the people down on the central coast who got smashed with the weather event but was relieved that we dodged that bullet for a change.

I have been following a long range forecaster for a while now and he has been quite accurate.  He is based on the Sunshine Coast and was spot on with the Hunter floods earlier in the year and with this weeks storm.  His next prediction is for a "weather event" on August 20 so will be watching that closely.  His prediction for 2026 is a bit alarming though as he is calling for widespread floods and that the recent floods have been "puddles" in comparison to what's coming.  Watch this space......

The Conference I attended in Sydney was a great success and once again autonomous machinery was very much at the forefront at the trade show.  A fully autonomous electric fairway mower certainly took my eye and it has been successfully used on golf courses in Europe for some time now.  The initial cost is substantial at nearly twice a traditional mower but the payback is potentially there.  Apparently a course in NZ has one on order so it will be an interesting watch. Nearly 1500 people visited the trade show over 2 days and it was a full house at nearly every educational session.

The irrigation installation hit a hurdle this week with a significant amount of rock encountered on both 1 and 10R.  The rock obviously cant be left in the trenches so it had to be trucked away and replacement material bought in.  It has delayed us somewhat but the light is at the end of the tunnel with just over two holes remaining.  There is still a lot of rectification works on trenches and low sprinklers to be done but at least the major works should be finished by the end of this month.

Some of the rock encountered.

More of the same.

 

Some more tree work next week between the two 18's with a couple of large badly damaged gums to come down as well as  a couple of dead trees.  Both 18's will play short on Monday and Tuesday to allow the works to be done and 10R closed for irrigation installation.

Not quite so cold in the mornings this week but a cool southerly most of the week kept our jackets on.  The greens have really tightened up with the colder weather which is quite natural and greens on both courses are putting nicely.  The fairways have a good cover of grass which as I often say is critical going into winter.

Some new bunker rakes have been installed on both courses for a trial and first reactions have been positive.  It is a very different rakehead and is designed to be pulled rather than pushed  with one disadvantage being that you can't really smooth out the face of the bunker by pushing sand if you need to.  One of the problems with most bunker rakes is that when they are pulled they drag the sand to the exit point but this one doesn't allow that to happen.  So far with the bunker sand being very dry they are working a treat (by those that use them!!) but the test will come when the sand is wet so we will wait and see on that front.

The new rakehead.

 

We hosted the Australian senior matchplay this week and they were given a very well prepared golf course and I would have thought we would have got some respect shown to our courses in return.  The photo below shows the shared buggy on 1W very nearly on the green.  The Australian senior OOM is used to qualify for this tournament so its not like they are novices with no knowledge of golf etiquette.

Really??

 

The irrigation install continued this week with the short range and practice greens being installed.  Thanks to the members for working around the contractors as they went about their business in such a busy area.  We are really on the home straight now with just 1R, 10R, 11R and 1W to be done.  We move to 1R next week.

I am off to the Australian Sportsturf Conference next week so there will be no Blog post for the week. 

The crazy week that is the Mick Fanning Charity golf day has come and (nearly) gone with most of the clean up completed.  The vast majority of the players are really good with the courses and considering what goes on out there there is really very little damage done.  Having been so soft for so long we have got some tyre tracking from the vehicles bumping in and out but that is unavoidable given the elaborate nature and weight of some of the activation's.

TaylorMade @ 17W.

Win a bike for a HIO @ 3R.

The Balter bar between the 18's.

Tee off here on the Adidas shoebox on 12R.

The YETI bar @ 9R.

 

So cold overnight the ice didn't melt @ 11W tee.

 

A cold but fine end to the week and at least the courses have dried out somewhat.  In general the turf is still very healthy across the courses as we head towards winter which is a very good thing.  Hopefully the rain is behind us and we can move forward and actually start using the new irrigation system!!

Players out on the River course would have seen and heard some activity in our dump area adjacent to 6R this week.  The area had literally become a swamp and access for tipping debris and then grinding it has been severely restricted.  A huge amount of material is transported there on an annual basis, even without a cyclone being thrown into the mix!!  The area has now been graded to allow for water run off and has some geo-textile material laid this week in readiness for 1000 cubic metres of recycled concrete to be installed next week to convert the dump area into a hardstand allowing for all weather access.

Prepped and ready for hardstand.