The week that was

Well it was a fairly quiet week on the golf course thanks to the weather although today certainly made up for it with a huge day of play on both courses.  Off the golf courses and it was an interesting week to say the least.

Firstly the news that a groundsman at a Gold Coast golf course was operating his rough mower on an embankment next to a dam late last week and the machine slid down the bank and into the water with him still on board.  The machine pinned him under water where he was unable to surface until two of his workmates dived in and freed him.  He was under water for about a minute and a half and needed to be revived on the bank.  Fortunately he is ok with some cracked ribs and "sore all over" but it is an unfortunate reminder of just what can happen whilst operating machines on sloping ground.

One of my Apprentices was involved in a car crash on the way to work on Wednesday morning and finished up in hospital and required surgery to an injured knee.  At this stage he appears to be on the way to making a full recovery.

And then to top the week off I attended my first Captain at Cool Tweed Brian Kingston's funeral today.  Brian was a great fellow and Captain of the Club as the various tributes illustrated.  Funerals are always a sad affair but I think everyone had a smile on their face at some stage as some of the typical "Kingo" stories were relayed.

On Tuesday this week I visited Avondale Golf Club in Sydney to look at some air circulating fans they have installed adjacent to five of their greens that suffer badly from heat stress and subsequent disease during summer.  Several Cool Tweed Board Members had already seen the fans in August when they were in Sydney and the Club has now decided to install one of these fans at the 17th West green prior to this summer.  I will dedicate a complete article including some photos and expected benefits of the fans next week.  Suffice to say that Avondale Superintendent David Warwick claims that without the fans his greens would not have made it through Sydney's brutal summer (for putting greens that is) last year.  It's perplexing when you look at the 17th West green now and how good it looks, that it can cause so much heartache in summer.

On a bit of a lighter note one of our former groundstaff now works for a sports construction company and he leaves for New Delhi on October 1st...........to lay the turf in the main stadium!!