The wind has returned and the chill on it had quite a few of my staff reaching for their long pants and the rain yesterday had them looking for their wet weather gear which has been in hibernation for quite some time now.



Red sky in the morning means get the fert out!!

Thursday's "red sky in the morning" was just the sign to get some fertiliser out on to the fairways and I was lucky enough to get 4 tonne out on to 15 of the weaker fairways before the rain hit.  It was certainly quite a front that went through with some very adjacent thunder and lightning.  12 mm of rain came down in 10 minutes then another 7mm drizzled down over the next few hours which was just what the fertiliser wanted, not to mention the rest of the course and our home gardens.  The photo above of "the red sky" shows 4 River fairway after it was fertilised.  The white dots are blobs of foam that are dropped so that the operator can see where his last run was to ensure an even application.



The front about to hit on Thursday

Observant members may notice a few holes in a select number of greens and these are made to extract some soil to a depth of 100mm for a nutrient test to be carried out.  I have been using the same company for quite a few years now and they have an on line library of my previous results against which I can compare.  The same greens are sampled each time to be able to track any changes that may be occurring in the soil profile.  The results also give me a good insight as to what soil amendments will be needed at renovation time.  The local rule allowing relief from "aeration holes" could be used if your ball happens to land in one.

Soil sample hole.