Well another year is coming to a close and the warm summer weather is certainly upon us with the heat and humidity on the rise.  The worst part of the holiday period for me is the short weeks at a time when the grass is growing its hardest and there is a lot of play which means it is difficult to keep up with the mowing.  So apologies in advance for the lack of mowing and in particular the roughs.

Not a lot has been happening on the courses of late apart from routine maintenance but we did get the tree debris pile adjacent to 6 River mulched recently.  Some of the mulch has been relocated to the area at the rear of the buggy shed and is available free of charge to members.  So please help yourself.  The video below gives an idea of just what the tub grinder can achieve and the mulch is quite high quality. 

I also was lucky enough to get a game in the Pro am at Coolum for the Australian PGA a couple of weeks ago.  Obviously the changes to the resort amongst all the other shenanigans going on up there took most of the press but behind the scenes of the tournament is a well oiled PGA machine that runs the day to day mechanics of what is a very big undertaking.  In my last post I mentioned Scott Gardiner and this time I take my hat off to former CTH Trainee Pro Broc Greenhalgh who is currently the Executive Officer for the Queensland division of the PGA.  I have reason to deal with Broc in a number of areas within Queensland Golf and you couldn't find a more professional person and the way he conducts himself across the board is an absolute credit to him.  And I don't just say that because he got me a spot in the Pro am ahead of his old boss Russ Davis!!

But back to the golf course at Coolum and I also salute host Super Dean Henderson and his crew for the job they did in presenting the courses in what could only be described as less than ideal circumstances which I won't delve in to here.  Every Superintendent I have spoken to has, to a man, been amazed at the quality of the turf presented by Dean under the restrictions he was placed under.

So back to the shenanigans and the video below shows Jeff the dinosaur roaring which from all reports was turned down considerably from the noise level he can emit.  There are also a couple of shots of some of the controversial on course signage as well.

"JFK" sign on the 9 tee

USA flag tribute on 9 fairway

 And at the other end of the tournament spectrum is the news that Merion GC, the host of  the 2013 US Open has instigated the use of mats to play from 8 months out from the tournament to protect the fairways.  They are only in use on fairways where balls collect in a landing area but it does seem a bit of overkill especially when the course is closed from early December to April for winter  It is not a new idea as many courses in Great Britain use mats during winter to reduce damage to their fairways.  Whereas at The Lakes for the Australian Open this year the club held their normal Monthly Medal on the Saturday prior and a large Corporate day for Volvo on the Sunday.  Adam Scott asked one of the groundstaff why there were so many divots and when did you close for the tournament.  He couldn't believe it when he was told "last night" and then commented how good the course was considering!   And lastly on the mats there is the famous story of an elderly lady member who was given a mat to protect the course at the start of her round and when she arrived at her ball in the middle of the fairway she promptly dropped the mat on the ground, stood on it and hit her ball!! 

Well I think that's enough for 2012 and I would like to wish all of my Blog followers a safe and enjoyable festive season and New Year and good golfing.