Well the old saying states that a week can be a long time and it certainly was last week with some very welcome rainfall arriving as shown in the radar image below.  Nearly 150mm for the week and the courses lapped it up and coupled with the hot, humid weather they have really kicked in to growth mode with every available mower out on the courses in an effort to keep up.

A beautiful sight!!

As mentioned previously the Bentgrass West greens are really struggling of late and the rain was a welcome relief as it gave me a chance to "needle tine" the greens which allows for some much needed air exchange.  The process is too risky unless you are guaranteed rain as the greens dry very quickly.  There is virtually no surface disruption but the benefits are huge for the turf.  The videos below show the actual tining taking place and the roller restoring the surface.  The tines penetrate about 100mm.  The humidity as a result of the rain isn't the best thing for the greens but the rain and needle tine were.

With the prospect of rain I was able to fertilise the River course fairways last week to take advantage of Mother Nature for a change.  Four tonne of slow release fertiliser was applied at an application rate of 230 kg per hectare.  This should get the fairways ready for the winter by taking advantage of the late summer conditions we are experiencing.  The fairways are normally fertilised in the late afternoon / early evening to avoid too many carts driving over them which results in a temporary and unsightly burn which happened on 6 River fairway as can be seen in the photo as that fairway was done in the morning in front of play.

6 River fairway