A couple of major irrigation problems this week were certainly quite unwelcome.  At the moment and for the past several weeks we have been pumping 24/7 from the Banora Treatment Works which is the source of our irrigation water but had two hiccups this week that saw us lose nearly 24 hours of water transfer time due to two separate problems with our pumps at the plant.  We currently pump down about 1.3 megalitres of water each day and have been putting the same amount on the courses each night.  Unfortunately the loss of pumping time meant that for two nights only greens and tees were irrigated due to the reduced volume.  The fairways are really struggling at the moment which is one of the problems with such a sandy free draining site coupled with the constant motorised buggy traffic as well as the system design as mentioned last week.  The upside of the sandy profile is the recovery from rain events which would be most welcome at the moment.  It was amazing to think I got excited with the 5mm that fell this week!

The other issue was with a mainline on 14W fairway and the green supply at 13W both of which required a substantial excavation.  The size of the Fig tree root heading in to 13W green from the right was absolutely huge.  This made me ponder just what we will encounter with 13R green in a couple of weeks when the top is removed given the size of the Norfolk Pines at the rear of the green  Preparations are going quite well for the green although the temporary will probably struggle with the short preparation time.  A "growth blanket" has been placed over the top of the temporary to assist speed up the growth by creating a virtual greenhouse effect which will lift the temperature of the surface and soil whilst still allowing light and moisture to get through to the plant.  The sand mix for the green was finalised this week with numerous amendments to be added to make the growing profile "old" so as to better match it to the existing greens.

Had a laugh at this one!!