Friday, August 28, 2015

A very tough week just gone with a flu outbreak amongst the course staff affecting numbers with only 5 on course staff available for Tuesday and Wednesday.  Despite this the efforts of the crew were outstanding in getting the courses up for the week ends play and in particular Round 3 of the Club Championships.  Fridays weather was just about perfect with a light breeze that allowed us to get the courses cleaned up  and clear from the tree and leaf debris.  I don't think anyone was at the Gold Coast show as both courses were packed to the rafters.

On Tuesday this week we installed a new method of irrigation control that has the potential to revolutionise irrigation in any situation but in particular golf courses, particularly those with a "hydraulic" system such as ours.  A hydraulic system means that water pressure is used to keep the sprinkler valves closed and therefore any loss of pressure means the sprinkler will pop up.  So any sort of leak or major pressure variation can cause havoc with sprinklers coming on unintentionally.  If there is a leak in the control lines you can try tracing it which on a sandy site proves difficult sometimes or you just have to replace the tube which means trenching from the sprinkler itself right back to the controller which can unearth all sorts of hidden obstacles.  This new system uses underground wireless communication from the controller to the sprinkler location within a 350 metre radius without any trenching which is simply amazing. 

Disc adjacent to field controllers


The transmitter is fitted close to the controller (under a 300mm aluminium disc) and the receiver is in the body of the sprinkler and we have currently installed 3 sprinklers.  There are 14 sprinkler locations on the greens where sprinklers have been removed or paired with another sprinkler to avoid the trenching so this control will allow us to attain much improved irrigation coverage.  It will also allow for extensions to the irrigated area as now we only need to get the irrigation pipe and a sprinkler to the area and no tubed control.  And absolutely best of all it's an Australian invention!!

The River greens were fertilised last week to try and get some colour in them and they have taken that up combined with the warm temperatures and are growing like I have never seen them before in August.  A plant growth regulator was applied this morning to try and curb the growth spurt.  The good news is that 13 R green has also responded and only has the very rear edge still weak.  The presence of some sandflies this week indicates that spring has already well and truly sprung!

And with the amount of social play on the West course today there were some temper tantrums demonstrated that could well have resulted in this;

About the only thing I haven't seen on a golf course....yet!!

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