Well the summer temperatures are with us now with full scale irrigation taking place.  The wind makes accurate application nearly impossible so there is often back up water applied by hand in the early mornings. One nice change is that I only go to 17W green to see how well it is growing rather than how stressed it is from the heat!!

I had the opportunity to tour around Royal Pines this week in a walk and talk hosted by designer Graham Marsh and Course Super Lincoln Coombes.  It was very interesting to hear some of the ideas behind the design changes and the methods used and local council compliance issues.  Only one of the existing dams was altered which is at 16 which now requires a near full water carry to make the green which has some interesting contours.  Bunker size was reduced from 2.2 Ha to .67 Ha much to the relief of the crew!!  On the course side of things Lincoln and his crew have done an amazing job in getting the turf tournament ready.  He only runs a crew of 14 and will have those numbers during the tournament next week.  That compares to 50 preparing The Australian for the Aus Open this week!!

Tree root removal from fairways was the main task this week and in 2 days only the back 9 River and 18W were completed.  This will be ongoing as budget funds allow.  And the River greens have recovered very well from their renovation and are already back to normal mowing height although they seem longer as the leaf blade is so juiced up at the moment.

There has been no feedback on the various rakes placed on the 18W and R greenside bunkers as mentioned last week.  Then again so many people leave bunkers like this that maybe we don't need them??

No rake!!

 

Next week will see the start of the bunker works at 7R green where the front two bunkers will be reduced in size and the rear bunker removed.  The bunkers will also have the Proliner material installed as on the LHS 7W earlier this year.  A temporary green will be in play which hasn't had a lot of preparation due to only being needed for a few days.  Apologies in advance.

The West practice green will also be redone with the growing medium being removed and replaced and the planted with Tifeagle.