Hopefully the storm that's on the way doesn't cause too much grief.  The rain will certainly be welcome across the courses though.  All the main playing areas are in excellent health at this stage of summer and providing great playing surfaces.  The rough is long I know but it is an annual problem at this time of year with the heat and moisture about.

I did get a suggestion this week that the height be dropped in the rough areas and gave the following response;

As discussed we use “mulching” blades on our outfront rotary mowers which do a very good job with the sticks, twigs and leaves that litter the roughs and leave a very clean surface.  Their quality of cut is slightly less than the normal blades but the normal blades wear very quickly with the amount of debris in the roughs.  Plus we just can’t keep up with the growth (or the leaf litter) at this time of year.

The mowing area of our Intermediate mowers has been extended to allow the rough cutters to spend more time in the trees.  These are precision cut units and can’t operate around tree roots.

Tree roots are the reason we can’t lower the height of the rough as suggested as we are currently only mowing just above the height of exposed tree roots.  LHS 11W fairway is a very good example of the exposed roots.

 

The tree roots are the issue as substantial damage would be caused to the machines if the height was lowered and the blades came in contact with more roots.  You can often see where the roots have already been "scalped" by the mowers which isn't a good thing for the mowers.

Two new electric greens rollers arrived today to replace our 6 year old existing units.  They are made by Tru Turf whose head office is just up the road in Arundel and owned and operated by Australians Ray and Dorothy.  They have owned the company over 30 years and a lot of their early trial work was done onsite here at Coolangatta Tweed.  Their machines are sanctioned for use by the US PGA Tour for their events and are used on courses such as Augusta National, Pebble Beach, St Andrews and this years Ryder Cup venue Hazeltine.  So we're in good company!!

Waiting to be unloaded

 

Works have commenced at the main pump shed on 12W dam to extend the floor area of the shed to allow for the installation of a treatment system to further purify the water we receive from the Council for irrigation.  The water is already of the highest quality and this system will make it even better.  Unfortunately it will raise the salt content of the applied irrigation water but we we are complying with Council requests.  Somewhat ridiculously, a DA was required to extend the shed by the 3.6 metres!!  New exterior walls and roof replacing the existing asbestos materials will also be part of the project. 

Extension and much needed spruce up!