I doubt the weather can get much better than this past week with cool nights for sleeping followed by perfectly sunny days for golfing.  It's so nice to have the courses free from leaf litter and it's amazing just how much time is freed up when we don't have to continually clear areas of the leaf litter ready for mowing.  The bunkers are also so much quicker to rake and stay more playable without all the normal debris.

The preparation of the temporary greens continues and we will keep getting the height down until we have nearly got all the grass off the areas and they will then be oversown and grown in so that members will be putting on quite an even surface.  Hence why we started the work so early so that the putting surface on the temporaries will be as good as it possibly can be come October.  Unfortunately they are not quite as big as I would have liked but there were to many humps and hollows and wet areas that dictated the size but with a good putting surface they will serve their purpose.

Elsewhere on the courses and as much fertiliser that can be applied to playing areas is to ensure we maintain as good a cover of grass for when the cooler weather does arrive.  It is already noticeable with the slower divot recovery on the fairways which will only get slower the further into winter we move.  All the more reason to be vigilant on re-filling divots with sand - but not too much so as it looks like a sand castle!!

Members will also notice the tee markers being rotated around, especially on Wednesday and Saturdays.  Under the new rating system the tee markers need to be placed within 100 metres of the rated length and markers can be placed behind the rating disc if required.  Essentially all 18 tee markers can be 5.5 metres in front of the disc and still be "legal".  By dropping a few behind it means that some of the weaker tees (4R, 6R, 7W) can have the wear rotated accordingly.  With a lot of back tee play approaching over the low grow months of winter such protection is most important.

Fortunately the moron vandals we have had coming in on 9R fairway have all but stopped and we were very fortunate they didn't find their way on to a green.  The two courses below were not so lucky over the past week.

Golf Club of Houston.  Site of the USPGA Tour Houston Open

 

Closer to home - Tamborine Mountain GC