Here's hoping the forecast for Sunday is wrong but they have been constant with the prediction all week so it looks like battening down the hatches once again. 

A very sad day this week with the passing of Club Patron Bill Garbett.  His contribution to the golf courses over his membership was nothing short of amazing and a truer gentleman I doubt I have met.  His passion for the Tuesday morning volunteer crew of Dad's Army knew no bounds and the number of hours he volunteered to the Club and course was simply amazing.  Vale Bill.

I am on leave for a month from today with next week being spent at the Australian Turfgrass conference and Show in Melbourne so there will be a break from posting for a month. 

I saw the following which certainly gave me a chuckle;

A golf course owner has said a neighbouring venue spent £120,000 on a health and safety course redesign because balls were found on a nearby block of flats’ roof – only to discover later that birds thinking they were eggs had deposited the balls. They weren’t actually hit by golfers!!

The transformation of the courses this week is nothing short of amazing and a testament to dedication and hard work performed by the ground staff.  Dad's Army and a couple of volunteers also did a great job "stick picking" on Tuesday.  To give an idea of the staff numbers that were on course this week;  Monday, Tuesday and Thursday there were 10, Wednesday 8 and Friday 9.  That's the same as some 18 hole courses on the Gold Coast and the resultant Coolie Tweed courses are an absolute credit to them.

The courses have just about been cleared of all the debris and a large percentage of bunkers restored.  The Friday comp was lucky today as I didn't think we would get all the bunkers prepared and raked in play in front of them so left all bunkers as GUR.  The bunkers finished up all getting done in front of the comp which again was a great effort by the staff.  A couple of West course bunkers were virtually destroyed and have been rebuilt and had fresh sand added with a few more to be done.

There has been some widespread damage to golf courses right down the east coast and we can be thankful that the river doesn't really do any bad damage when it breaks its banks and we don't really have much inundation.  The salt factor of the water certainly has an effect as can be seen on 1 and 9 River fairways and the short range.  The volume of water that can be shifted off the courses via the drainage network is also something that still astounds me even after so many chaotic weather events.

Wow thank heavens that's over.  I emptied the rain gauge at 5pm on Saturday afternoon and tipped out 92mm from 9am that followed the 98mm that I tipped out on Saturday morning.  The gauge had actually overflowed overnight Saturday and there was 238mm in it to give us a grand total of 330mm for the 24 hours till 9am Sunday and 427mm since it started raining on Friday afternoon.  Add the 24mm we had on Wednesday and Thursday and we total 451mm for the week!!  That's 18 inches of rain!!

At this stage the courses will both be closed on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday with an assessment made at lunchtime Tuesday regarding the rest of the week.

The river level is lower than I expected with it only just breaching the levee bank on this mornings high tide which is a positive but there is an enormous amount of water that needs to drain off the courses. There is a huge amount of debris strewn across the courses that will take time to clear as well but there are no complete trees down which is remarkable to say the least.  Probably only a dozen branches will require a chainsaw.

Some photos below to give you an idea of how much water is out there.

An eerie sunrise on the river.

The normally bone dry 1 West

 

7 River

11 River

High water mark on 1 River green

Ladies 6 River tee

Let's hope the weather forecast is a little off and we escape the worst of what is supposedly coming.  A few minor irrigation issues this week that were quickly overshadowed by preparations for the deluge that is on its way.  All drains were trimmed and cleaned out to try and have them working at capacity and dams that can be lowered were also done.  We had 12mm of rain in a heavy shower on Wednesday night followed by 10mm on Thursday night before the rain came in on Friday afternoon.  The courses are very dry and it will take some time for the water to soak in but what we have had so far has been most welcome.  

This type of prolonged wet weather provides the perfect situation for disease to attack the greens, particularly the West greens so hopefully they are in a state of health that will resist the conditions.

A few new signs have been placed on the courses with respect to the recycled water that we have used for some 35 years to irrigate the golf courses.  The club is in the final stages of re signing the supply agreement with Tweed Council and the signage is one of many conditions we need to meet to satisfy the regulators.