Another irrigation leak that was found this week was cause for concern for most of Wednesday as the repair had to be done immediately which meant the water needed to be shut down from 9.30am on Wednesday which left the Bentgrass greens and the new TifEagle greens with no back up water if required during what was the hottest day of the week.  Fortunately they got through unscathed.

The new TifEagle greens continue to develop and 10 was nearly ready to be opened this week just ten weeks after planting which was when 11, 14, and 16 were opened.  15 was the fastest and opened 8 weeks after planting.  So the greens are still young and maturing and are all at different mowing heights due to their age which is a logistical nightmare to co-ordinate at times.  Once the greens are all at the same height then a proper program can be commenced to get consistency across the back nine.   

Elsewhere on the courses the 50mm of rain that fell in that brutal storm last Sunday morning has done the world of good.  We probably didn't get full value of all the rain as it came down so fast that a lot of it ran off but it certainly sparked things up, in particular the fairways.  They were treated with the normal monthly application of growth regulator this week and I really don't know what I would do without the product.  One of the big advantages of the growth regulator is its ability to stop the formation of seedhead on the Couchgrass which is very difficult to mow off.  It also really tightens the surface up when there is adequate moisture available and as its name suggests it regulates the growth.  We only operate two fairway mowers over the 36 holes which contain about 32 hectares of mown fairway and we would need to double that without using the regulator.  Two more mowers mean two more staff to drive them and fuel to run them so there are significant savings realised by using it not to mention the great playing surfaces.