For all intents and purposes it is certainly summer already with the 30 degree mark being surpassed three times in the compound this week.  Full scale irrigation is under way and a couple of calm nights followed some of the very windy days week allowing for some non-wind affected irrigation and you can certainly see the difference in some of the fairways.  Nothing is as good as rain water though but there's not much of that in sight unfortunately.

I said last week that we would make a mess on the left side of 1W green this week and we did exactly that! Three unknown pipes in the first few metres of trenching had our hearts in our mouths but it all finished up ok.  We re-located the 6 inch irrigation main as well as the irrigation controller power and they are now a minimum of 1.8 metres under the ground down the left side.  This means that we have no restriction when adjusting levels on the left side where the green is to be extended.

1W trenching

In four more sleeps and after two grand finals we make a start on the front 9 West greens conversion to TifEagle.  Barring something unusual happening over the week end we will be starting at 1W and moving forward from there.  Unfortunately the transport co-ordinator I had last year to truck the sand in and out has retired so given recent dealings with the same company I don't expect that part of the project to go that well unfortunately.  It is very difficult to forecast exactly when we will need trucks and we were certainly blessed with what transpired last year as most of the time twelve hours is about the most notice we can give and sometimes only two!  With approximately 300 tonne of material being trucked away and replaced it is certainly a big part of the project.
 

The River greens have started to wake from their winter and we took the opportunity to give them a good de-thatch and sanding on Thursday as part of their preparations for the Pro am on next Friday week.  The sand also contains some Gypsum which is vital in combating some of the undesirable ingredients in our irrigation water, particularly the salts.  There is also some humic compost blended with the sand which helps give the greens some nutrient, but not too much.

EDIT;  Wow how the forecast can change with some rain due next week now to coincide with the start of the greens project unfortunately.  Hopefully it's not the start of an early wet spell though but my websites tell me a very high probability of 25mm+ on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday.