Soil and ambient temperatures are already starting to drop and this has a slowing effect on turfgrass growth.  We still haven’t dropped below 20º at the shed in the mornings yet which is on par with the previous few years although the growth over the past month has been up following the huge amount of rain that we had received.  

Whilst talking of soil temperatures and weather, spare a thought for the northern States of the USA who are still receiving snowfalls.  The photo below is of Hazeltine GC in Minnesota this week with a lot of snow still on the ground with more forecast for this week end.  The ground is apparently still frozen 3 feet deep!!  At this stage the course won’t open until early May (normally open by now) and generally closes in early November so only a 6 month golfing season!!

April 12, 2018

A bad week for irrigation with a major blowout on 2W fairway and a repair required on the town water mainline to the clubhouse.  This is the third blowout we have had on 2W in a small area so will be looking at replacing a section of the mainline that has obviously been weakened over time.  The main to the clubhouse was losing a lot of water and this repair was done at first light on Friday morning to negate the effect on clubhouse operations.  Licensed plumbers were engaged for the works which is standard practice for us when dealing with potable water.

The reduction in growth is a bit of a sad time for the staff with the casual employees hours being reduced.  There have been anywhere up to 8 casuals employed on the courses over summer and they form a very important part of the crew and resultant course conditions.  My mantra is that “managing a golf course is about bums on seats – as the more you have the more you get done”.  And speaking of staff we are looking forward to welcoming Assistant Superintendent Simon back to work next Monday.  He broke his neck in a surfing accident on Christmas Eve and has been recuperating since.  He has been medically assessed and performed a fairly grueling “fit for work” test last week and is itching to get back to work.

And over the many years I have been managing golf courses I have seen a lot of strange things out on the golf course.  But this one may well be the strangest yet!!  There is a bucket hanging on a branch in a Melaleuca tree on 18R about 12 feet off the ground that could only have been put there deliberately.  It has been there for at least four months and I have been waiting to see if anything was going to happen with it which it hasn’t thus far.

Please explain?