A less than pleasant start to the week with the sewerage pipe that services the clubhouse springing a leak and requiring some substantial work to repair it.  The rising main runs from the clubhouse virtually straight through the middle of the course and exits into Davey Street.  We have had a few issues with it over the years and most of the time a large tree has been the culprit as it was this week.  I think after the trench was originally dug for it the soft sand made for easy digging for tree planting as there are a number of trees right on top of the pipe.  And this one this week was right on top of it as the photo below shows.  Fortunately our various contractors came to the rescue with trees requiring removal, a large trench dug and the repair completed by a licensed plumber.

The offending pipe in the middle of the rootball.

A close up of the pipe.

During the week we trialed a stump grinder around the courses.  The object is twofold in that we can start grinding up a lot of the exposed roots in the roughs and also trace some of the roots intruding into the fairways.  The process seemed to be a success although it is very labour intensive so it will be an ongoing (read never ending) process.  We also used it as a root pruner in a couple of spots as well which is certainly not what it is designed for but it may be useful in places although we are currently investigating the purchase of a purpose built root pruner similar to the one that has been used here previously.

Root pruned and a root ground out RHS 18R tee.

 

 

Two roots intruding into 9W fairway ground out.

A big week of irrigation work next week with the control interface of the irrigation pumps being replaced.  The pump station was installed in 2000 and has barely missed a beat since but the actual unit has long been superceded and the modules for the interface are no longer available so an upgrade is essentially required.  It will mean that there will be no irrigation available for possibly three days which would have been unthinkable at this time of year in the days of Bentgrass greens.  The entire switchboard will also need to be re-wired which is a tedious task for our electricians.  While the system is down we will be doing quite a bit of maintenance work around the courses lifting low and dropping high exposed sprinklers.  There are also a number of stop valves around the courses that have failed and need replacing as well as some routine maintenace on some of the satellite controllers.  All of this type of work can only be performed when the system is de-pressurised.