A couple of windless mornings this week allowed for the opportunity to catch up with some spray applications and we were able to get greens on both courses fertilised as well as all West fairways.  We also got the chance to spray weeds in bunkers which was badly needed.  We had actually started to hand weed some of the bunkers which is quite laborious but the constant wind had hampered our efforts to get them sprayed.

And speaking of bunkers we have transferred the trial rakes across to 18 West greenside to continue assessment.  The only feedback so far has been that "exhibit B" pictured below leaves a very nice finish and is light and easy to use.

Most popular so far.

We had two additions to the course maintenance fleet this week with the delivery of two new greens mowers.  We have been using the same type of mower over the years and not much has changed on them, save for some refinements in the mowing head itself.  We run four of these mowers on greens, two for each course and after they have served a useful life on the greens they are "retired" to be used on tees and greens collars.  That normally happens around 2000 hours worked which is pretty much the equivalent of 100,000 kilometres on a car and is generally when little niggly problems start appearing.  They generally stay on course until they are traded in at around 3,500 hours.   

Ready to mow.

And soil samples were taken from the River greens this week for a complete nutrient analysis to be performed.  Only six greens are sampled which gives a pretty good indication / average to work on. This gives us a guide on just what to add to our sand mix and the type and amount of fertiliser that will be used in the renovation in November.  It was done prior to the greens being fertilised this week for obvious reasons and about 750 grams of material is collected from about thirty core holes such as the one in the photo below.

Size of the core that is pulled.