Quite remarkably there is still some water lying in a few areas around the property.  We haven't recorded rain for the last seven days and the weather has been nice and sunny which is just what we want for the turf and also to dry the place out.  Just about everything got mown this week and a few areas got scalped which is understandable considering some fairways didn't get mown for three weeks.

One area that certainly got scalped was the new target green that was installed on the short range earlier in the week.  The golf management committee deemed it necessary to restrict the length of shots being played on the short range due to a few near misses when players were picking up balls on the green and they were being peppered from incoming shots.  So the sign says - ''CHIPPING PERMITTED FROM WITHIN 25 METRES ONLY, UNLESS UNDER INSTRUCTION FROM PGA COACHING PROFESSIONAL''.

New short range sign.

 

A few cooler nights this week and generally a milder end to summer with the cloud cover associated with the rain has got the Wintergrass (Poa annua) germinating a little earlier than normal.  Although as mentioned last week, some of the Wintergrass survived the summer due to the rain which is most unusual.  We generally only try to control it in the main playing areas due to cost and spraying logistics.  As I have mentioned in other years we have some varieties of Poa that are now resistant to the available herbicides so will be trying a new product for some of these areas.  

The photo below shows some Poa already germinated on 4R tee which is expected as it is a very shaded tee and the shaded areas is where we get most of the Poa growing, due to the Couchgrass being thinner in the shade.  The photo also shows just how much wear the tee gets from just one days play and is one of the reasons I keep asking players to play from the markers of the day and stay off the back tee areas to give us a chance to maintain a full cover throughout the winter.  We do have a good cover of grass on the tees now but that has to last us until November when we start to get some growth again.

Poa germination around the bottom tee marker.

And speaking of tees, below is 16 tee at Augusta during the final round of the Masters.  Notice only one line of divots which are from that days play.  The others in front have been plugged out with fresh turf.  Ahh the pursuit of perfection  -  and they do a pretty good job of it.

16 tee divots.