My kids who live in Melbourne joke that the worst part of a seven day lockdown is the first three weeks.  Let's hope that's not the case for us!

A bit of a quiet week with low staff numbers due to the lockdown once again.  We were able to get all the West tees scarified and this year we used a ride on machine rather than the walk behind.  Time wise it was similar but there is much less disruption to the surface whilst still getting the desired result.  We also finished aerating the West fairways and did 10W green end with an old aerator that doesn't do quite as good a job but doesn't smash tines as often.  10W fairway was pretty much a graveyard for old car parts at one stage and there are all sorts of car rubbish buried underneath it which doesn't combine well for any sort of cultivation.

We are certainly starting to dry out and irrigation is at full capacity which is really difficult given the constant wind we are experiencing.  The roughs are very dry and the root pruned areas are still showing the benefit with a photo of LHS 8R below showing once again enough moisture for Poa annua to grow in the root free area.  The water table is also plummeting.

LHS 8R.

 

The vast majority of the fairways are irrigated by a single row of sprinklers that have a throw of around thirty metres.  They are what's known as gear drive sprinklers with the water passing through the gear mechanism making them rotate.  The sprinklers we have are also two speed so they slow down when covering the sides of the fairways where there is no overlap.  It is quite possible that some of the sprinklers date back to the 1970's but such is their construction that they are still going strong.  We rarely have failures with the gear drive and generally only find out they aren't turning when the turf starts drying out close to them as happened on 5W this week.  The photo below shows where the water was going while the sprinkler wasn't turning.

Nice and green where the water went!!

 
And speaking of discoloration I walk past a bowls club fairly regularly and there have been some patches on one of the greens that have had my turfhead interested.  I actually saw someone working on the green and asked him about them and got the expected answer of some disease.  But the area below was caused by the use of a defibrillator on one of the bowlers who collapsed on the green with the electric charge killing the grass and causing a surge of growth on the perimeter which is what happens when you get a lightning strike on a green.
 

Damaged green.