Finally a week of decent weather but not really drying enough with a lot of soft areas left out there.  But as I have mentioned we have been so much more fortunate than so many other courses and thus far most of our turf is in good condition.  I did state very early this year that we would be in for a tough winter period with the low light intensity over summer with all the rain and that is certainly the case.  The photo below shows 11R fairway with the right hand shaded portion of the fairway in much thinner condition and although this happens on an annual basis it is worse this year due to the low light intensity of summer.  And we still have at least three months before some recovery can happen.  At least the winter solstice is next week so hopefully things will improve.

Right of the line so much thinner / weaker in the shade.

 

I am heading to Melbourne for the annual turf conference next week which I am really looking forward to and am obviously not going for the winter weather!!  For the first time our Association is holding a joint conference with the Golf General Managers Association which quite possibly couldn't come at a better time.  High on the list of topics to be discussed is staff procurement, training and retention.  There is currently a massive shortage of qualified greenkeepers in Australia and clubs in some areas are literally outbidding one another to attract or retain staff.  Other sectors in the turf maintenance industry are also playing a part in poaching staff from golf clubs.  I have just recently lost two qualified and long term employees to schools who are paying $10 an hour more for basically just groundstaff to operate mowers.   It is a major issue facing the golf course maintenance industry and something needs to be done soon.  In our local area the cost of rental properties pretty much precludes interstate prospects from even thinking about coming here, if there are any options available anyway.  It will be an interesting week I am sure and I am hopeful for some really positive outcomes.   Over 700 delegates are already registered to attend and if you count the allied trade attendees who are there for the trade show the numbers easily top 1,000.

Probably one of the biggest single day golf events I have been involved with on course with the Mick Fanning Charity Golf Day at our club today.  I have certainly seen more sponsors covering more holes but the efforts of the sponsors to do something unique for the day was exceptional.  Not often I sit in my office to the ''doof doof'' of the RedBull disco on 11W tee and every so often the sounds of the Mirarchi band entertaining the players wafting across the course.  A perfect day of weather for the event and a very professional organising team who co-ordinated the day very well and fortunately the course was probably as dry as it's been for some time, especially given the size of some of the displays we had to get out on course.  And at the end of the day there was one empty can and two pieces of rubbish that hadn't been binned out on the courses and they have been left in a state that you would barely know anything happened out there.

NTP circle Balter style.  Hand drawn as well!!

Hmmmm the perfect day!!

Lululemon Airstream @ 4RT.

The Mad Hueys @ 2RT.

RedBull disco truck @ 11RT.

 

A big crowd on hand for the 18R shootout.

Speaking of the dryness of the course and not sure if you have seen the video at Grafton GC where they showed the second fairway and it was just mush.  They have only been able to play the course a handful of times since the first flood.  There are a number of high level clubs in Sydney that are carry bag only and quite a few that are nine holes only.  We are still as wet as I have seen it considering no rain for four or five days and that is one of the driest runs we have had this year!!  The greens are holding up really well but the fairways are still very soft and have some long term damage from the cart and pull buggy traffic.

The National Golf Foundation is an organisation in the USA that collects and analyses data for distribution throughout the golf industry.  I was staggered to read the following figures which perhaps shows why the equipment companies have so much leverage in the sport with a lot of business at stake.   Since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, we’ve chronicled the increase in active golf engagement – both participation and play. Broadly speaking, almost 1-in-9 Americans are active golfers, whether that’s playing on a golf course, hitting balls at a driving range, or swinging and socializing at a golf entertainment venue like Topgolf.

That’s 37.5 million in total, making golf one of the leading U.S. participation sports. Consider that more people played golf in some form last year than participated in basketball, baseball, tennis, soccer or skiing.    Amazing figures.

Well I didn't seem to miss much while I was away as the rain just kept on coming down for the entire month of May.  In the old terms of measurement 12 ½ inches of rain fell in May which takes the year to date total to 82 inches.  And if you go back to October 1 2021, we have had 102 inches of rain in those seven months.  It’s almost mind boggling and there is apparently the threat of another east coast low pressure system forming some time in mid – June.  Surely enough is enough.  And as the photo below shows there was plenty of water on the fairways last July that we tried to move off the surface by deep slicing the area to no avail.

July 1, 2021 on 18W.

  

Not that it’s very comforting but we are certainly not alone.  Speaking with a number of fellow Supers this week from Gympie all the way down the east coast to Sydney, the story is the same.  Water logged courses with water pooling in areas never seen before for extended periods such as the water sitting on 4R fairway.  It’s actually a high spot on the fairway just short of the bunker but is still pooling water.  There is a course on the Sunshine Coast that has full cart paths that have actually restricted even pull buggies to cart paths to prevent damage!!  But when you look at the damage caused by pull carts on our normally considered ''dry'' course, you can understand. Many courses are playing tee up or a majority of holes played as par 3’s to try and limit damage.

It seems hard to believe that this is what I wrote in a blog post in December 2019;

The need for rain gathers momentum every day now especially with the increasing temperatures.  The turf is under a lot more stress as the heat exacerbates the drying out of the rootzone.  The pond on the dogleg of 5W has dried up again which is the third time in eighteen months and I think it has only happened on three other occasions since I have been here.

 

5W dam November 2019.

 

And some good news yesterday with the delivery of six new course runabouts that are the main mode of transport for us around the courses.  As with all other industries there are lengthy wait times for delivery with these taking nearly twelve months to get here.  Our existing fleet were all but exhausted and these will be put to good use.

3 of the new ''Gators'' coming off the truck at last.