One thing I have mentioned in recent times is the lack of control we are getting on Poa annua or winter grass as it is commonly known. At least this week we saw some light at the end of the tunnel with one of our trial applications actually getting some effect this week. The photo below shows some of the Poa going off in front of 14W Green which 10 days after application is a very good sign. The only unfortunate thing is that it is the most expensive product and we used it at the top rate so economically it may not be viable.  Speaking of economy and costs, I went to order my regular 1000 L shuttle of liquid fertiliser this week and was told that the price had had risen nearly 40%. This is the first major price rise that I have experienced with fertiliser even though the experts have been spreading doom and gloom about it for some time. It looks as though the granular fertiliser we use on the fairways which is a custom blend will go up by about 10%.

Arrows point to some of the dying Poa plants.

  

Another bad week for irrigation this week with four major repairs required including two that needed the system to be shut down. As I mentioned before this means that we need to make sure that we expel all the air from the out of the system when re-charging the lines to prevent further damage from water hammer and that was what we were doing on Thursday, so there were hoses operating and some sprinklers being run during the day. 

Still just a couple of pools of water in some areas more of the course but generally this would be the driest we have been since last October.  That's virtually nine months of very wet conditions so hopefully we have turned a corner. 

I have also mentioned the shade issues that we are having on the northern side of the east west fairways and that still continues even with the bright sunny days. I did this see this photo a couple of weeks ago of the ''grow lights'' as they are known at the MCG which are employed to provide artificial ''sunlight'' to the playing surface and keep the turf healthy. I do know of a golf club who are using them on shaded greens.  Greens like 3 and 5W and 4, 5, and 12R could sure use some of these?

What happens at some stadiums during the week.

 

And maybe Peter Thomson wasn't far off with his last line of this opinion piece from 2004.  It might have helped avoid some of the pain golf is enduring now.

Some wise words in that last line?

 

It would be hard not to write anything concerning golf without mentioning Cameron Smith and The Open Championship this past week.  A truly remarkable effort and I don't know if it is because I watched so intently but the telecast this year seemed to show the undulations so much better than before and it really did show just HOW undulating the course is.  With no real wind to speak of the course was there for the taking with the greens on the slow side which is normal as there are few tournaments played at St Andrews that don't have some type of wind interruption.  The Open has certainly grown into a marquee golf event and is a credit to the organisers.  Even in my lifetime it is significantly bigger than it ever was when it was known as The British Open.  Old Tom Morris won four Opens and across those wins he beat just 52 players.  Cameron Smith beat the 82 who made the cut and the 155 who started the week out and the thousands who tried to pre qualify for the event.  But I feel a tad sorry for Peter O"Malley who finished eagle, birdie, birdie, birdie eagle to win the 1992 Scottish Open and really never got the plaudits that finish to win deserved.  

Back on the Tweed and the bad weather is back again.  This week was also very cold and dull and it is really having an effect on the turfgrass across the courses.  Particularly on the northern side of the east - west fairways such as 2, 4, 5, 11, 12, 14 and 18 River as well as 1 and 7 West.  I mentioned earlier in the year that after such a cloudy wet summer a lot of turf would struggle on the courses and it is really plain to see now.  The shaded greens and tees are also very thin and we still have a way to go before any real recovery.  We also have a couple of huge months of play coming up so the tees in particular will be very closely managed to try and keep a grass cover on them. 

As per usual we took advantage of the low play days at the end of the week and got the West greens edged and trimmed and then got a solid tine aeration completed on the West greens today which is the best way to get some much needed air to the rootzone.  We will try and get the River greens done early next week which isn't easy in amongst play.

Another two large irrigation repairs required this week although irrigation is about the furthest thing from my mind at the moment but they need to be done to keep the system operating.  An electrical fault this morning on the power line that supplies the on course irrigation controllers with a short out happening somewhere in the field and after seven hours of tracing we hope we have found it.  The fault is normally caused by lightning but I am pretty sure we didn't get any lightning overnight.  I guess snow and lightning is about all we have missed out on this week??!!

I am writing this at 5pm on Friday afternoon and another heavy squall has just blown through and it's all but dark and cold.   Next Tuesday's forecast of sunny and 24° seems a world away.

A really untimely and annoying downpour on Tuesday afternoon to disrupt the Pro am after so much good work went into preparations and the greens in particular running beautifully before the rain came through.  There were reports of some serious thunder and lightning activity so at least we didn't get that which would have meant that no resumption of play would have been possible.  33mm of rain was recorded with the bulk of it falling between 4 and 4.30.  The greens did pool up with the sheer volume of water but did what they are designed to do and shed the water off quickly and were playable within fifteen minutes of the rain easing back.  It was such a contrast to the magnificent morning weather and there was some pretty impressive scoring as well which would have been great to watch before the rain.  You have to hand it to the weather bureau though who predicted late rain on Tuesday 6 days prior to the event although they were only calling for 5 - 10mm.

Perfect weather to start.

10W green and you can almost see the water running off the green.

 

The rain just topped up all the puddles on the course again and helped the water table to stay at virtually ground level.  I was asked this week whether or not the root pruning machine would help get the water away which was a good question as the implement is generally sold as an aeration device with many clubs treating their entire fairways with it.  The photo below shows the RHS of 2W fairway where the pruner had gone through but the water still sits there despite a six inch deep cut being made through the surface.  The water literally has nowhere to go.  The arrows indicate the line of the slice through the puddles.

The water has nowhere to go. 

 

A very ordinary week of weather well and truly saved by Friday's sunshine and dare I say it a little bit of warmth in the sun.  The weeks rainfall could have been worse with some of the falls recorded down south and poor old Coffs Harbour copped more than 200mm on their course yet again.  Year to date they are still behind us as we have now topped 2 metres of rain for the year including June when just 15mm fell.  The Tweed Heads rainfall site has only topped a yearly total of 2 metres on thirty occasions since 1887 - and we are only just over half way through this year!!

I have had a few queries over my time as to why we don't put out more ropes and signage to keep carts out there and the answer is well and truly demonstrated below.  On 1R tee on Wednesday morning we had a sign saying ''no carts allowed on this fairway'' and one right next to it with ''please drive all carts down right side rough all the way to the green''.  That's an early group on Wednesday morning and you could have taken the same photo throughout the day.  The area on the left of the fairway adjacent to 11R tee is one of the wettest on the entire property and yet two carts are rolling through there.

Wonder what they do at a keep left sign?

 

I saw the photo below in the Vets newsletter and thought I would offer an explanation.  The groove is caused by the whipper snipper as it trims the bunker edge and the cord almost has to make contact with the sand to ensure the grass is all cut off.  Whipper snipping the bunker edges is one of the most hazardous jobs that we do as the operator has to be head down concentrating on the edge at all times with no time to look for golfers, and with sand particles literally sand blasting them as they move around the bunker.  To ensure operator safety the bunkers are almost always snipped in front of play so as to protect the operator.  Other staff then come through and blow the debris out of the bunker and rake them but unfortunately our current numbers mean that this work is done in amongst play, and so at some stage players will come across a bunker not yet cleaned properly, which includes the groove left by the snipper.  The bunkers were done on Monday this week and the two staff allocated to whipper snip had all seventy West bunkers snipped in front of the competition field which is a huge effort on its own.

And speaking of bunkers, as we often do, this week, 95 of a possible 312 man hours were devoted to bunker maintenance on the two courses, which is over 30% of our work time - devoted to maintaining a hazard.  56 man hours were spent this week on greens maintenance which includes daily hole changing, mowing and an application of fertiliser on the River greens.  Something has gone seriously astray somewhere in the maintenance of golf courses and golfers expectations when nearly double the number of work hours are spent on maintaining a hazard than the putting greens in a week?  

 

Elsewhere on the courses and we started the root pruning program on the fairway edges that had such a great result last year and we will be expecting similar this year.  Hopefully we will get to more areas and at least the ground is nice and soft to allow good penetration for the machine.  We were also able to get all the tees solid tine aerated which should hopefully help them dry out a little as well as getting some oxygen to the rootzone.

Well I got back from the Conference and the main thing I bought back was a case of Covid!!  It was pretty frustrating to have to isolate for seven days with what was no more than a minor cold.  I didn't even get a temperature at any stage and despite a negative RAT test on day three was still stuck at home.  Crazy thing is Michelle has an extremely heavy cold - bedridden - and is still testing negative.  Oh well the inside of the house got a good spring clean up to pass the time.  My seven days is up on Sunday so will be back on courses then just in time for some more lousy weather and rain.

The Conference was a ripping success with nearly 800 delegates cramming in on the first day to hear from a range of speakers.  The first day is a plenary day with the General Managers Association and was primarily about personal development with a great session from Paralympian Dr Jess Gallagher on mental health and personal well being.  Dr Jess has an extraordinary story to tell after being told at 17 years of age that she would become progressively blind.  After medals in both the summer and winter Paralympics she is well placed on advising on mental health and it's importance.  

Mental health has been a yearly topic at our Conference for many years and has been way before it became ''fashionable''.  When you are in a job that literally competes with Mother Nature and your success as a turf manager is often adjudged by how well a competitor played his sport on your prepared surface, it is often a thankless stressful task.  One only has to look at pro golfers who tap down ''spike marks'' after putting out on absolutely pristine greens after missing a putt or a cricketer who gets out LBW.  Have you ever seen a cricketer out for LBW who nods his head to say ''yep that was too good''.  No, most of the time they glare at the pitch and do some ''gardening'' as they depart after looking at the pitch in disbelief. 

The last speaker on day one for the plenary session was Storm coach Craig Bellamy.  I was always unsure how this would go as a lot of attendees are AFL with no NRL interest and the others are passionate NRL with a hatred of the Storm.  Craig focused on overcoming adversity and keeping your team focused which  was an incredible task that he successfully navigated around the salary cap scandal.  Nearly 900 people crammed in and it was standing room only and you could have heard a pin drop for an hour and a half.  Amazing stuff.

The week then progressed as normal with a vast array of topics on offer and even though I am part of the organising committee there was probably too much on offer at the same time which made attending everything I wanted to difficult.  This is despite presentations being grouped into sub classifications such as agronomy, golf, sportsfields, management and various specialised workshops.  There was also the accompanying Trade Show and that was humming all week with a further 1500 people coming in to visit.

As mentioned in the last Blog post, one of the key sessions on my agenda was on Wednesday when there was an open forum with the GMA and the topic was finding common ground.  Unfortunately whilst everyone on the panel agreed that there is a major problem in staff procurement, training and retention across Australia, there was little result on what can be done.  And it's not just on the golf courses but in the clubhouse as well with F & B staff.  A few private discussions with some of my peers and I have a few ideas going forward but it's a big hill to climb.  The divide between the elite clubs in golf and those lower down the rungs has never been so broad as it is now. 

Craig Bellamy is the focus of a full house.