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?