I came into the courses on Christmas Day following the Christmas Eve storm not really sure what to expect but was pretty shocked to see the amount of debris on the ground.  Fortunately the courses were ‘’closed’’ and for a change this year there was very little play on Christmas Day compared with other years. The storm on Christmas night was another thing altogether and I would rank it in the top five storms that I have experienced here.  We lost about ten trees but the amount of debris on the course on Boxing Day morning was extraordinary to say the least.  To be honest the courses probably should have been closed to play with the amount of material that was on the ground but the five staff that were rostered on got to it and got the greens, tees and cart paths clear and ready for play, which was a mighty effort.

It didn't really help us though with the first five groups off the back nine of the River course on Boxing Day comprising three two balls and two singles with the first group playing their nine holes in under 1½  hours.  That trend of fast play continued with the first group on Wednesday and Thursday on the West Course playing in under three hours and just over three hours on Friday which doesn't give us much time to get to the course and get it cleaned up.  The 500+ players each day (nearly 600 registered on Friday!!!) doesn’t give us much room to move either.

We prioritised the works areas and bunkers have been the last area we have tried to get to and around one third of the bunkers have been blown out today and hopefully we will get some more done tomorrow morning. On Thursday we had a bobcat on site to help load debris onto trailers and forty two loads were taken to the dump in five hours and I reckon there is still another twenty out there.

It's pretty hard to produce a quality golf course this time of year with the short weeks and massive grass growth and with the savage storms thrown on top.  But then you get players that chunk it around as per the untouched divot below and drive through nearly a foot of water where a drain was blocked.  Makes you wonder sometimes?

Maybe hurt their wrist and couldn't pick up a sand bucket??

 

Right through the middle.

Wow so much for my call last week that Cyclone Jasper had fizzled into a rain event and thoughts are with the communities in the far north.  I guess we know how they feel after the 2022 floods, but I am sure that is of little consolation to them.

A busy week on the courses here with as much mowing and trimming done as possible to get ready for the expected onslaught of players and grass growth in the next two weeks.  The week before Christmas is normally fairly quiet but this week has certainly bucked that trend with large fields despite the oppressive heat early in the week.  Today saw 475 registered players on the timesheets and given that next Friday is traditionally the busiest day of the year, I shudder to think what will come through the gates.  The weather may well have a say in that and there seems to be several different forecasts doing the rounds for the coming week so we will wait and see.

The trial of Couch encroachment eradication on 9R green has not been successful as there are still shoots reappearing after five herbicide applications.  The depth of the thatch makes it almost impossible to achieve a 100% kill and at this week's Board meeting it was decided that the green would be re-surfaced.  The green will be ‘’welled out’’ as per the works carried out on the West greens in 2016 / 17.  This means the removal of the existing growing medium down to what is known as the gravel layer which is where the drainage is.  Unfortunately 9R has 720mm of growing medium instead of the usual 300mm meaning that the existing green was built on top of an old green which is what happened several times on the West project.  We have dug some pilot holes and it seems to be pretty consistent at that depth across the green.

The process will be the same as on the West greens with the existing sand profile removed, the drainage checked for clear operation and then the new sand added to the green.  The top 150mm of the green soil profile will be amended with a number of products once again as per the West greens.  The idea behind this is to create an “old or mature” profile for the turf to grow in rather than trying to grow in straight sand or being amended post planting.

The green will be planted with TifEagle and the work is due to commence on January 22.  The work should take four days and the same team that worked on the West greens has been engaged for the works.

TifEagle has been selected as it is really the only sustainable choice in this climate.  The lack of encroachment in the West greens is a huge plus as is the quality of the surface and a distinct lack of grain compared to 328.  1 and 13R greens are edged as per the West greens, to remove and prevent encroachment, but the encroaching grasses power through the open profile of the 328 turf.  If you ever see a Couch runner in 1 or 13R you can normally pull them out quite easily whereas it is much more difficult to pull a runner on the West greens due to the tightness of the surface, which also helps prevent encroachment.

9R green was selected as the trial site for the eradication of invading Couchgrass for several reasons.  First and foremost it had probably the most contamination of the River greens but perhaps most importantly it is one of the River greens that would not need any alteration to the surface in any future works.  The front greenside bunker is also not really ‘’connected’’ to the greens surface and once the green is finished the new irrigation installation can take place without having to touch the green.  Its proximity to the clubhouse and car park makes machinery access that is required for the works much easier.

The Club has been in discussion with a number of golf course architects with respect to forming a conceptual plan for potential future works on the River course, particularly around greens complexes and bunkering, and 9R green is one of the few that has been earmarked for little or no alteration to the putting green surface.  

And on a lighter note.....

   

This week and next are all about getting the courses ready for the four day Christmas holiday weekend and then the expected hordes of players that will descend on us thru January.  Not that we can fit many more people on!!  One of the issues with the holiday golfers is that they are often playing their only game for the year and etiquette is a foreign word so we are expecting some damage as we always get.

Part of the prep work is getting the growth regulator out on all playing surfaces to try and reduce mowing.  All bunkers and paths will have been trimmed and had growth regulator applied to reduce the need for trimming again in amongst the play.  All our plant protectants are up to date so hopefully there won't be any surprises over the holidays either.  We will continue our weed control which this week saw the greens surrounds on both courses receive an application with the resultant ''tip burn'' clearly evident.

Fortunately Cyclone Jasper fizzled into a predominantly rain event and hopefully any further cyclones stay well north of us although we could do with some rain at the moment.  It was a classic radar image with the cyclone virtually circling in a clockwise direction.  Always amazing to watch but not too pleasant when you're underneath it.

Classic ''eye'' of the storm radar.

 

We picked up 40mm of rain in the storm that came through on Monday night but unfortunately it was so heavy the bulk of it just washed off and caused some significant damage to bunkers which needed quite a bit of work to restore them.  It wasn't really the type of week that we could afford to be doing that with grass that you can just about hear growing, and we finished up with eighty hours of sick leave with two off suffering Covid and one on annual leave which left us very short for the week.  It was a great job by the boys to get what they got done considering the amount of grass that we have out there.

Speaking of bunkers needing some work to restore them, we raked most bunkers on Tuesday morning despite the rain in front of the ladies and I mowed the back 9 greens on Wednesday morning and couldn't believe some of what I saw.  It makes you wonder why we bother putting rakes out there or indeed bother even raking them.  There were only two bunkers out of the thirty six on the back nine River that had no unraked footmarks.  Here's a selection for you.

 

12R greenside took 4 to get out and nearly tripped on the rake.

 

18R fairway bunker.

17R greenside - took 2 to get out poor love.

The greens were also very soft on Tuesday thanks to the heavy rain and even though they're Couchgrass it doesn't mean that you don't have to repair your pitch marks.  Photo below shows 17R green with six totally untouched pitch marks in the frame.  One of the problems with this is that the mower comes along and scalps the raised area of the pitch mark and opens the plant to disease and fungal attack, not to mention the crater that is left there which affects ball roll. Please repair your pitchmarks.

Completely untouched until the mower scalps them.

This is the bottom mark in the photo above after the mower has gone over it and scalped the area indicated by the arrow.  Unfortunately we don't have time to repair pitchmarks prior to mowing.  As with raking bunkers it is one of the things that golfers can do themselves to help improve the courses.