Some more welcome rain this week but again the bulk of it ran off such was the ferocity of it.  The amount of wash around the courses on Wednesday morning was pretty amazing and the damage caused meant that it must have been some of the heaviest rain we could get.  Rainfall figures around the Northern Rivers varied pretty wildly so there were obviously some very heavy cells moving around.  We picked up 42mm but I reckon the holes along the River got way more than that.  The damage in the bunkers cost us eighty man hours in repair time (and we're not finished yet) which given the amount of grass needing to be mown wasn't ideal.  The rain was quite timely though as the supply of our irrigation water from the treatment plant was stopped due to power issues at their end.  I can only recall three other times when our water supply has been halted which is a pretty good run.

I wrote last week about two of the biggest problems in greens management in Australia being Poa resistance and the ERI disease complex, and that they certainly are.  But in the November issue of Australian Golf Digest the editorial by Brad Clifton was titled ''It's time to talk about - and fix - golf's crisis.''  Brad referred to an article by Rohan Clarke in the same edition titled ''The crisis facing Australian golf''.  When I first read the headline I thought it was about LIV golf against the rest of the world and was surprised but happy that it highlighted a problem that has been brewing for some time but has really come to the fore over the past decade, as things in the golf course maintenance industry have become more and more dire.  

This is a link to the article;

https://t.co/Q0vYGn3WUU

The article has produced one of the biggest responses the editorial team have ever received, and it is this paragraph that is the most applicable to our situation;

''Furthermore, young people aren’t entering greenkeeping in sufficient numbers. Golf-course maintenance has traditionally been one of the lowest paid trades. These days, kids want a well-paid job straight out of school and aren’t willing to do the hard graft like previous generations.''

The turf management apprenticeship has always had one of the worst completion and retention rates of any trade and the award wage for a trade qualified greenkeeper is one of the lowest around.  Of the 18 apprentices that have been employed in my time here only 4 are still in the industry working on golf courses, and they are the two recently completed and two new apprentices that are part of the crew at the moment.  All the others have left the industry.  There have been 135 staff employed on course at Cool Tweed in the past 24 years and in that illustrious group there have been 51 turf qualified personnel.  36 of those have left the industry with only 8 others moving to other golf clubs and there are 7 qualified on the current crew.  

I agree it doesn't take too much nous to sit on a mower and lots of golfers refer to groundstaff as steering wheel attendants.  But when you are dealing with modern plant protectant products that can have an application rate of 10 grams per hectare, you need to know what you are doing. Similarly when you are maintaining and operating a $150K fairway mower (yes that's what they cost now) you also need to know what you are doing.  It's a bit like NRL referees - everyone is very critical of them (as golfers are of groundstaff) and what they do - but without them you haven't got a game.

And on a lighter note.  I thought some of the drives at Cool Tweed were tight.

Not much room.

But if you think outside the box there are a few options depending on your ball flight!!

An opening for just about anyone?!