A very enjoyable and relaxing break from the courses and as always it was good to come back to the courses in great shape thanks to the efforts of Assistant Simon and the crew.  The change in the weather has been dramatic over the past three weeks with daylight hours really shrinking which has a significant effect on turfgrass and its rate of growth.  Soil temperatures are still up so that's a help but sunshine and lots of it is what we need.  Compared to last year we are way in front of where we were at, particularly considering we were in the midst of recovering from the second flood and preparing for the ladies NSW Open tournament at the same time.

One of the goals heading in to winter is to have as much healthy grass as possible across both courses to cope with the ''no growth'' period that we are about to enter.  The volume of play we are now getting combined with the increase in cart traffic is really putting the turf under stress.  Last year was probably the weakest turf conditions we have had heading in to winter and it really showed towards the end of winter with the courses virtually worn out.  This year should be a lot better with all turf in a very healthy state at the moment although the shaded areas will still have their usual struggle.  To assist even further and to encourage as much late growth as possible we were able to get five tonne of fertiliser out across the courses last Monday and Tuesday which has caused some leaf tip burn in a few places but that will grow out.  The fertiliser is a slow release type meaning that we will get nutrient release for up to eight weeks under normal conditions which is just what is needed.  

But it doesn't matter how healthy the turf is when golfers decide to do this right in the middle of the fairway.  It has been happening a bit just recently and not only the fairway gets damaged but also the pitch marks aren't repaired on the greens either so there's a double whammy effect.  

At least they tried to use some sand?