Not  a very easy week and luckily not in the growing season.  Two staff members were on annual leave this week which is a great time for them to take leave but then two others have been off sick all week and two others have had four days off each sick as well so we were well and truly decimated.  Although despite being short we did get the time to get the greens on both courses solid tine aerated which allows them to breathe and were also able to get greens on both courses fertilised with some granular fertiliser applied to selected (shaded) River course greens so it was a mini renovation of sorts for both courses with no disruption to play.  The videos below show the aeration taking place and the nil effect on ball roll immediately following the machine and a slo mo to show you just how hard the machine works.

 

I mentioned in the last post that I was attending the Australian Turfgrass Conference in Adelaide last week which I did and if you think the mornings are cold here then probably best not to venture to Adelaide as it's like ice in the mornings there and stays that way for the bulk of the day.  I did get to chair two five hour workshops as mentioned on Poa annua resistance and management and also one on winter diseases of couchgrass greens which were both really informative and each one had a professor from an American University present as well as some of Australia's leading turf researchers.  In the end after looking for answers I came away with more questions which is a bit frustrating but pretty normal for me.  Most of the Poa control trials and research have been done on fairway height turf with no one prepared to potentially sacrifice a green so it will be ongoing trials for me as well, particularly on 5 and 6 West as well as the Tif practice green where just about nothing touches the Poa.
 
One of the presenters is based in South Australia and is currently investigating two of our resistant varieties and trialing two new products on them so it was great to catch up with him and see the trials firsthand.  It won't be a fast process and even though they are three weeks into the trial there is very little to see.  The disease control was also interesting and pretty much endorsed the programs that we are running here that have had such good success over the past several years.  We do have quite a bit of the disease in fairways, particularly 9R for example but the cost to treat fairways is just too high.  Some new chemistry is on the horizon that will slowly make its way to Australia to give us another tool in our arsenal which will be good.  Speaking of new chemistry I was lucky enough to visit Syngenta's head office in Basel Switzerland a few years back and it was amazing to say the least.  They are continually trialing new compounds to create new products and in the 1960's 1 in 11,000 of these trials would make it to market compared with 1 in 140,000 now and they didn't mention the cost of this research but it's huge. And an interesting tidbit from their HQ is that Basel is located right on the border of Germany, France and Switzerland and their workforce of more than three hundred and fifty comes from the three different countries.  This means that they have three separate sittings for lunch in the staff canteen to accommodate the three different cuisines!!

Hopefully we will have all hands back on deck next week so we can continue some of the tree pruning we have been doing around the cart path areas over the past month or so and we will also start some root pruning along the side of selected fairways where we are pretty sure there are no underground services.  We will also be continuing to top up bunker sand where needed over the coming weeks.

 

 

 

Sunsets like those below just mean perfect weather at this time of year and that is what we are having at the moment.  It's almost been groundhog day the past month with picture perfect days and little or no wind and I think this is one of the calmest extended periods I can remember, which means little or no leaf debris needing to be cleaned up, which frees up an enormous amount of time for us.  I also don't recall so much grass being mown off the fairways, in particular, in June as a result of the great weather and that late fertiliser application they received which is certainly paying dividends now. The courses are in great shape and credit to the crew again this week as we ready for the matchplay event next week.

Photo doesn't do the colour justice.

 

But June isn't always like this as I recall in 2005 when after 120mm in the four days leading up to June 30, we received 612mm in just over twenty four hours on June 30 but because 230mm fell on June 30 after 9.00am when the rain gauge is read, it was recorded on July 1 at 9am.  It wasn't unlike the 2022 floods with all of the local area flooded and most local businesses, including Tweed City remaining shut.  It was a long time ago but a day I will never forget.  

I will be attending the Australian Sportsturf Conference next week in Adelaide which includes a round of golf at Royal Adelaide but unfortunately the forecast is for a cold rainy day so may just have a walk around instead.  The week also includes two workshops on Poa annua resistance and disease management in couchgrass greens which are both topics close to my heart and have both been mentioned here on many occasions.   I will actually be chairing both sessions so will have great personal access to the speakers which is one of the side benefits of being so involved in the industry.  There's also nothing better than being in a room of like minded turf jocks to chew the fat and come up with some potential solutions and hear first hand of their successes and failures.

And just to finish with a couple of golf photos from the week and the tee board at the 290 yard par 3 11th at LACC the scene of this weeks US Open and the bottom photo gives new meaning to the dreaded fried egg lie!! 

Can't wait to see what they hit here on tonight's highlights.

 

More than a sand wedge required here?

 

Some rain earlier in the week but other than that a pretty good week for golf.  The Mick Fanning charity golf day dominated the week though with some serious time put into preparations of the course and all the activations as they call them.  It's quite amazing to be behind the scenes and see just how much work goes into preparing for the day and the logistics involved in its successful running by the major sponsor Balter.

Hats off once again to the course crew with the presentation of the courses for the day, although I very much doubt golf is actually on many participants minds!!  

A few shots from the day to let those of you who didn't venture down know what went on 

Welcome to Country on the Tif PPG.

Mysa Hotel on 2W tee.

Yeti coolers 9R tee.

And yes that's a mechanical bull @ 9R tee.

Lululemon on 4R tee.

Redbull on 11W tee.

  

Haircuts and beard trims on 10W tee!!

 

So that's the first time I have had to send one of the boys out to blow human hair off a tee!!  All credit to the participants though as there was hardly any rubbish not binned anywhere on the courses and believe me there was some rubbish out there.  By tee off time tomorrow morning, members will hardly know anything happened.

Another beautiful week of weather but that may be coming to an end soon given the forecast but dare I say it we could do with some rain in some areas of the course as we are drying out.

I have mentioned the Poa annua (wintergrass) resistance before and the photos below give a very good demonstration of just what is happening.  The top photo is from 7R green post spraying and the bottom photo is 5W post spraying and they were sprayed on the same day and at the same rate.  We are currently ten days post application and the result looks quite ok on 7R but very poor on 5W.  The label says twenty one days plus for full effect to become apparent so I'm hoping 5W catches up.  They are different grasses in the greens obviously and a very different profile which may have an effect as the product is mainly taken up by the roots.

7R green some Poa circled.

 

5W  green some Poa circled.

With the slowdown in mowing requirements we have been able to allocate more hours to bunker maintenance and in particular raking.  But no matter how much time gets allocated to raking, if players are going to leave the bunkers as below then there's not much we can do.  

It really is up to the players?

A good friend of mine in the USA on a top 100 course used to say to his members "We can only rake the bunkers once a day....after that it's up to you."