You couldn't get a more perfect day for golf than what we had for todays Pro am on the West course and I may be a bit biased but the course couldn't have been in better condition either.  Oh if you double our staff and cut the play in half we could be better but the crew did an enormous job in getting the course up for the day.  An eleven hour day on Thursday with all the prep work for Friday's 6.30am shotgun completed and we only had time to brush the dew off the greens prior to play on Friday morning.  We broke with the time honoured tradition of a bacon and egg BBQ brekky and opted for the more healthy Subway platters alternative which went down a treat with the boys so much so that I didn't get a chance to get a photo.  Club GM Nicole came down and addressed the boys thanking them for their efforts which was much appreciated around the lunchroom.

After meeting the crew Nicole asked for a bit of background about them and where they have been and it was interesting to find that five of our current crew have had stints at Sanctuary Cove over the years.  And the thirteen permanents currently on the roster have stacked up 199 years of service on the course at CTH which given we have two first year apprentices is pretty amazing.

Anyone who has played the River course this week will have seen the dramatic improvement in the greens surface on 2R following a lift in mowing height from 3.5mm to 4.4mm.  12R green is mown at the same height but the intense shading that 12R receives just doesn't give it a chance.  Prior to my arrival here 5, 12 and 13R greens had actually been planted with Couchgrass and oversown with Ryegrass due to the shade effect so it's certainly not a new thing to see them struggling. 

LHS 1W green.

 

I've been asked by a couple of members why we don't have more signage to try and stop cart drivers driving where they like.  I just point to the two ''no motorised buggies beyond this point'' signs that are on the RHS of 4R green, that are there as much for players safety as anything, and nearly one cart per group just drives straight past them every day.  And then when you see one of the worlds best players totally ignore the sign below what hope do we have at CTH. 

He must nearly hit the sign on his follow through?

I doubt a ''please rake the bunker'' would work?

And I guess you need to be careful how you word signs!!??

  

Another huge week of play although Tuesday's rain put a bit of a dampener on things for the day but it was just what the courses wanted with a good soaking rain that delivered 12mm which was just perfect.  The West course tees and fairways had all been fertilised so it was an added bonus for them.

We were able to get the West course closed for three hours after the Vets on Thursday which gave us the opportunity to give the West greens a dry de-thatch, mow and edge and they came up looking quite brilliant.  The lack of wind and play allowed us to give the fairways a good blow off and then the 7.30 shotgun corporate day on the River course on Friday morning gave us the chance to do a full prep for the Friday comp, which doesnt happen that often with all main surfaces blown, mown.and raked.

The partial course closures are a great advantage for us to get a huge amount of work done with no play so it's a very productive time and also gives us the chance to do some of the intrusive work like sanding or tining greens without interfering with play.  At this stage the partial closures will hopefully become a regular occurrence.

A couple of weeks back I put a photo up of some dew removal on 18R green to demonstrate just how small the area is that's left for hole placement.  This week it is 2R greens turn.  If you recall last year we had to do a mini renovation on 2R in spring as the green was virtually worn out following a relentless winters play and the green is once again heading the same way.  Some tree thinning at the back of the green last year has helped but the green is still very much considered a shaded green which makes it difficult to grow turf at the required mowing height. The lack of hole placement locations doesn't help either with the volume of play that we are receiving causing significant wear on an already stressed turf surface. With three metres of dew removed from the green in the photo we are left with about 80 square metres of possible hole locations.  The second photo is the hole location on 2R that day to show just how much wear and tear the hole location is subjected to.  We have lifted the mowing height on the green and started walk mowing it which takes a huge amount of stress off the green that is caused by the ride on mowers.

Once again not much area for hole locations with the undulations in the green.

   

One days wear and tear on 2R.

Not too much to report this week apart from another beautiful week of golfing weather.  The greens on both courses were fertilised last week and it has had an excellent colour response and has even got a little vertical leaf growth happening on the River greens.  The tees have also been fertilised but there is virtually no recovery on them at all at the moment.

A couple of shots below of the damage from a single days play on 2 and 4R tees that were taken last week following the Wednesday competition and then after Sundays social play day.  It makes it pretty tough to maintain a winter cover when you are getting this sort of damage.

2R tee wear.

4R tee wear.

 

A very nice total of 40mm of rain this week and it virtually all soaked in.  We haven't had many rain days that have affected golf this year so it was a nice break for the courses with a day of no play on Tuesday.  It was then a bit bizarre after the cold rainy Tuesday to arrive at 5am Wednesday morning to 21° and quite balmy conditions for July.

 
We have been lucky so far this year with the temperatures we are getting and the amount of sunshine but it's not enough to cause any serious growth or recovery from the vast amount of play the courses are getting.  I counted 462 names on the timesheet this morning and with that number of players and the way so many of them treat the courses it's hard to produce top quality playing surfaces, but we are doing a heck of a job.  A couple of photos below showing 8W green on Thursday morning with four totally untouched pitchmarks within a few square metres and several others poorly repaired and at least another six were totally untouched elsewhere on the green.  The other photo is of footmarks on the 328 practice green where somebody has stood for some time repeatedly putting.  This is a fairly common occurrence and normally causes a burn but in this case they have actually broken through the turf canopy which is something I have never seen before.  If you think that this type of putting drill will help your game then please put a towel on the ground and stand on that to protect the turf.

Footprints on the PPG.

Completely untouched.😞

With so much play we change holes seven days most weeks so finding pin placements is not always easy.  The photo below is of 18R green with four metres of dew removed revealing how much green surface is left for hole locations.  When you consider the mound in the middle of the green it further reduces potential locations.  So a 550m² green is left with less than 100m² of ''fair'' pin placement area in which I have allowed for four metres from the edge and relatively flat around the cup area.  (There is no actual rule or law for this, just guidelines.)  It is a particular problem on the River greens which are what is known as ''sectionalised greens'' meaning that there are distinct (normally three) pin placement zones within the green surface.  With very slow plug recovery at the moment and over the coming months there will be times where we will need to get a bit edgy with some hole locations.

Good luck finding 14 hole locations in the next 14 days?