We didn't get the forecast amount of rain but we certainly got enough annoying rain to disrupt the West greens renovation.  At least we got a break on Monday morning and were able to get almost all the greens scarified and detached before the rain came in.  The 40mm of rain that fell overnight into Tuesday wasn't really a problem and if anything was a bonus but the drizzly rain all day Tuesday really put a dampener on things.  We weren't able to get the greens hollow tine aerated which is the best way to remove some of the thatch in the top each of the surface. Thatch is best described as an intermingled organic layer of dead and living shoots, stems and roots that develops between the zone of green vegetation and the soil surface.  Hollow tine aeration is when we remove an actual core which is virtually totally thatch and stops the green from becoming spongy.  Due to the rain we weren't able to remove the cores so the greens were solid tine aerated with six millimetre sized tines.  Solid tine aeration is when the greens are basically spiked.  We did get some sand on the greens which contains some amendments and in the wet condition some of the amendments gelled together with the sand resulting in small ‘’balls’’ forming.  We also weren't able to get the full amount of fertiliser onto the greens so recovery will be a bit slower than expected.

We have made a small adjustment to the RHS bunker on 3W by dropping the front section and access area by about 300mm to allow for easier access for players and machinery.  The area will be re turfed on this coming Monday but given the intense shade and huge traffic in the area it will always be a struggle to hold grass there.

Last Tuesday saw the first meeting of the successful contractors for the installation of the irrigation system.  Nutrien Water which are a large irrigation supply company were the successful tender and their local depot is based in Nerang.  The system chosen is a Rainbird system and four years ago a very similar system was installed by Nutrien at Burleigh Golf Club.  At this stage the project is scheduled to begin in the first week of February next year and there are several more meetings planned. 

The photo below shows the intense weather cell that blew through the course last Friday afternoon and wreaked havoc for us.  Spare a thought for Southport Golf Club though as they had just stolonised (planted) their new green and they received a similar small violent cell that washed the green away and large areas of their recent course reconstruction.