Sure we needed the rain but maybe not quite that much.  It was fairly good soaking rain to start with but some of the really heavy falls on last Sunday really caused some damage.  With such little rain for so long there had been a heavy build up of leaves and grass clippings and they all washed on to playing areas and around drains and that means they needed clearing with some of the wash up to six inches thick. There was also significant wash in the bunkers and virtually every bunker needed rubbish removed and sand moved around to restore playability.  302 man hours were available on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday and of that, 142 hours were spent restoring the bunkers.  

When I toured the course late Sunday afternoon it didn't look much unlike a flood event with a huge amount of water pooled across the courses.  Two things worked in our favour in that upstream the Tweed River catchment received very little if any rain, and the water table was that low the courses acted like a sponge.  The heavy rain was so localised that across Saturday and Sunday we received 169mm and Coolangatta airport just 76mm.

The top photo below shows a sprinkler that had come on as part of a short in a satellite due to excess moisture which wasn't really what we wanted in such wet conditions.

Rear 15W green.

13W fairway.

Debris around drain 11/12W.

Then Friday came along and we got hit with a totally un-forecast 18mm in even time at around 6am.  Fortunately it didn't undo too much of the incredible work that the crew put in to restore the courses and there wasn't too much wind associated with it.  On Friday the airport received no rain!!

The foreign couchgrass in 9R green has been sprayed twice this week and at least another three applications are planned over the coming weeks.  The temporary green also got smashed by the rain and will only be in play when the green has been sprayed to prevent any tracking of the herbicide onto desirable foliage.  The plan is that if and when a complete kill has been achieved the green will be aerated and fresh 328 stolons planted into the green surface and at that time the temporary will be in full play until the green is playable.

The West greens renovation is planned for November 20 and as a start next week we will be looking to renovate the tees and collars on the West course weather permitting.