Over 30mm of rain on Tuesday and Wednesday got the courses wet again and upset our plans to get some more sand on both the River and West greens to help level them out following renovation.  It really has been a difficult renovation on the West with the weather well and truly having the upper hand.  Some very warm temperatures late in the week has combined with the moisture in the ground and certainly got the grass growth happening across the courses which has seen the mowers working flat out to keep up. 

I went down to Sydney on Wednesday for a couple of days at the golf.  On Wednesday we had a seminar at The Australian GC where a number of international visitors who are volunteering on the crew (of 62) for the week gave some presentations.  One of the most interesting though came from a consultant based in Sydney who had some ''out there'' ideas about the effect of some outside influences such as specific trees and grasses have on, in some cases, desired turf.  He will be coming to SE Qld at some stage soon hopefully and it will be interesting to hear his thoughts up here.  Anecdotally he has had some amazing successes in Sydney.

A pretty severe storm rolled in at around 4.30pm on Wednesday afternoon at The Aus as per the radar below and was travelling in the direction of the arrow.  As both courses are situated so close to Sydney Airport which is indicated on the map they were right in the firing line.  The course management team at The Australian took the agonising decision to not work the afternoon due to safety concerns.  In my experience in major tournaments the Wednesday afternoon, being the night before the big dance, is the chance for some last minute detailing.  Not that the course needed anymore detailing as it is absolutely perfect.  Speaking with  Course Super Dan Cook and his Assistant Marlon Johnston they said ''we have the controllables in hand.  Mother Nature is out of our control so we will just deal with the situation''.  20mm off rain fell in even time and a house next to the maintenance facility sounded like it exploded with a bolt of lightning so the decision to not go out was well and truly vindicated.

A really vicious storm.

I travelled across to The Lakes GC on Wednesday after spending the morning at The Australian and got there just as another massive storm hit with absolutely torrential rain that caused an hour delay to play.  The Lakes team led by Course Super Anthony Mills has the course in the best condition I have seen it with the greens looking and rolling perfectly and the Kikuyu fairways like carpet as is the case at The Australian.  The two courses are a stark contrast in design and aesthetics and it will be interesting to hear the feedback on two such different venues.

The storm front thankfully moving away from The Lakes.

Back to Cooly Tweed and we have a West course closure next Tuesday that will hopefully give us some good weather to really get some work done.  We may give the West greens a hollow tine with some very small diameter holes that will achieve our goal of removing some upper thatch but shouldn't impact the playing surface too much.  We will also be trying to get another sanding on the greens to help level them out as mentioned above.  The weather is the dominant force in those decisions being made.