This time last week I was lamenting how the violent Thursday night storm, had washed away the fertiliser that had been applied that day to the renovated River greens.  How wrong could I have been with one of the most aggressive bursts of growth post renovation I have seen.  We are pulling a full catcher load off every green compared with maybe one catcher for all 18 the norm during normal growth.  It has been a difficult week with the wild winds meaning we haven't been able to spray anywhere, particularly the growth regulator that the greens so desperately need now.  It's a good problem to have though and it will be a good result to the renovation in the coming weeks.

The wind has provided the new irrigation system the chance to demonstrate one of its features and that is the smaller fairway sprinklers operating effectively overnight in the windy conditions.  As we dry out any dry areas on fairways can also be noted and the closest sprinkler can have its run time increased to alleviate the dryness as they are very effective covering a eighteen metre arc rather than the thirty metres of our previous fairway sprinklers..

Elsewhere on the courses I think I remember blogging about unrepaired pitchmarks on the West greens recently so I dug up an old photo of 8W green when it was Bentgrass.  If I had the time I could have replicated the ''golf ball'' photo below on 8W this week.

450 golf balls on poorly repaired pitchmarkrs 8W 2011.

 

Could do the same today on 8W.

 

While I was searching the blog for the golf ball photo I came across this quote from 2010 and wondered if you told Cameron where he would be now if he would have believed you back then. 

It's been a long week hosting the Greg Norman Junior Masters but a successful one, particularly for the senior boys winner Cameron Smith who shot an amazing four round total of 24 under par.

 

What a week, with a bit of everything thrown in.  I arrived at 4.30am on Monday after hearing the wind blow all night thinking conditions will be dry for the renovation starting that day, only to see what was on the radar, shown below.  I think the boys thought I was mad when I said I don't think we will get much and we went out and made a start.  There was still some dew around and a couple of light showers made it across the ranges which made it very wet to work in.  But we persisted and a few more showers during the day didn't help.

4.30 Monday morning!!

Tuesday provided a very heavy dew and we were able to get some sand on the greens but didn't get time or the conditions to fertilise or renovate the greens collars.  Come Thursday and we were able to get the slow release granular fertiliser out with a weather forecast of ''chance of a storm and 30% chance of <1mm''.  That proved to be incorrect as we all know and most of the fertiliser got washed away in the hail and 27mm that fell in even time.  Friday morning's plan was to get some upfront soluble fertiliser on the greens to get them kick started, but we had all hands on deck putting the place back together again.  There were forty five players milling around the practice greens by 5.55am this morning so we didn't have much time!!  The greens will take a little longer to recover with the lack of fertiliser and I am expecting a blotchy result from the granular fertiliser put out on Thursday thanks to the washouts caused by the rain.  The greens collars will be renovated next Tuesday weather permitting.  Mother Nature??!!

It's that time of year again when the Eucalypts start shedding their bark.  It would be nice if it all just came down in one hit rather than taking six weeks.  It is a windy time of year so the courses will be a bit messy at times.

18R fairway mess from just one tree in just one day.

Greenside bunker on 3W this morning.

 

James from the Pro Shop got a couple of awesome photos of post the hailstorm last night.  Hopefully no readers got any damage from the hail?

 

 

Bit hard to find your ball??

What a difference a week makes.  This time last week we were busy trying to get water off the courses so play could proceed in the Championships and this week we are pumping water onto the courses due to the dryness.  Probably a nice problem to have given the rain we have been getting though.  The storms that blew through last night and early this morning were certainly spectacular light and noise shows but not much rain fell which again was a nice break.  We did get a little bit of hail in the storm around 6am this morning but not enough to do any damage.

A really busy play week with 8am 2 tee starts on the River course all week and they were very slow, particularly in the wind today.  It didn't afford us much time to get much work done on the River course except in the mornings before they teed off.  A course closure this afternoon on the River course finally gave us the chance to get out there for a few hours unhindered.

Speaking of the River course and it's THAT time again, yes greens renovation.  The greens are certainly healthier than last year when they were just about worn out from the amount of play we get.  The shaded greens are still a bit weaker and as usual won't get the same treatment as those with more light penetration.  That pretty much goes year round with all our programs differing slightly to cater for the shaded greens.  This years renovation will, as always, be dependent on the weather we get next week.  As I have said many times we get a better result with most processes in the dry, so here's hoping.  We will be endeavouring to get the greens scarified to -5mm, de-thatched to -3mm and hollow tine aerated with 9mm tines.  The greens will then get some fertiliser and then top dressed with a blended sand.

First load of blended sand arriving.

 

A pretty frustrating week just gone by with the weather playing havoc with all of our operations.  The rain just wouldn't leave us alone to dry out and Wednesday nights 27mm was not what we needed.  And quite annoyingly there were only three locations in the Northern Rivers that received more than a few mm on Wednesday night and that was the three green dots in the circle below.  Chinderah, which is just across the River, Banora Point, which is at the sewerage treatment plant where we get our irrigation water from near Bunnings, and US.  Just over 200mm in seven days.  Frustrating.

Frustrating to say the least.

 

Another 27mm rainfall event happened last Saturday night into Sunday and had carts off both courses on Sunday.  We were still really wet Monday morning but had the Gold Coast District Super Senior Classic on the West as a shotgun.  Carts shouldn't have really been out there but I thought they might respect being allowed....but how wrong I was.  These shots below are from two groups in a row on 16W with the signs pretty plain to see right next to the tee markers.  Frustrating.

No comment needed.

To allow us a chance to get some work done and prepare for the Club Champs, the Board approved the closure of the course from 1pm the Friday before, which is what happened today.  The amount of work we can get done unhindered is amazing to say the least and one of our goals is to get most of the front nine bunkers raked to save time on Saturday morning.  Only three groups in the Friday members comp would have played the RHS bunker on 4W after it was raked this afternoon, and this is what we got.  Frustrating. 

Picked the rake up but didn't know how to use it?

Another fairly major step in the irrigation installation was the assembly of the pump set and control panel this week.  It's no easy task moving such heavy precision instruments around and the contractors did a great job.  Now for some power supply and pipework and we will be pumping.  Not frustrating.

Ducks in a row.

The control panel.

Another pretty accurate forecast from the weather bureau this week although they did miss with the volume of rain.  142mm all up for the week with 135 of that falling in about nine hours on Wednesday night.  Safe to say it didn't help with our Club Champs preps.  But full credit once again to the crew with the way they turned the courses around on Friday with Thursday virtually being a write off.  The short week after the public holiday didn't help much either.  A day like Thursday with no play does give us a chance to do a couple of jobs that are difficult to do in play and that was to hang two new practice nets and edge the paths on the West course with the paths being about the only dry thing out there!!  Some machine prep for the upcoming River course greens renovation was also done which is a very time consuming job.

A couple of shots below to demonstrate the volume of water that was out on the courses.  The photo across 18W and R was at 6pm Wednesday after only 60mm so there was another 70 dumped on top after that.  The other photo is of 12W fairway.  The main drain that drains this fairway was completely covered with debris not allowing the water to move but again just shows the volume of water that was there.

Looking across 18W & R from the entry road.

12W fairway early Thursday morning.

I had a very enjoyable break with some really good weather throughout but arrived back to the mess that was left after the cyclonic conditions that an east coast low weather system can, and did produce.  To get the course back to where it is today after what confronted us on Monday morning (photos below) is a credit to the crew despite some more very windy days making the clean up extremely difficult and frustrating.  Dads Army did an almighty job stick picking the rough areas on Tuesday and removed a huge amount of debris to allow us to continue mowing.  The bunkers literally become leaf collectors and a huge amount of time and effort is devoted to them to restore playability.

16R fairway bunker full of leaves.

18R fairway with turf barely visible.

Elsewhere on the courses things have ticked along really well and the irrigation install continues with 19 holes now completed.  The new pump set has been delivered and we are currently waiting on some approvals from our electricity supplier for the install to be completed.  Meanwhile next week we will be moving to 15W for the next hole install.  An upcoming forecast of dry warm weather will allow us to really put the new system to the test, however until the new pump set is installed and all the larger diameter pipe is online it is difficult to really see the benefits.  One of the main challenges we have had so far is to keep both the new and old systems operating side by side but so far we have done very well.

Unfortunately while I was away one of the crew decided to return home to Ireland after working with us for the past ten months.  Simon was a proficient greenkeeper who will hopefully one day return to our shores for another stint with us.  A couple of months ago I was contacted by a Spanish greenkeeper who is currently third in charge at Golf Club Crans-sur-Sierre in Crans-Montana Switzerland, where they host the Omega European Masters each year.  He is keen to come to Australia to work for three months while their course is closed for the ski season.  I was able to meet with him during my travels and have confirmed employment for him for three months from December.  Short term accommodation is scarce so if any followers have some temporary lodgings available it would be most appreciated and you could leave some details with the front office.  

October is Club Championship time for the men so hopefully the weather behaves and we can produce some good playing conditions for the competitors.  October is a notoriously windy month so here's hoping we get some good days coming up.

 

Pretty accurate sign??

                              

This amazing run of weather continues and we have had to actually apply some growth regulator to the River fairways this week and the West fairways will be done next week along with the tees on both courses.  We have never applied growth regulator before in August and the application in September is normally to just control seedhead.  Even the heavily shaded 4R tee has shown some recovery.  Let's hope it continues because as I mentioned last week it is essential for us to have a very healthy sward of turf given the cart and player numbers we experience.

But no matter how good your turf is you won't beat players who decide to practice from the middle of the fairway on 16R or drive stupidly in a shaded weak turf area at the start of 11R.

At least they tried to sand some of them.

??

The irrigation install continued this week with most of 15R being completed.  The contractors didn't work on Friday due to the GC show day so they will be back next week.  And next week we start the installation of a new power supply to the new pump shed which will require a substantial trench to be dug across 16, 14 and 13W fairways.  Some of the conduit was delivered this week and we did some ''potholing'' to locate some of the various services that we need to cross including the town water supply to the clubhouse and the NBN cabling amongst others.  Play on some of these holes will be affected with some temporary tees required to ensure the safety of staff and contractors.  The new pump set is also due to be delivered next week along with its control board for it.  We have selected Grundfos pumps which is the same as our current set which was installed in 2000 and has barely missed a beat.

I will be on some R&R for three weeks from next Thursday so the blog will take a break for the same period.  Till then...... 

I don't think I have ever seen this much grass on the courses in August ever before.  To actually see scalping happening Is certainly a first in August.  It comes in pretty handy though with the amount of play we are having given the excellent weather this week with another 500 plus day today by the looks of it.  You certainly need to have good turf to be able to survive the cart and golf traffic.  It's a good problem to have and not one that I thought we would see this year given how wet we were earlier.

The irrigation installation continued this week with a large main line being laid on 15R And part of the fairway being installed.  15R will obviously continue next week and we then move to 16R.  Next week we will be doing some exploratory digging to find some of the services on 13, 14 and 16W as the following week we will be installing a new power supply from near 16W tee all the way to the pump shed.  This will be quite a major excavation and play on all three holes will be affected that week.  The weather forecast for the next couple of weeks is apparently quite good so hopefully the courses may dry out enough for us to actually start using the new system once again.

Not exactly the week we were looking for but once again the weather bureau were pretty much spot on and there was plenty of warning.  We actually took the first 100mm pretty well as we were so dry and the water table was low but the next 50mm really hurt with some of the West fairways in particular as wet as they can be.  At least upstream in the Tweed River didn't get as much so the river level stayed quite normal.  And then just when we thought it was gone on Friday a nasty little cell seemed to develop rapidly moving in from the west right on top of us but fortunately only a light shower resulted.

Looked nasty but fizzled.

 

We took the advantage of no play on Monday and Tuesday to get the greens on both courses solid tine aerated.  The tines we used are a 6.3mm (or .25 inch) diameter and they penetrate about 100mm when new.  This allows for great air exchange in the top surface of the green with little or no disruption to play.

The irrigation contractors decided to not start on 15R due to the forecast and it turned out a wise decision.  The forecast for next week looks much better so hopefully we get a good run and finish off both 15 and 16R in the next three weeks.  15 is a deceptively large fairway so will take quite a bit of time.

I ran into this fellow on Tuesday morning and I'd say he had a full belly as he wasn't interested in moving out of the way too quickly.  It's a while since I've seen a Tawny Frogmouth so it's nice to know they are still out there.

Didn't want to move.

 

 

A few showers to end the week dropped nearly 8mm on us which, dare I say, was quite welcome.  I doubt it was welcome for the Vets WOG though as the early starters on Thursday got a bit wet.  I'm not sure how long this event has been running but I can only recall one day when rain fell for most of the day so an early morning shower certainly didn't do much damage.  Another mainly sunny week as well so hopefully the players enjoyed the courses.

With 6.52am multi tee starts and / or shotguns it doesn't allow us much time to prep the courses in front of them but we do our best and it's fortunate that it is played at this time of year when there is little or no growth.  And on the topic of course preps, the speed that the first groups often play at has an effect on what prep we can get done for a competition field, when all greens mowing and hole changing needs to be completed in front of the first group.  The first groups out, regularly play in under three hours and if they come out as a two or three ball, they are even faster.  A Superintendent friend of mine in Florida at a very high end country club actually introduced timings for where the first group out can play to at allocated times, so to allow adequate time for course preps.  I often say that you can have a 5.30am shotgun but don't expect much prep work to get done before tee off.

The resistant Poa annua continues to baffle but at least we are getting some signs of control as I spoke with quite a few fellow Supers this week who are still getting no result.  There is even a turf farm in Victoria who has resorted to spraying Roundup at five times the rate that is considered ''safe'' on fairway Couch.  Another photo below this time from 11R green, with some dead Poa circled with some very healthy plants boxed less than 300mm away.

A conundrum??

 

Another progressive week on the irrigation install with a huge amount of work done on 11W despite no sprinklers actually going in the ground.  A specialist pipe welder was onsite to join up some of the lengths of 160 and 200mm pipe and it was quite an impressive operation to see. Due to the cost of bringing this operator and machine onsite, a large amount of pipe was welded and has been stored in the rough areas of the courses until it is needed. Another temporary connection to the old system was also completed, this time joining into some 150mm pipe on the RHS of the fairway. 

The Poa annua (Wintergrass) control in the greens has been interesting this year compared to last.  Last winter / spring we got virtually no result but this year has seen a turn in our fortunes with some success, although not consistently.  We have had an excellent result on the River greens and a not so good on the West although there is still some result evident  An interesting photo below from 10R green where a potentially resistant plant in the square box looks relatively unharmed by our applications whereas the circled plants are as dead as you could want them.  On the West course I mentioned a while back that we have been given a product free of charge to trial and we used that on 5 and 6W greens which were the most infested last year.  It has now been applied three times with limited success although at the higher rate on 5W the plants are definitely thinner and less vigorous.  It's still a work in progress and it's one of the great things about the job that you never stop learning.  

2 dead plants and 1 not so?

 

Irrigation installation at 3W was completed this week and it saw the introduction of some bigger size pipe being laid next to 12W tee as a future feed to back to the pump shed.  This pipe was some of the 200mm diameter pipe and as we get nearer to the pump shed the pipe size increases and a load of the ''big stuff'' arrived this week and is being stored on the old greens nursery adjacent to 17R fairway.  Some 355mm and 250mm pipe was included in this weeks delivery.  Considering our current antiquated system has 150mm as the biggest diameter pipe (and not much of it) we are looking at vastly improved water pressure being delivered to the sprinklers.  We move on to 11W next week and this will take at least all week as there is a multitude of underground services located on this fairway to be navigated, including 240v power, 2 x sewer lines and one of the 150mm pipelines mentioned above.

The first of the ''big stuff'' arrives.

Another 30 tonne of bunker sand was added to some West bunkers this week.  Depending on the bunkers needs anywhere between 100 and 300mm of sand is added to the base of the bunker and that is then spread, track rolled for compaction and then raked.  This is an annual project and given the vast numbers of bunkers we have we can't get to all of them, but we do as many as budget and staffing allows.  This is on top of our regular program of ''back-facing'' bunkers which is when we drag sand back of the bunker face to the floor of the bunker as well as dragging sand back to the floor of the bunker from where players drag sand as they rake.

RHS 16W green was one of the bunkers done this week with four of the loads pictured below dropped and spread in this bunker.

One of 4 loads dropped.

 

Track rolled with bunker machine for compaction.

Ready for play.

It wasn't the easiest week just gone with very low staff numbers.  Two apprentices were summoned to trade school for the week, one staff member was on annual leave and there were two sick each day which made things very tight but we got through and both courses look pretty dam good going into the weekend.  And just on the staff, one of our very experienced qualified greenkeepers will be leaving us shortly to take up the position as Assistant Super at Ocean Dunes on King Island.  I travelled there a couple of times during construction and I haven't seen a more challenging environment in which to work on a golf course but it's a great opportunity at what is one of the best courses in the world.

The cold mornings have obviouly arrived and the effect on the turf, particularly the greens is quite noticeable.  The greens on both courses had been producing quite a bit of leaf growth for this time of year but that certainly came to an abrupt halt this week.  A change in leaf colour to almost a purplish colour also accompanied the cold spell.  With less leaf growth during the day the greens produce a very tight fast surface which is what is happening at the moment.  The photos below don't really do the change in colour justice but it's surely there.

8R green Friday afternoon.

3W green Friday afternoon.

At least we have dried out to the extent that 10mm of rain shouldn't have too much of an effect on the courses.  Another few weeks of the dry weather should have us just about back to ''normal'' conditions.  The irrigation install continued this week with 2R being completed.  There was a lot of underground infrastructure such as power, a town water line and a telecom line that needed to be worked around on this fairway.  Despite the wet conditions the contractors are pretty much on schedule.  If the amount of rain we had for the first five months of the year fell at the previous course they were at they wouldn't have been able to get on the courses to work at all.

And they still lost the ball??!!

 

A pretty good sign??