Another weather forecast for the weekend that varies depending on who you listen to although when it is as humid as it's been then there's no doubt we should get some storms and the severity obviously varies over the coast.  Over the past month or so we have been fairly lucky that we have missed some of the worst of the intense rainfall that some others have received.  The chart below tells the rainfall story for the first two months of 2024 and although the figures aren't that extraordinary for us, when the rain is falling is having an effect on the club's trading figures.  Almost every weekend has been affected by rain which means lower player numbers on the main trading days.  Poor old F & B manager Anthony is pulling his hair out while I don't mind the turf getting a bit of a break with the lower player numbers.

Interesting figures.

If you go back and look at the rainfall figures since 1.11.2023 we have had 995mm which is 40 inches in the old scale!!

9R green is progressing well and it received another heavy sanding today to help re-level the surface after some torrential rain damaged it recently.  The chipping green is also growing in well and even though it was planted a week after 9R it has virtually caught up.  9R green was built out of a straight sand with a range of amendments added to try to create an aged soil profile for the turf to establish.  The chipping green profile is the material that was removed from 9R and was a forty year old green profile full of micro organisms and a range of nutrients available to the plant.  An irrigation failure on Wednesday afternoon meant that the sprinklers on the chipping green didn't turn off so there has been some washout that will need to be attended to. 

More sand laddie.

 

 

It's hard to believe another week has flown by and it finished with soddenly wet conditions today.  The water table is still very high and almost any rain will cause pooling but another 70mm wasn't what we were looking for.  Some really heavy rain last Sunday morning just as the comp started caused some fairly severe damage to 9R green but fortunately there was only minor washing of the surface.  There was however quite severe ''pock marking'' almost as if it had hailed golf ball size hailstones.  We had to heavily sand the surface this week and for a green that is just over a week old it is progressing very well.  Final leveling will take some more time due to the water damage.  Todays torrential downpour at around 8.30am once again fortunately only caused some minor damage to the new chipping green which was planted on Tuesday.  We decided to construct the green with no drainage underneath and allow for surface runoff and that is why there is water pooling on the surface as the new stolons need to be kept wet at all time for the first two weeks.  It will be fine when fully grassed and in play with any rainwater sheeting across the surface.  The photo below shows the excellent root development on 9R just seven days post planting.

Just 7 days old.

And whilst it has been great growing in conditions for the new greens it has also been excellent conditions for the encroaching foreign Couchgrass on the West greens.  The photo below shows a rhizome from the outside of the green sprouting 12 inches inside the green.  It is impossible to pull these out so a herbicide spotting program will swing into action next week. 

Pesky intruders.

 

Despite the rain we still need a live irrigation system and so when there was a blowout on 14W this morning it had to be fixed.  Thanks to Gus and the intrepid crew members who braved the worst of the rain to complete the repair.  We needed to shut the system down  so that is why there were some sprinklers and hoses being used today to blow the air out of the pipelines.

It never ends.

 

Another hectic week on the courses with the planting of 9R green on Tuesday then the construction of the new practice green on the short range.  The photo below shows one of 9R stolons on Thursday afternoon about fifty hours after planting with some new white roots evident which is a great start.  You almost couldnt have better conditions to grow a green in with the current heat, humidity and moisture.  It may look a bit strange that the sprinklers are still operating when it's raining but it is absolutely critical that while the new plants have virtually no root system that the stolons are kept wet at all times to ensure théy have the best chance of surviving.

9R planting day.

 

New roots = great start.

The new practice green has been completed and is ready to be planted next Tuesday.  The idea behind its design was to replicate as many shots as possible that players find during a round within 25m of the green.  As mentioned last week there will be some contamination by foreign couchgrass as the material came from the old 9R green but we will endeavour to keep out as much as possible.

The target greens on the long range have also been completed this week and the grass will naturally grow through them over time and flags will be installed.  Due to the varying distances available when playing to the new ''greens'' the distance signs will be removed once they are in play.  There is no intent for them to be managed at greens height as they are simply practice aids.

And a little excitement (well for me anyway) with the first physical on course action taking place for the new irrigation system after the foundation material for the new pump shed that is to be constructed arrived onsite this week.  A brand new shed and pump set will be installed and the old shed will also remain after it is de-commissioned and used for storage.

And we're off.......

 

The heat continues and so does the growth.  I can't remember us having so much scalping happening on the fairways in particular, which is an indication that the growth regulator that has been applied is struggling to keep up.  We have also had a number of applications affected by unforeseen rain following within a couple of hours which doesn't help with the correct application process.  It took nearly three weeks after Christmas for us to get the tees where we needed them to be to prevent scalping on them and the fairways are finally nearly there now.  The weird part about a golf course is that in three months time I will be bemoaning the fact that we need more grass!!

In the photo below it is a misapplication of growth regulator that has caused the area indicated to be scalped due to not enough overlap but given the lack of scalp surrounding the area it shows how valuable the growth regulator is in presenting a surface. 

Misapplication shown up.

 

9R green is ready for planting next Tuesday with some final amendments added this week.  The green has still been irrigated over the past week to help prevent any erosion from wind.  Establishment of the green after planting is one aspect of course maintenance that will really enjoy the hot humid conditions to ensure rapid growth.

The decision has been made to utilise the sand stockpiled on the short range to convert the flat target green in the middle of the range to a properly formed green.  This will serve two purposes allowing for more ''course like feel'' when practising your short game and the green will also be able to be used as an extra green when needed if a regular hole needs to be out of play for some reason.  There will be some weed contamination evident from this sand as it has come straight from 9R green which was heavily contaminated but it will be overplanted with TifEagle to try and recreate the feel of a normal green.  This isn't easy to do due to the massive amount of traffic that the practice putting and short range greens receive. 

Weather permitting (read dry) we will also be using the material stockpiled down to the left of 9R green to build some fairly rudimentary target greens on the long range.  Due to the regular inundation of salt water on this range the greens will be ''push up'' in nature and are really as mentioned, target greens, with a flag in them to assist with players practice regimes.