About the only thing all this rain is good for is to wash in the fertiliser that was put out this week.  A very healthy 6 tonne of fertiliser was applied to all tees and fairways on Tuesday and Wednesday this week and there is hardly a prill left in sight with the constant rain moving it into the soil profile.  As mentioned last week this application is about getting as much growth as possible as we move into the cooler months and from the look of the fairways at the moment we are well on track.  We do have a long cooler season with good growth not really starting until October so the more good days we get now the better so as to maintain the soil temperatures as high as possible.  It is generally the second half of April that sees the temperatures drop so hopefully we get to see some sun soon.

At least we haven't had the volume of rain that has poured down on the Sunshine Coast with most areas up there receiving more than 1400mm since January 1.  Last Wednesday there wasn't a single golf course open up there apparently.  We stand at 795mm YTD which is bad enough and we have recorded rain on twenty two days in March.

One thing the rain is definitely not good for is the irrigation project.  Another day lost to weather this week and work continued on 7W which is one of our wettest fairways which is certainly not ideal in these conditions.  7W should be finished on Wednesday and then we move to 6W.  At this stage it is proceeding well with no real major issues although there have been lots of small ones.  The pump shed build has been completed and now we wait on the pump set to be built which could be as long as three months.  Our current pumps are handling both the new and old systems and the new one won't really be required until we get to some of the larger diameter pipework closer to the pump shed.

Things were going swimmingly until Thursday arrived and then we were literally swimming, with 40mm of rain falling in even time which pretty much flooded the courses.  About the only thing that sort of rain is good for is to help compact the trenches on the new irrigation system, which it did.  Unfortunately it meant our first day of installation lost to rain.

The irrigation installation on 8W was completed this week and a start was made on 7W with part of the mainline being installed down the LHS of the fairway.  This is one of the classic fairways where no irrigation is really required down the shaded LHS during the cooler months but is required down the RHS.  The new dual row of individually controlled sprinklers will allow us to do this whereas previously one of our huge fairway sprinklers would water well into the rough on both sides of the fairway.  Precise application of the irrigation water is one of the prime goals of the new installation.

Another feature of the new system is the installation of a ''back to back'' system on the greens.  This means that there is a set of sprinklers that are solely placed to irrigate the greens and another set placed to irrigate the greens surrounds.  This is not only a major water conserver but also prevents the greens surrounds from getting too wet from overwatering.  On holes 5,6, 7 and 8W for example, we will hardly ever use the surround set of sprinklers due to the heavy / wet nature of the soil surrounding the greens.

Construction of the new pump shed adjacent to 17R tee started today and the new computer system for the irrigation control was also installed this week.  A crazy busy week, that's for sure.

 

New home screen.

9R green is progressing well and has now been mown down to 5mm.  Another sanding was applied today to help level out some of the wash caused by the heavy showers that have occurred since planting six weeks ago. We are on track to open at the eleven week mark from planting at this stage.

The constant showers have really affected our ability to get some of our necessary spraying done, particularly herbicides, so there are a few weedy areas about the place but most of the main play areas are still clean.  The weed seed that flooded into the bunkers during the 2022 floods continues to germinate with a proliferation of assorted weeds continuing to sprout even now.  The next couple of weeks will see us getting ready for the natural slowdown that occurs with the onset of the cooler months and that means a broad application of fertiliser to take advantage of the remaining warmth and a lift in mowing heights across most playing surfaces.  The goal is to have as much healthy grass as possible by the end of April.

An internal email was sent out from me yesterday and it was nice to get the following reply from Club Professional Jared - 

Hi All,

Played the West yesterday, 9^th hole looks to have recovered well! I just wanted to mention that the course condition was fantastic! The greens are the best I have seen them and the positive comments we are getting in the shop from members and visitors are at an all time high.

Thank you Peter and your team.

The installation of the irrigation system continues with 9W being completed on Thursday and open for play on Friday.  We are still waiting on the communication cable to be hooked up which is planned for next week and then we will officially be operating the old and the new system side by side.  9W has been operated manually and has worked a treat although until all the new mainlines are installed flow rates are down a little but not enough to affect performance.

As I mentioned previously there will be times where other holes are affected by the works necessitating other holes to be shortened as was the case Thursday and Friday when the new mainline had to be extended across to the next hole being 8W.  8W should be completed by Wednesday and then we move on to 7W.

While the holes are closed we will take the opportunity of no play to give the bunkers on each hole a heavy renovation including levelling the sand and adding sand where needed.  Speaking of the bunkers, all the West course greenside bunkers were ''back-faced"" this week which means the sand was dragged off the faces and exit points and levelled on the floor or playing area of the bunker.  And the River course bunkers had 30 tonne of sand added to the main play areas.

9W bunker renovated while out of play.

LHS 1R bunker topped up with sand.

The photo below shows just how much sand can be moved in a single bunker shot.  Multiply that by the number of players we have and the multiple attempts a lot of those players make to extricate themselves from the bunker and you can imagine just how much sand gets moved around in and out of the bunker.

Is that a shovel?

 

GX0108711

Week one of the irrigation project has now been completed and a highly successful week it was.  The first thing we had to do was isolate all existing irrigation on 9W fairway which was a task in itself as there were 4 x 100 mm pipes feeding the fairway.  We also had to ensure that we had water supply still available to the holes in the corner – 5,6,7 and 8W.  Once this was successfully completed the main line that will feed 9W fairway was trenched in down the left hand side and a 125 millimetre pipe was laid in this trench along with a new 50 millimetre potable water supply pipe and communication cable that will run to each sprinkler.  The potable line will supply all on course drinking fountains and toilet block.  From the mainline trench the lateral trenches that run out to the sprinklers in the middle of the fairway were ploughed in and then risers for the sprinklers were installed on the pipe.  At this stage the fairway sprinklers will be installed on Monday and the green will also be installed on Monday and Tuesday hopefully having us off the 9W fairway by Wednesday which will be two days ahead of schedule.

Unfortunately due to the number of open trenches and holes the hole will remain out of play over this weekend due to safety concerns.

I will upload a video to the Blog on Saturday morning with a bit more information from the first week.

The excitement is certainly building with the Irrigation Project starting next Monday although there is also a sense of apprehension for what the diggers are going to hit and break under the ground.  Breaking existing irrigation pipes that will be defunct isn't really that much of a problem but we need to keep the old system operating all the way through the project so hitting and breaking anything that is still required is the concern.  There are very few plans and those that are available are not that accurate and there is a myriad of various services under the ground.  It is going to be quite a project and the completion date can't come soon enough.  In February alone we completed eighteen irrigation repairs for the month. 

The list below shows just where the project will start and a bit of a timeline on anticipated progress.  This is all subject to weather interruptions although with our ground conditions being relatively dry we shouldn't really lose too much time to the weather.  It is intended to work on just one hole at a time to minimise impact on play.  That said, there will be times where a trench may be required to cross an adjacent fairway to the hole being worked on.  We will be endeavouring to have as much signage as possible to assist players and ask that when you are moving to the next hole after where the work is being carried out that you stay as far away from our staff and the contractors as possible. 

Hole W9                     10 days          Mon 4/03/24 - Fri 15/03/24

Hole W5                     7 days            Mon 18/03/24 - Tue 26/03/24

Hole W6                     4 days            Wed 27/03/24 - Mon 1/04/24

Hole W7                     7 days            Tue 2/04/24 - Wed 10/04/24

Hole W8                     4 days            Thu 11/04/24 -Tue 16/04/24

Hole W4                     10 days          Wed 17/04/24 - Tue 30/04/24

Hole W10                  10 days          Wed 1/05/24 - Tue 14/05/24

 

Last Saturday's forecast wasn't good and the red sky in the morning was an ominous potential warning but nothing much eventuated from the spectacular sunrise and we have had one of the driest weeks of the summer which has now officially ended.

Views like this make the early mornings easy to take.