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.