Friday, November 29, 2024

A few more showers this week took us to over 400mm for November which makes it the wettest month of the year just eclipsing January when we had 393mm.  That also takes us to 2400mm for the year or 2.4 metres!!  The water table is very high so any amount of rain pretty much just tops us up.  This location has been recording rainfall data since 1886 and more than 2000mm in a calendar year has only been recorded 27 times over all those years.  Somewhat perhaps worryingly is that in the 14 years since 2010 there has been 2000mm+ 8 times!!

We had an issue with one of the old irrigation satellite locations at the rear of 9R green it is a location that we have had problems with over the years due to corrosion caused by its close proximity to the river.  A group of solenoid wires had severe corrosion and caused them to stop operating the sprinklers.  Unfortunately that group included all of 9R green, causing it to dry out to the point where there was virtually no moisture left in the profile.  Fortunately we are now able to go to the older defunct satellites and scavenge some parts from them as the parts we require are no longer available.  We were able to get to the green and get the moisture levels back to where they needed to be before we lost turf but it was touch and go to be honest.  That has always been one of the issues with our old irrigation system in that you generally don't find out there is a problem with the system until you start losing turf.  With the new system an alarm will alert us to any operational issues and we are able to run a diagnostic test every day which will also give us feedback as to operation.

Friday, November 22, 2024

Those pesky seagulls back again on 17R.

 I don't really know where to start after last night and today.  The photo above is of the dam on 17R this morning and that water is the same level as the irrigation lake which is behind me in the photo.  Quite incredulously I saw five people out playing today!!  We received 126mm till 9am this morning and we have picked up another 59mm till 5.30pm, most of which came down between 4.30 and 5.30pm. 

Looking back to 12R tee 5.30pm Friday.

 

Needless to say the West greens renovations were a bit of a disaster in what was almost a carbon copy of last year weather wise.  We finished up getting everything done except for a hollow tine aeration and fertiliser.  We might be re-sanding though as a lot of that has been washed away in the torrential rain.

Also needless to say it wasn't a very productive week on the irrigation install either with them sheduled to work on one of our wettest fairways at 14W.  They did get some sand in to top up some of the trenchlines and at lunchtime Friday most had stayed in place.  Not so sure now!!

Friday, November 15, 2024

Seagulls on 9W dam.

It's never a good sign when the seagulls come on the property preening themselves next to the dam on 4 / 9 West as they only do it when there is excessive rain and quite often in flood times.  So I was a bit concerned on Tuesday morning after the deluge the night before to see them there.  It didn't lead to a flood but it was another 115mm for the week that we really didn't need.  It has had quite an impact on our programmes and has us well behind where we need to be.  Weather always plays a part in our operation but all this rain is quite frustrating. This week numbers takes us to 2150mm for the year which means that four of the past five years has produced more than two metres of rain.

I mentioned last week that the massive storm just after the renovation fertiliser went out may have washed some of the fertiliser away and at that stage we looked pretty good.  However after some time for the fertiliser to start releasing the nutrients we have had some loss.  There must have been some really heavy rain along the riverbank as its 1, 12, 13 and 8R greens that are the worst affected with a blotchy result and you can see below on the side of 13R where the fertiliser washed off the green.  This weeks bad weather hampered our efforts to top the greens up again.

Two fertiliser wash areas circled.

The renovation of the West greens is scheduled for next Monday and Tuesday and as mentioned for the recent River renovations we need dry conditions and the forecast doesn't look good.  We had the same issue last year with wet weather de-railing the West renovation so hopefully the forecast changes. 

Friday, November 8, 2024

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.

 

Friday, November 1, 2024

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??