What an amazing two weeks for Australian golf on the back of the PGA @ Royal Queensland and the Open at Royal Melbourne culminating in Cameron Smith's oh so close moment.  I heard a comment that "I didn't think Couch greens could get this good" about RQ's greens and RM's greens probably lacked a little fire but certainly delivered.  In a first for RM, the greens weren't rolled or mown for the 1st round with a fear that the predicted wind could cause balls to move.  At RM the temperature on Monday of tournament week never rose above 15 degrees and that followed a very wet November where more than 140mm of rain was recorded which is more than twice the average.  Melbourne certainly lived up to it's reputation of 4 seasons in 1 day in the lead up to the tournament.

Back to Tweed and as mentioned last week we hosted the WPGA Tour School last Monday and Tuesday.  What we didn't really want was the 50mm of rain that caused a lot of wash and then some squally winds that nearly blew down every piece of bark off the Gum trees.  After a quick discussion with the Tour, the morning tee times were pushed back to 8am to allow us a shot at restoring playability, and restore we did.  The crew did an amazing job and the River course was presented in first class condition to the amazement of the WPGA Tour.  Considering there were more staff on Royal Melbourne's fairway mowing crew alone for the Open than we had available for 36 holes on Monday morning, it was a testament to the dedication of our crew.  It's a shame more members didn't get out to see just how good the course was.  And there was some good golf played as well with the winner having 14 birdies and 2 double bogies in her 36 hole total of -8.  

Clearing leaf debris off 11R fairway Monday morning.

15W green Monday morning and this was the scene across the courses.

 

The West greens got some damage during the renovation that wasn't noticeable at the time.  A bearing gave way and one of the scarifiers was digging in on one side of the machine causing some marking on the surface.  The greens got an extra dose of fertilser this week to help grow the marking out which is certainly evidenced by their colour at present.  With the course closure on the West next Tuesday we will be giving the greens a reasonably heavy de-thatch that should help smooth out the surface and not cause any real surface disruption.

 

 

A very warm week and a great test for the new irrigation system which it has passed with flying colours.  We are restricted in the volume of water that we can pump down from the treatment plant but the new system makes sure that virtually every drop hits the ground where needed. 

The "heart" of the new system is the pump station which was also totally renewed as part of the project.  Our old station utilised Grundfos brand pumps and we had such a great run with them that we went for them again.  They have now been fully adjusted to suit our requirements and are delivering a perfect flow of water.

Inside the new pump shed adjacent 17R tee.

The greens on both courses are recovering well from the renovation with the West greens a little slower which is normal for TifEagle.  The number of totally untouched pitchmarks is almost to the stage of being alarming.  Every morning virtually every green is peppered with untouched pitchmarks.  Please help us to present a good surface and keep the greens healthy by repairing your pitchmaks. 

There are 8 untouched in this photo of 8R.

5 untouched on 8W plus plenty more elsewhere on the green. 

 

A wild week of weather and although we received 55mm of rain we certainly dodged a massive bullet with courses from here to the Sunshine Coast decimated in Monday afternoons storm that felled trees across multiple courses.  Some reports are that over half the courses from Brisbane to the Sunshine Coast were closed to play on Tuesday with many still closed on Wednesday.  It was a weird storm with the track heading almost directly south to north and building as it moved up the coast.  Seeing some of the photos of trees on the ground I was pretty relieved that we were spared.....this time.

The high temperatures and moisture in the ground has the grass growing as though it's February and we are struggling to keep up with the mowing across both courses.  Even the growth regulators that have been applied are having a battle controlling the growth.  It's quite rare for us to get any clippings left after mowing fairways but we are certainly seeing that at the moment in the morning dew.

The greens on both sides are back down to normal mowing height following renovation and again are experiencing a huge amount of growth.  The greens are obviously fertilised during the renovation to assist in a fast recovery but they are now lapping up the available fertiliser. 

A huge month of golf ahead with an event on every week till Christmas and then the holiday makers arrive.  On Monday week we will be hosting the WPGA Australasia Tour School.  We have hosted this a few times now and the quality of play is pretty impressive and with nearly $5 million on offer in prize money this coming season for the Pro's, there may well be some extra talent heading to Tour School.  It's always nice to get a change from the normal course set up and it's great for the crew to be able to really showcase the course.  Play is on the River course with a 1 tee start from 7am Monday December 8.    

At last a dry greens renovation week and what a difference it made with the volume of thatch we were able to remove from the West greens.  It was the first time in 3 years that we were able to hollow tine (remove a core) the greens and although only a 7mm diameter core was used the amount of material was huge.  A good definition of thatch is - The intermingled layer of living and dead grass stems, roots and other organic matter that is found between the soil surface and the leaf blades. The biggest benefit of the coring as well as removing thatch, is getting oxygen to the root zone.

We also verti cut the greens at -5mm meaning that the blades cut 5mm deep into the surface.  This was done 3 times up and back then followed by another pass at -2.5mm and a final clean up pass at -1mm.  The video below shows a -5mm pass in action.

 

The greens were sanded on Thursday with a sand containing various amendments and fertilised with a slow release granular product on Friday.  We are aiming for a first mowing on Thursday next week.

The fairway fertiliser that was applied a few weeks ago is showing obvious results and the renovation and follow up fertiliser on the tees is having a similar effect.  I have mentioned many times over the years of the issues we have with shade, not only on greens but also tees.  Both 18 tees have always been badly shaded with a thin cover but thanks to TC Alfred a number of the trees causing the issue blew down.  I can't recall ever seeing both the 18's this healthy at this time of year.

18 R tee.

18W tee.

Although the AGM was postponed due to a lack of a quorum it was nice to hear several members I spoke to comment that the courses are in the best condition they have seen them in.  An absolute credit to the hard working Coolie Tweed course crew.  

A bit of a wild week weather wise with some gusty winds, cold temperatures and the southern lights to top it off.  Weeks like this are always a bit frustrating when the wind swings 180 degrees almost daily so the mess from the leaf litter is magnified.

The River greens have recovered well from the renovation although that is in part due to the weather we experienced which meant we couldn't do as much to the greens as we would have liked.  The West greens renovation is scheduled for next week and the forecast has seemed to shift in our favour a little with not too much rain predicted early next week. 

Players in Wednesday's comp would have seen the helicopter flying relatively low for around an hour in the middle of the day.  They were doing an aerial survey of the course which will result in the Club receiving a topographical plan of the entire property that has a very small tolerance which will enable any future course works to be planned knowing the ground levels.  While they were up there they took some panoramic shots as per below and the clarity of the photo's is nothing short of amazing

60kmh wind gusts = no worries!!

The flight path!!

 

Great view!!

 

In the high res version you can see the balls on the green.

The photos don't come up as clearly when reduced to a size suitable for the Blog but the originals are clear enough to get the number of the Members cart that isn't on the path adjacent to the green on 15R!!

 

Please use the cart paths!!

 

 

A great week of weather with a few welcome showers earlier in the week although the ladies run of outs continued with some rain about during their shotgun on Tuesday.

The maintenance closure on the River course on Tuesday allowed us to get the fairways fertilised and then the slow follow up play after the ladies shotgun meant we got all but 2W fertilised on the West course.  In days gone by many members would wonder how I knew it was going to rain and time my application accordingly but with the new irrigation system that skill is now defunct.  As soon as the fairway is fertilised we are able to immediately run a cycle to wash the product in.  This achieves two main things, it gets the fertiliser prill off the surface and into the turf canopy and thus preventing damage from golf carts and it also means less burn on the leaf as there is less on the surface.  The photo below shows the type of wheel marking we would get previously from an application and what we got this week.

12W wheel burn a couple of years ago.

4W wheel burn this week.

As mentioned the new irrigation system showed it's worth with a precise application following the fertiliser to get it off the surface and then a follow up the night following to start the release.  We expect to get a response although the fairways are under growth regulation so there shouldn't be a surge.  The Kikuyu based fairways weren't fertilised as they are growing well enough and a change of formulation of the growth regulator has us struggling to get a rate that will control them.  5.6 tonne of fertiliser was put out at a rate of 200kg per hectare.  It is a custom blend that is produced to my specification which hasn't changed in 20 years and it works so well for us.  There is some upfront release and then we get up to 3 months of continual release to keep the fairways ticking over.

 

The sprinklers in action.

The white dots in the photo aren't golf balls but are foam drops that indicate driving runs to help with accurate application. 

The West greens renovation is due to happen on Monday November 17 and wouldn't you know it, a rain event has been predicted.  The long term forecaster I have mentioned before has nominated November 18 as the start of a prolonged wet season and he made that call months ago.  All the amateur sites are now almost unanimous with something brewing from November 17 so we will wait and see. 

I am pretty sure this year marks the fourth year in a row where our greens renovation was hampered by rain which is frustrating to say the least.  As with previous years the forecast from the weather bureau was pretty much spot on for Tuesday this week although not sure if they predicted 135mm!!  The courses needed some rain after a very prolonged dry spell but 24 hours later would have been perfect.  We had to adjust the renovation process which meant that not as much as was needed was done due to virtually losing a day.  We were able to get a hollow tine done which means pulling a core which is a great way to remove the thatch in the top surface.  The back 9 River greens are now 26 years old and the front 9 range from 25 to 45 years old so with those ages there is some serious thatch build up.  We still sanded the greens on Tuesday in amongst the rain and topped them up on Thursday then followed with some fertiliser which took till Friday to get it all out.  We are hopeful of a first mow on Tuesday and if all goes to plan the greens should be back down to normal mowing height by COB Tuesday.

Monday was certainly an uncomfortable day with the shed compound recording 37 degrees with not much breeze and it was a credit to the crew to punch out a 12 and a half hour day in those conditions.

The bunkers copped another hiding with the volume of rainfall on Tuesday and the wind blowing debris everywhere.  Once again a great effort by the crew to restore them to a playable condition this week which seems to have been a continual theme for some time now. 

We did have a similar run of weather with a very dry September / October in 2023 and then it started raining and has barely stopped since.  A number of weather websites are predicting rain to start ramping up in November and continuing on into next year.  Let's hope they are wrong.

We took delivery of some new machinery today with a new fairway mower and two tees / collars mowers being delivered.  Getting machinery just prior to, and post Covid, was a difficult task but fortunately things have returned to normal again.  We do run quite a modern fleet which is expertly maintained by our mechanic Mitch who is not often seen on course but makes sure everything is in tip top operating condition in the shed.  Thanks to the Club's Board for their support in ensuring we have such a good reliable fleet too.

 

New fairway mower.

One of the new tees mowers.

 

Four weeks away and only a couple of millimetres of rain.  Maybe I should have gone away earlier when it wouldn't stop raining!!  It's amazing just how fast the courses dried out and the roughs have all but burnt off.  The trees are shedding leaves in the dry conditions and the almost months worth of constant north winds has a lot of debris on the ground.  We have been constantly clearing the main play areas which does leave a lot of leaf debris in the roughs.

The strong southerly wind change on Thursday certainly blew some material down and the bunkers did what they do so well and acted as leaf collectors which means a huge amount of work to get the leaves out.  With the final round of the championships on Saturday the River course was prioritised on Friday and they should be completely clear come the start of play.

6 inches deep in 15R greenside!!

The constant wind and dry conditions has given the new irrigation system a baptism of fire and it has performed very well.  The coverage on the greens is outstanding and likewise the fairways.  There are some areas on the fairways that look dry and they are and that is caused by the soil / sand profile that is completely water repellent.  We have always had these types of areas and then there are fairways like 13R that are just sand mounds and no amount of irrigation water will keep them moist.  It has been a steep learning curve for our Assistant Course Super Simon who has been heavily involved in the complete system installation process as it has been for me upon my return this week.  We don't have an unlimited supply of water so allocating what is available to get the best return is critical in conditions such as these. 

Water repellent dry patches 7W fairway.

 

One of the components of the new pump station is two dosing pumps which means that we can inject a range of products into the water as it leaves the pump shed for distribution across the courses.  The most common material that is injected thru irrigation systems is wetting agents which help enhance water penetration into the soil profile, overcome water repellent soils and help with re-wetting the profile.  We already apply such products to the greens but the new system will allow us to treat all the irrigation water applied to benefit the turf.  Obviously cost will be a determining factor of just how much we treat but anecdotally all other clubs who dose have found major benefits.  Watch this space.

The River greens renovation starts next Monday and for the first time in three years we have a good forecast with only a chance of some rain via a storm on Monday which would be most welcome at around 7pm!!  It's a huge two days for the crew with 2 x 12 hour days on the cards so it's not something we do to deliberately interfere with your golf but a vital operation for the ongoing health of the greens.  With the volume of play we receive the greens really do need a break and a rejuvenation. 

Certainly not the week that was planned that's for sure.  Coordinating the hook up of the new power supply to energise the new pump set has been a long running saga and we had to plan 6 weeks ahead to shut down the power.  This was the week that was chosen and who knew that it would be the driest and warmest week for some time.  In fact we haven't had a drier first half of a month since last September.  The power was supposed to be off for 48 hours but there was a dead short on one of the phases and so the power couldn't be activated.  Lots of finger pointing and it was the supply companies problem in the end which took nearly 24 hours to establish!!

Things were looking grim on Thursday afternoon and it was thought that we not have any power for the weekend which means no irrigation water.  A 100kVA generator was bought in and connected to the pump controls that meant we were at 20% capacity on Thursday night allowing greens and tees irrigation only.  Fortunately the supply company were able to attend today and we are now back fully powered and ready for a big nights irrigation.  A big callout to our electricians who went above and beyond to solve the issue and keep us operational.  They work at a large number of golf clubs in SE Queensland and understand the needs of turf.

Not really what we wanted to see come Friday.

Generator to the rescue.

The issue we had 2 weeks ago with the growth regulator application has caused a slight burn on the fairways that has been exacerbated by no irrigation water being available this week.  It will grow out and some of the weed control last week has caused some discoloration as well.  Nothing to worry about and they will grow out in no time.  The growth on the River greens is at a level I don't recall at this time of year and we actually applied some growth regulator to them this morning which is definitely a first for September.

A busy couple of weeks coming up with ladies and vets champs followed by the club champs.  Hopefully the weather holds and we get the chance for the courses to shine.  I am off for some leave so the Blog will take a break until later in October.  Till then......good golfing. 

A pretty uneventful week with low staff numbers due to some leave being taken restricting what we could do.  The River greens were fertilised on Tuesday and we got a slight burn as expected from foot and buggy wheel traffic.  Not too much of a concern as it will grow out as has happened on the West greens.  The colour response on the greens from the fertiliser application is clearly evident as is the surge in growth that has happened, particularly with the warmer sunny days.  Quite a bit of weed control across the courses with some spot spraying which is highlighted by the dye that is added to the brew and Kikuyu and Blue Couch has been selectively sprayed in fairways so there should be some gradual dis-colouration happening over the coming weeks.

Footprinting evident.

The dry conditions have meant a pretty big irrigation cycle going out last night which was the biggest we have done since the new system has been completed.  It ran like clockwork and it will take us some time to get up to speed with scheduling and program development.  Being able to operate the whole system from either phone, tablet or home computer is a dream.  Even though it was a windy night coverage looked excellent.  Unfortunately the treatment works where we source our irrigation water had an issue over the past week which has severely limited our supply but we are back up and running now.

Some tree work coming up next week with some trimming on a number of holes to help open up some play lines.  Depending on the day we might play a few holes short to ensure safety of the operator and staff.  The fairways will get a liquid fertiliser application and further weed control will be applied. 

The Walker Cup golf event was on last weekend and it gave an incredible peak at one of the most exclusive courses in the world, Cypress Point.  There were fairly severe restrictions (club imposed I believe) on what could be shown which was a shame as it's an incredible site that last held a PGA tournament in 1990, for reasons I won't go into here. One of the things that I noticed was that there was no "mowing stripes" visible apart from the greens.  It amazes me how some golfers associate quality with striping when most of the best courses in the world don't do it.  I was lucky enough to play Cypress way back in 1988 and there were certainly no stripes then nor at neighbouring Pebble Beach but the quality of design and turf were certainly there.   Not sure if you can read the following but they are some pretty rigid "suggestions" which I would suggest are pretty well enforced!!

Suggestions?

 

A dry week at long last and a bit of a lift in air temperature finally has us drying out.  We are considered to be a "dry" course so I would hate to see some of the heavier courses and how they would have coped with the rainfall that we have received.  Year to date we have had 2230mm and 3236mm since October 1 last year. 

The West greens were fertilised this week with a granular product that has a slow release effect on the turf so there shouldn't be a surge of growth.  The River greens will receive the same next Tuesday during the course closure.  The fence at the rear of 11R tee was replaced this week and is a sturdy looking structure indeed offering great protection from 1R tee. 

Some of the more common types of Couchgrass and Kikuyu have started to develop some seedhead which is very normal for this time of year.  The seedhead is very difficult to mow off and the growth regulator we use controls it and also prevents it from forming.  An application of the product started last Sunday but we have had some major issues with it coagulating and therefore blocking nozzles.  We may get some stripy results and lines due to the mis-application.

The CDA in action on 18R.

We sprayed the fairways with our usual machine which is the big yellow dome type sprayer that we have used for nearly 25 years shown above.  It uses a spraying process called CDA which is the abbreviation of Controlled Droplet Application.  The spray mixture is delivered as a fine mist and that is why it is shielded from the wind under the dome.  The total spray application volume is only 22 litres per hectare which is ultra low and we get a much better result at this rate with the growth regulator than normal high volume spray rigs.  The cause of the problem with the product is currently under investigation but it has been a frustrating week.

What a difference a week makes with a totally different week of weather with some sun finally showing up.  We even had the need for some light irrigation on the greens which was the furthest thing from my mind this time last week.  There are still some wet patches out there and with a few more sunny breezy days hopefully we will really get to dry out.

We started sanding some of the irrigation mainline trenches this week and a couple of methods were trialed.  We will observe the results before doing more areas and it will be a better result when the grass can grow through the sand a lot faster with higher temperatures.  We also prepped a couple of areas for re-turfing next week and these are some of the areas that were badly damaged through the irrigation install and cyclone recovery.  This will be ongoing throughout the coming season with our goal being to have no "scars" from the irrigation install visible by the time we get to winter next year. 

We will also be re-turfing some of the buggy path entries and exits and will be trialing some materials to help with the massive amount of wear that these areas get.  Again it will be later in the year to take advantage of good growth conditions but I don't hold out much hope of maintaining a grass cover given the cart traffic that these areas receive.  As part of the irrigation design / install a sprinkler has been located adjacent to these areas to help the turf survive. 

The protective fence at the rear of 11R tee that blew down in the cyclone will be replaced starting Monday next week.  We will probably need to play 1R short while the works are undertaken to protect the contractors. 

With the Ryder Cup just a month away at Bethpage Black near New York City the photo below shows some of the infrastructure build underway for the event.  And it includes one of my favorite signs in golf - "The Black course is an extremely difficult course which we recommend only for highly skilled golfers".    

I played it nearly 25 years ago and can vouch for the signs accuracy!

There is a 24yo Australian greenkeeper from Royal Melbourne GC on the crew there this year and he posted the following-

Hello all, my name is Hugh Ryan, I am an Australian greenkeeper currently interning at Bethpage Black for the 2025 season where we are hosting the 2025 Ryder Cup from 23-28 September. Over the next few weeks I will share some insight into the day-to-day preparation for what is set to be the biggest golf event in the world this year.

Bethpage State Park is impressive to say the least. It is home to five public golf courses (Black, Yellow, Green, Blue and Red) which span across 1500 acres (approx. 607ha), all starting and finishing from the one clubhouse. About 250,000 rounds of golf are played here every year, with about 30,000 taking place on the Black Course which is renowned as being one of the toughest tests in golf worldwide.

With the tournament a month away, the last day of public golf on Bethpage Black was 17 August which means the course maintenance team now has a solid window to get the course in as best condition as possible for tournament week. Immediately after closure, all divots on the ryegrass/Poa annua fairways were filled with sand and ryegrass seed, followed by aeration on some weak areas in the rough along with seed applications. We also began plugging pitch marks on the Poa annua/bentgrass greens to remove any imperfections. We have also sodded some small high traffic areas in the roughs which are a ryegrass/Kentucky bluegrass/Poa mix.

 
The weather is now slowly turning away from peak summer with overnight temperatures in the low 60s Fahrenheit (15-18 degrees C) along with a few nice slow rainfalls. It has strongly assisted turf recovery given the playing surfaces are all cool-season which thrive in slightly cooler conditions.

Construction for corporate and general admission seating is rapidly expanding with new structures popping up daily. The 18th hole will be a major attraction for spectators, with the 5000-seat grandstand wrapping around the green and 1st tee set to provide an extraordinary atmosphere. I look forward to sharing more information about the course and tournament across the coming weeks." – Hugh Ryan.