A couple of light showers during the week but after what we have had it was definitely classified as a dry one.  The courses look totally different without the pools of water about the place blue skies and bunkers dry and in play.  Unfortunately the threat of not having an operational  irrigation system for a couple of days after some serious pipe issues earlier in the week meant that the planned mini renovation of the West greens couldn't be done on Tuesday although we did get an edge and a de-thatch in while the course was closed.

Speaking of bunkers there were lots of comments on social media last week about the bunkers at Grange GC in Adelaide for LIV golf after Ian Poulter, among others, put up a photo of a razor sharp bunker lip.  A couple of members from CTH put their two cents worth in the comments as well with most experts lamenting how bad the bunkers are on their own mud heap, as Alister MacKenzie always referred to a golfers home course.  Bunkers are simply money pits and in an exercise that was done a few years ago here at CTH, we found that we actually spend more money on bunkers than greens - as do most clubs - and they are a hazard.  And to be honest the way most players swing at a bunker shot they are never going to be any good out of them.  Given that Grange had a crew of 57 for the event and only two were allocated to mowing greens, I would suggest that the ''bunker crew'' may have numbered 20 for the week.  It's also a shotgun start so they would have had 5 hours to prep the bunkers prior to play and with some of the best players in the world, the bunkers don't get a whole lot of use.  And then there are only 54 players.  Come back to the average Friday at CTH and we have 450 - 500 players then on Saturday morning a ''bunker crew'' of 2 have about 3 hours to prep the damage from the day before.

Next week we start work on the wet area on 12W so the hole will be closed to play.  The area will have turf removed, sand imported, drainage assessed and some re-shaping of the fairway to allow water to move off the area to some collection pits.  Two bunkers will be removed and the one closest the green properly drained. The area will then be re-turfed on Monday March 3.  

The irrigation contractors are still working on 18R but will then move to 12W late next week to install the new irrigation following the earthworks. 

Another week and another downpour of rain which is getting more and more frustrating as we fall further behind in our work schedule.  85mm was the weeks total but at least it wasn't accompanied by destructive wind this time but heavens it's wet out there.  It seems that just as we dry out we get slammed again and it's getting annoying.  The only good thing about the rain was that we had no water supplied this week from the treatment plant which is a very rare occurrence as there was an issue at the plant.  We were actually budgeting water earlier in the week but that certainly changed around.

We were able to get a mini renovation done on the River greens on Tuesday with a solid tine and sanding getting done. The greens have come back quite nicely and very little of the sand got washed off the greens as has happened several times in the past.  It gave us the opportunity to give our recently acquired aerating machines a run and as there predecessors had done, they were faultless.  It's one of the big advances in the greenkeeping industry.  In my early days aerating machines were prone to constant failure and breakdown but no more and that's a great thing.  Manuel, our Spanish intern, was at the controls of one of the machines and his lines were perfect as demonstrated in the video below.  He leaves us next week and it has been a pleasure hosting him and hopefully he may return one day to escape the winter snow in Switzerland where he works at the moment.

 

The plan is to do a mini renovation on the West greens next Tuesday.  We will be pulling a small diameter core on them as they haven't been cored for over two years and are desperate for it.

LIV golf once again descends on Adelaide this week and the course looks superb once again.  The Grange is a 36 hole facility and their normal crew of 32 (yes that's right) is bolstered by 25 volunteers for the week.  They were nervous about having a February date given the strong possibility of 40 degree days occurring but have a low 20's forecast so they will be relieved about that.  Not only are their staff numbers at the other end of the spectrum compared to us, nearby Adelaide Oval has had 37mm of rain since the start of November, against our 1325mm (yes that's right) or just on 53 inches. 😥

Almost a week of normal greenkeeping maintenance for a change and not having to worry about wild storms.  The rain that came through on Tuesday was enough to disrupt a lot of plans though.  Most Tuesdays one course is closed to allow us some player free maintenance time which is a huge bonus with what we can get done.  Unfortunately sanding 18W fairway and sanding the River greens were both postponed yet again due to the rain on Tuesday morning.  At this stage the plan is for the River greens to be solid tine aerated and sanded during next Tuesdays closure which will allow for some much needed air to get into the rootzone.  The following Tuesday is the West greens turn and they will get a ''mini renovation'' as we will be using a small diameter hollow tine which means a core will be removed.  The greens haven't been cored in over two years with weather playing havoc with the normal renovation.  This one won't be too invasive so no long term putting green surface disruption but it will give them some thatch / organic matter reduction and some air into the rootzone.

18W fairway has come along really well and has worked a treat in the several downpours we have had since finishing.  There is a wet spot in the middle where the Bobcat had some issues on the final trim so we will be putting a drainage line through this area to dry it up. 

The irrigation install continues with both 12 and 18W greens being installed this week.  But more excitingly, the suction line for the pump station was installed.  This needed a Franna crane to pick it up and lower it through the pump shed roof into the well.  We are utilising the existing well in the old pump shed and it all fitted seamlessly and the foot valve now sits five metres below the shed floor surface.  So we're not far from the new pump shed coming on line.

The foot-valve circled.